Progressing toward the Past

Dallin H. Oaks: "All (creeds, faiths, belief-systems) must walk together for a ways on the same path in order to secure our freedom to follow our separate courses when that is necessary according to our distinctive beliefs". I wonder "when that (will be) be necessary" (distinctive or divergent or disparate beliefs or ideas--it once was necessary and admissible in America)? So, progress is toward the past according to some, but which epoch of the past would be truly progressive: the Persian empire, ancient Rome, the Spanish Inquisition, the First or Second or Third Reichs?