Deep in our psyche as a western culture is tolerance. Even many of the most seemingly intolerant people, when it comes to issues that they aren’t so daily aware of, or that don’t seem to threaten the foundation of their belief, hold to tolerance like a fashionista to her Birkin bag. There is a deep need to have it.
Let me explore this a little.
I come to this as a Christian. If you know me at all, or if you have read this blog at all, you’ll expect this. This is who I am, and this is the point from which I try to understand the world, as I critique and honour my own tradition. I hope that as I criticise Christian culture as it is, I can inspire those who hold to truth and justice over comfort or understanding to imagine the possibility of a better world, where the life of Christ is lived out by those who are called His followers.
I think I can say that tolerance, as we often see it, is driven at least partially by fear. We have seen the evils done in the name of God or whatever else. We have known the awful consequences of those who are not “tolerant” of people from other cultures or races or political views. We are afraid of oppression because we like freedom. We despise violence because we are human. We fear what hatred can do, and we also despise radicalism, even if it stands against the things we disapprove of. It scares us.
It’s also unfashionable. We reject radicals wholesale because of the fact that they are radical. Ultra-charismatic Holy Spirit people are laughed at and we don’t notice that they are seeking to experience God, probably more fervently than we are. Environmentalists have been seen as an inconvenience and an enemy for years. Only recently have they been taken a little more seriously, as world food shortage and air quality have become more foreseeable problems. John Lennon wasn’t trusted, but all he was saying is, “Give peace a chance.”
If I remember right, Christ’s disciple Peter, or St. Peter, the great apostle and leader of the early church, was a bit radical and erratic. He foolishly lopped someone’s ear off to “protect” his Lord, he spoke his mind and often tasted foot, and he was the leader of the greatest movement of all time. John Lennon is appreciated by most now. Also, as I have just implied, environmentalists are seen more as specialists than as crazy people (although their complete redemption has yet to come). Time has allowed us to see the greatness of what these people were up to. They can now fit comfortably into our worlds.
Tolerance and intolerance alike are fickle. They last only as long as the appropriate fear holds onto us. There is fear of interfering or of being seen as extreme that holds us to tolerance, because, really, all tolerance is saying is, “I don’t like you (or what you’re doing) but as long as you aren’t in my face, I’ll leave you be.” Like a mosquito buzzing in the distance. It is no better than barely-contained contempt. The Polish tolerated the Jews, but when the Jews were sent to the ghettos, they were ecstatic to see them go.
Tolerance can also come from the same place that allows us to watch injustice and starvation on TV and do nothing. But it does serve, for a while, to keep the peace (if that’s what you want to call it). It is a temporary fix; a Canadian ideal no more wonderful than the American allowance of some vague pursuit of happiness. Tolerance may be a Canadian ideal, but it is too shallow to serve as a guide for any culture.
Intolerance is a name applied to many things, which would be alright if the negative baggage wouldn’t follow it around. We don’t tolerate murder. Good. We don’t tolerate fascism. Great. Call someone intolerant, though, and it’s like calling him or her a fascist.
Intolerance, as it is normally understood in the media and when addressing social issues, is not very different from tolerance. It is a reaction to the fear of something we hold dear being threatened. We all have pictures in our heads of people we believe to be intolerant; usually, these people are protecting something. Often, they believe (they convince each other) that they are protecting something good. It gets justified. Protect your heritage and culture: get rid of the Jews or the Negroes. Protect the moral fabric of society: suppress the homosexuals or the “liberals.” Protect your god: kill the infidels.
So, now I bring us here, in Abbotsford, to the mess we are in now. A good number of people across Canada don’t truly accept or like homosexual people. I have seen too many people cringe at the thought of gay people to believe that my country actually accepts them. I think that opinion polls on the subject can be misleading, because people want to be seen as tolerant, so they don’t say anything bad. It’s kind of like when eleven year-old kids smoke in a group, maybe for the first time, and they all “like” the flavour. They probably have a favourite brand. …Soon they really do.
“Christian Abbotsford,” though, doesn’t have the same ideal at the centre. Many evangelicals see the lack of substance that tolerance offers, but don’t see a great alternative (for some reason, love doesn’t seem to be a viable option). Some of them react with intolerance and anger, hiding behind a thin façade of spiritual piety. The actual issue which makes homosexuality such a hot topic is not that Christians have moral objections to a person’s sexual choices – every religion has moral ideals which most people don’t achieve perfectly, and homosexuality isn’t the only one for Christianity. The issue is that as our culture seems to be ready to accept homosexual lifestyles and behaviour as normal (being the latest chapter in the obvious reality that we are not a Christian society), Christians are becoming aware of their loss of power and control. There is also legitimate fear: we all want our children to grow up in a society with stable moral bearings, and if you believe that homosexual behaviour is wrong, you will react in some way.
But who decided Christians should not allow gay people to have a parade? Christians are allowed to say “Jesus Christ is Lord” as loud and proud as anyone would want to, and often thank God for that right. It isn’t just our right. However, that is hardly the point that we should even focus on.
The point is that the first characteristic of the God we hold ourselves to is love. Jesus forgave the woman caught in adultery, and told her that he didn’t condemn her. Love is patient, love is kind, and love denies “faggots” the same rights we enjoy? We say “Love the sinner but hate the sin,” but really, we are just hateful. We can’t order the world out of fear and control; we should influence the world with love. It is counter-productive to tell homosexuals that they are living in sin and going to hell, because usually they are quite aware of what Christians think about them. That’s part of the reason why there is a pride parade going on. They have been misunderstood and bullied and they want to express themselves. Some of the indecency we have seen in other parades is just people going overboard, and it’s not like anti-homosexual people don’t go overboard (it’s sad that we all know what queer-bashing is). Also, if we are really serious about “protecting the sanctity of marriage,” then let’s work on being examples of good marriages that actually last a lifetime. We are trying to protect something that is already broken from many things other than homosexual behaviour; maybe we need to do more about those things in our own circles before we go wagging our fingers at people who, according to us, don’t know what marriage is. Can they be blamed if they have no working model to go off of?
I just wish that when people looked at Christianity, they could see it for what it actually is, for what Jesus set out for us. People blame religion for all of the world’s evils, but evil people will use whatever they can to justify what they do, and so they have used religion. God is indeed a God of justice, but that has been taken quite out of context. When the day of Judgement comes, it will be a day when God sets things right – He will crush oppression and take away greed and offer true lasting love as the alternative. He will lift up the AIDS orphan and the victims of racism. He isn’t out simply to act out His rage on the people who didn’t do what He said and so hurt His pride as the ruler of the universe. And Christians also should not be out to do it. Let’s offer hope and love and defend the oppressed. Let’s show people what a loving community of believing people can look like, as we invite people in. Let’s quit the right-wing dogmatist thing and embrace people for being made in the image of God. Let’s move far beyond tolerance and give the world something to believe in.
Some Dom Thoughts 
November 7, 2008 at 8:23 pm
Well written Dom. I have been noticing lately that one thing that I lack to many other people is literacy. I can see how your schooling has made you a better writer.
As for content. I Loved what you had to say. I put a much shorter version of what you wrote here, on my blog.
I think it’s really cool how we seem to be very much on the same page. I guess we serve the same God and the same spirit speaks to us!
November 18, 2008 at 11:41 pm
c’est bien. j’aime.
January 18, 2009 at 9:03 am
Dom, what would you say if someone flipped the God is Love formula around?
January 21, 2009 at 6:14 am
As in, “Love is God?” …Let me think about it. And maybe you want to make it clearer? My first thought, though, is that maybe there is no difference.
January 25, 2009 at 11:29 pm
Well done “garcon”!!! I think intolerance without action is vain complaint. When Jesus separated the goats from the sheep it was on the basis of whether or not action was the response to the complaint. Mother Theresa’s “love” action was a great modern day demonstration of what you are implying; that the church, in the greatest degree, is not responding tangibly and compassionately to the deep heart cry of our fellow humans. Keep writing!
January 30, 2009 at 8:58 pm
you need to write again. What is stopping you?
February 4, 2009 at 5:58 am
Uh, time.
And actually, I have been trying to direct my thoughts to other places. A friend of mine asked me to help with writing some articles for a magazine she’s starting up, so I’m trying to get some written for her. Mostly, though, I have just been busy with little things, like tonight I baked some fruit pemmican.
I have tried some practice writing in my journal as well, so that I am just writing for the sake of expression, and not for approval. As I feel where I’m going with this writing thing, you will see more. I hope you keep checking … actually, I’ll let you know next time I post something here, K?