Mary Dyer preached that God was not exclusive to the clergy and offered to teach men and women how to read and understand the bible. Upon entering Puritan Boston for the third time to contest a religious ban, the middle-aged mother of 6 was arrested, paraded and hanged in 1660 before a public audience at the Boston Commons for the sole crime of being a Quaker. However she did not die in vain, but rather became a matyr and is remebered today for her strength and fortitude in the face of ignorance and injustice. Her story inspired the adoption of a new standard of religious tolerance in Massachusetts, which was latter adopted into the US Constitution.
Denying a people the right to practice their religion freely, whether it is to build a place of worship or in the proper circumstances pray at work is to betray the memory of people like Mary Dyer and so many others who have fought to build a nation of tolerance and equality, which is part of the America, we all hold dear. Let us pray we do not give way to ignorance and fear-mongering.
Dyer's last words before she was hanged were "Nay, I came to keep bloodguiltiness from you, desireing you to repeal the unrighteous and unjust law made against the innocent servants of the Lord. Nay, man, I am not now to repent." Let us not forget.