It Is We Who Must Be Bent
20 hours ago
Monday, January 19, 2009
Defining "tolerance"
Christians are often accused of being intolerant. Being tolerant of people doesn’t mean we have to approve of their behavior. Tolerance means we disagree but accept others. Tolerance is not indifference or giving up one's moral convictions. Today many people seem to tolerate only whose who endorse their positions, and they're intolerant of any who disagre with them. I believe I can be tolerant while maintaining that I have moral issues with certain worldviews and lifestyles in today’s society. Tolerance is is valuing the right of another person to hold beliefs that we believe to be wrong. We’re not tolerant of something unless we object to it. We don’t have to tolerate views we accept or are indifferent to.
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2 comments:
This shows how language can be twisted over time. Growing up, tolerance had a negative connotation. You tolerate something which was unpleasant or disagreable. You tolerate pain. You tolerate a shot. When someone said the meal was tolerable, it usually meant barely edible but you ate it anyway to be polite. And occasionally you tolerated a persons company.
In our relativistic/plauralistic society, it seems to have come to mean that everyones viewpoint is equally valid or more to the point equally true. There is a distinct difference between these two statements.
With that in mind, I don't belive tolerance is a virtue and avoid it's use. However, I choose to use the word "respect" for the person holding the opposing viewpoint and not necessarily for the validity of the viewpont itself.
Never let your mind become so open that your brains fall out.
This shows how language can be twisted over time. Growing up, tolerance had a negative connotation. You tolerate something which was unpleasant or disagreable. You tolerate pain. You tolerate a shot. When someone said the meal was tolerable, it usually meant barely edible but you ate it anyway to be polite. And occasionally you tolerated a persons company.
In our relativistic/plauralistic society, it seems to have come to mean that everyones viewpoint is equally valid or more to the point equally true. There is a distinct difference between these two statements.
With that in mind, I don't belive tolerance is a virtue and avoid it's use. However, I choose to use the word "respect" for the person holding the opposing viewpoint and not necessarily for the validity of the viewpont itself.
Never let your mind become so open that your brains fall out.
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