Let me take one aspect, which we will discuss more next week. The question, which I think is very important to consider is how much will one group (religion, tribe, racial group, etc.) use force to insist that everyone be like them or at least subject to them. Since government normally controls the use of force in a society, government is usually a big part of the controversy.  

In England, France and other European countries during the 16th and 17th centuries, Catholics and Protestants spent 200 years killing each other over this question. http://www.wsu.edu/~dee/REFORM/WARS.HTM In the end, there began to be a growing realization that the best solution is to allow individuals to make up their own minds concerning such things and take government out of the equation. By 1791, this concept became a part of the US constitution in the form of the First Amendment.

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

In other words, government was to take the minimalist approach. Government is there to establish basic rule to avoid chaos and to protect the nation from war, etc. However, government was not to be involved in people's decisions about what to believe and what not to believe.  

Race came later. In 1787 the framers of the US constitution could not agree on issues of race and slavery, so they tried to compromise. Ultimately, this all fell apart and several hundreds of thousands died in the Civil War. The issue of slavery was over, but race still was around for many decades as government was used to exclude certain races from full equality and participation in society. However, WWII came and units like the Tuskegee Airmen (Black fighter pilots) http://www.tuskegeeairmen.org/Tuskegee_Airmen_History.php and the 442nd Regimental Combat Team (Japanese-American soldiers) made it clear that non-white Americans were every bit the equal of the white counterparts in the war. The Tuskegee Airmen at times protected my father as he flew in B-17s over Germany. He told me that they knew they would be safe, because the Tuskegee Airmen had the best record of any fighter unit. I have also known many men who fought with the 442nd, which was the most decorated American unit in WWII. 

During the next couple of decades after WWII the civil right movement was strong in the US and the government (federal and state) abandoned any role in using force to promote one racial group over another.  

During the 1960s, this battle moved to gender. My grandmother and my mother dedicated their lives to removing barriers for women. Now the US Supreme Court has prohibited in most circumstances the use of government power to deny women the chance to make their own basic choices about how they wish to live their lives. http://markbarnes.us/hibbs.htm