QUICK LINKS
Believe in Tolerance?
I was sitting on Capitol Way in Olympia yesterday waiting for the light to change when I noticed a bumper sticker I had not seen before.
It said, "TOLERANCE, believe in it."
The letters of the word tolerance involved symbols of the Christian cross, the peace sign, a pipe, the star of David, the Islamic crescent and a number of other symbols.
As the light changed, a guy who had been standing on the corner, decided to cross the street. Although he was in the crosswalk, he was crossing against the light.
The woman in the car ahead of me, the one with the tolerance sticker, began yelling obscenities at the guy as he continued walking. As he moved from her left toward her right, she opened the passenger side window and continued yelling and making a hand gesture that was not a greeting.
He walked on into the park, unfazed, with his "Free Tibet" sticker on his back pack.
I know we all have bad days, regardless of what we believe, but this moment gives us at least a snapshot of clarity on a trend in our society. One that is not amusing.
Tolerance has become the new truth.
Jesus Christ taught, "You will know the truth and the truth will make you free."
He also taught that He is the Truth, "I am the way, the truth and the life, no one comes to the Father except through me."
In today's world, the idea that a specific truth leads to freedom is seen as narrow, bigoted and intolerant.
Tolerance has been absolutized, while truth has been relativized.
Tolerance is no longer the discipline of "recognizing and respecting other beliefs, practices, etc., without necessarily agreeing or sympathizing with them." (Webster). Today, tolerance means to consider everyone's beliefs, values, lifestyles and their claim to what is truth for them and accept it as equally valid with any other "truth".
Truth has become relative. There are now no absolutes.
This is why when Christians object to, say, pornography, they are intolerant.
When a Christian espouses a biblical view of homosexuality, he is denounced as "intolerant" and bigoted--filled with hate.
Bob Hostetler and Josh McDowell have written, "Because the new tolerance declares that all beliefs are equally valid, Christians will face increasing pressure to be silent about their convictions--in the schools, in the workplace, and in the public square--because to speak out will be seen as an intolerant judgement of others beliefs and lifestyles." (Read more).
We have, especially in our universities and colleges, put tolerance above truth and by doing so, we are seeing tolerance degenerate into intolerance. Because truth has been abandoned.
Plato said in the seventh chapter of his "Republic," that the rejection of truth does not make people tolerant.
What is initially tolerance toward so-called "homosexual marriage," soon becomes intolerance toward terms like "father" and "mother" or "husband" and "wife". These terms are then seen as contentious or inflammatory. People who use them are seen as homophobic.
Universities have attempted to ban pro-life groups on the premise that they are "intolerant" toward pro-choice groups.
Tolerance cannot be the first principle of human conduct. It always contradicts itself because it presupposes moral neutrality and there is no moral neutrality.
When tolerance is held above truth and truth is what we think it is at any given moment in life, we will walk a lonely, sometimes desperate path.
There is great security in the One who said, "I am the truth."
______________
Gary Randall
President
Faith & Freedom
Click here to add these blogs to your email inbox.
7 Comments:
Excellent article. Tolerance is the word to silence the Christians.
It is also the loss of freedom. Because of tolerance, we don't speak up when people are doing dangerous and harmful things. Then, because of the danger, laws are made that take away our freedom. Let me give you a real life example.
Fireworks are "allowed" where I live on the 4th of July only. Some people were using their "freedom" to shoot off their personal fireworks in a crowded area. This was a very dangerous act, but of course, if anyone stated the obvious, they were "intolerant." So some people anonymously complained to the authorities who promptly made a new law banning fireworks. How convenient.
How like a tolerant society...soon our freedoms will all be taken away as we let the government be the spokesperson for our safety.
Bummed in Washington
Gary, I whole heartedly agree. Funny how homosexuals are intolerant of people who disagree with their life choices. Rather than discuss your side of the argument, they will call you names like bigot and homophobe, rather than enjoy your side of the argument. They expect, no demand their right to disallow your point of view. They demand that their sexuual mores be taught as normal in our schools and everywhere. It is far from normal behavior. I find it ironic that every homosexual is a left leaning liberal, and that they believe in evolution. Their sexual choices eliminate them from evolving further.(Cannot procreate). How intolerant they are. I find their intolerance rather shameful. Funny how the liberals for years screamed free speech, but now want to deny the other side the same freedom. Our universities have become Marxist and extremely left leaning. The very universities that once clamored for freedom of speech, blocks every right leaning speaker. Absurd.
One last thing. The lady in the car with the bumber sticker that was screaming obsenities... perhaps she bought the car from someone else and never removed the bumper sticker.???
Tim in Seattle
Tim. It may be true that she bought the car and didn't remove sticker, but Gary wasn't trying to demean her. I think he wqas pointing out the inconsistencies of it all based on what he was seeing.
I'm amazed (and somewhat amused) how Christians try to turn the struggle for marriage equality into a struggle about them, as if by granting gays equal rights they have something to lose. They act astonished that gay people would actually stand up and fight for their rights! They call our fight “intolerance”!
Let's get something straight: Your goal is to rid the world of gay people. You want gays to stop finding partners to love. You want us to stop having children. You want companies to stop advertising products to us. You want states, counties, and cities to stop offering our partners and children health insurance. You want to be able to fire us from our jobs for being gay. You want to keep us from serving our country in the military. You want movies and commercials to stop depicting us as “normal.” You want our children to learn that there is something wrong with us. You want our major medical associations to define us as having a mental illness. You want to be able to arrest us for sleeping together.
I see no movement in the gay community to restrict any of these rights from the religious community. You want us to go away. We want to live openly and freely in this society together and participate in the same institutions.
Tell me again who’s being intolerant?
Tony in Seattle
Tony---no, we want you to 'go back in the closet' and live a 'quiet' life in peace, and you would be left alone--as you have for years--this has worked in the past--it can again! You keep 'your freedom quietly' and we won't have to deal with your 'situation', and you can 'ignore' our way of life, that is opposite than yours! You can arrange with a lawyer for your individual 'needs', such as 'partnerships' with your legal issues, such as owning items together, hospital visits etc. So simple. Do that and leave the rest of us alone--and we all can live in peace, and yes, with respect for one anotheras it use to be. PLEASE leave our 'authentic-God chosen marriages' of one man and one women alone!!
Gary: I'd like to see heterophobics be tolerant of our choices in faith, sexuality, morality & choice for life! I think that if the homosexuals say we're bigots because of our intolerance of their lifestyle, sexual preference, and lack of faith in one God, they are also bigots for the same things going in an opposite direction, wouldn't you say?!!
anom 730
Good point , world view has much to do with who is being the bigot .
Also when a person states something against another , then that person states something aginst that person , but both comments are also dealing with that person and the group he is being identified with .
Its why the salad makes us more divided , rsulting from the melting pot forgetting to allow everyone to melt .
Mick
Post a Comment
<< Home