As the story is told, the Pilgrims came to the "New World" because they wanted religious freedom. In England, there was a church established by the government (the government even paid the salaries of the priests), but the Pilgrims were self-identified "separatists" who didn't want to do things the way the Church of England did. They first went to Holland, and then went to America. They landed on Plymouth Rock in 1620 and established the Massachusetts Bay Colony there in Plymouth. This was supposed to be so they could worship as they wanted to, with the freedom that they didn't have in England.
Eleven years later, in 1631, after many others had moved into what became Massachusetts, a minster named Roger Williams moved from Boston to become the pastor at the church in Plymouth. Within a few months, Williams determined that there was not enough freedom of religion there, left in 1633, and by 1635 was charged with sedition and heresy and banned by the General Court of the Massachusetts Bay Colony for "diverse, new, and dangerous opinions". Having been banished, he become the founder of Rhode Island. Although it's a bit more nuanced this, it's at least somewhat true that the colony founded on religious freedom wasn't allowing religious freedom to those who wanted to worship other than the way that THEY wanted it.
Just as it was true within that society then, so it is with our society now. We proclaim something, and there are those within society who don't live out that proclamation--and that means our society as a whole doesn't live up to what it says it is based on. The collective "we" doesn't always practice what we preach. And it turns out that we can't just "banish" those who differ--because about the time it seems that the "evil" has been removed, the same "evil" pops up somewhere else. And sometimes it's not those deemed "evil' who actually turn out to be the problem. It's often a bit more complicated.
It seems we can't even always be clear on our OWN true motivations. Within each of us is good and not-so-good. Paul writes in his letter to the Christians in Rome something that we all most likely can relate to: "I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. . . . I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do" (Romans 7:15,19). It is true within each of us that our motives are not easily kept pure.
We would like everything to be clear, and pure, and uncomplicated. But it is usually the case that it's not clear, and not pure, and not uncomplicated. And this parable that Jesus tells agrees with that--the Kingdom of God is also not clear, and pure, and uncomplicated. Like the wheat and the weeds, it all grows up together, and it is not easy to tell them apart. And even if you do tell them apart, sometimes the "getting rid" of the weeds upends and damages the wheat. We need to live in a world with others whom we see as "evil" who may see US as "evil". We need to trust God to guide us as we live out the Kingdom of God with as much integrity as we can, and keep perspective on God's role in making sense of it.
GOSPEL Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43
24 He put before them another parable: ‘The kingdom of heaven may be compared to someone who sowed good seed in his field; 25 but while everybody was asleep, an enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and then went away. 26 So when the plants came up and bore grain, then the weeds appeared as well. 27 And the slaves of the householder came and said to him, “Master, did you not sow good seed in your field? Where, then, did these weeds come from?” 28 He answered, “An enemy has done this.” The slaves said to him, “Then do you want us to go and gather them?” 29 But he replied, “No; for in gathering the weeds you would uproot the wheat along with them. 30 Let both of them grow together until the harvest; and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, Collect the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn.” ’
36 Then he left the crowds and went into the house. And his disciples approached him, saying, ‘Explain to us the parable of the weeds of the field.’ 37 He answered, ‘The one who sows the good seed is the Son of Man; 38 the field is the world, and the good seed are the children of the kingdom; the weeds are the children of the evil one, 39 and the enemy who sowed them is the devil; the harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are angels. 40 Just as the weeds are collected and burned up with fire, so will it be at the end of the age. 41 The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will collect out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all evildoers, 42 and they will throw them into the furnace of fire, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. 43 Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Let anyone with ears listen!