give wide berth to

There are certainly some who will give wide berth to any show that mocks religious puritanism and fundamentalism, if they watch television at all, and it’s true that you don’t have to look far to find real-world groups who believe that nonbelievers will literally burn in hell.

The best inoculation from these temptations of the deep — which take many a varied form — is to recruit only the most trustworthy of crew and give wide berth to the merfolk.

Opponents said it would give wide berth to medical providers to use religious, moral or philosophical beliefs to deny care to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender patients.

My mother — whose name was Bing — learned to give wide berth to the corpses and near-dead beggars who lined the streets.

Freedom of speech is the most cherished of American rights, zealously protected by legal rules that give wide berth to expressions of nastiness, pettiness, anger and frustration — and to descriptions of gruesomeness, violence and horror — in order to steer far clear of crushing legitimate speech that might be disfavored by politicians, misunderstood by judges or unpopular in a particular community.