2.2 Reading: Freedom of Religion and Democracy’s Conscience

Freedom of Religion and Democracy’s Conscience

By: Fr. Dr. Trung Pham, Chair, Art, Art History and Design, and Associate Professor, Fine Arts at Seattle University

After the Vietnam War, my father spent six years in a re-education camp. He endured forced labor, malnutrition, and ideological indoctrination. One day, he carved a small Madonna statue as a gift for a friend, who asked him to present it simply as a mother-and-child figure. [Continued…]