Tolerance and Love in 2014

The dictionary defines tolerance as "a fair, objective, and permissive attitude toward those whose opinions, practices, race, religion, nationality, etc., differ from one's own." The year of 2013 has offered a plethora of opportunities for men and women, organizations, political ideologies, and religious communities to practice this ideal of "fair and objective" considerations of diverse beliefs, opinions, and practices. Our definition about sexuality, it's ideas within the culture and specifically religious institutions, are becoming more pronounced. Consider the differences in political thought regarding Christmas trees, healthcare, national security, and the role of government. Even within in my Christian faith, one can observe the lines drawn between Catholic and Protestant, Arminian and Calvinist, Reformed and Neo-Reformed. We would hope that such distinctions would exist in an atmosphere of peaceful harmony. My concern is that many implicitly communicate tolerance leads to some type human paradise.

The desire for tolerance is a noble goal that honors the diversity of thoughts, experiences, and solutions which are germane to humanity. It is a safe assumption that two persons maturing in the same neighborhood will arrive at different conclusions about life on the basis of multiple internal and external factors. What keeps these two individuals from verbally or physically bludgeoning one another is the realization that opinions and ideas should be heard, considered, and judged. Tolerance does not and should not exclude the engagement of those ideas in the realm of reality. When persons and organizations stifle intellectual engagement under the guise of tolerance, no one wins. Samuel Taylor Coleridge once stated, "I have seen great intolerance shown in support of tolerance." I am beginning to understand that complete devotion to the ideal of tolerance creates chaos.

So I must ask myself, "Am I supposed to tolerate everything in my human experience? Does the person who sits across the table from me sincerely believe we are to tolerate other beliefs, opinions, and behaviors to create some type of paradise? What would my personal world look like if I were completely tolerant?"

In my personal life should my wife tolerate a situation in which I never verbally affirm my love for her? What would my home become if I tolerate my children speaking to one another in a manner that I deem detrimental yet a child argues, "It makes me feel good." Should my wife tolerate a situation in which women are not given options regarding healthy birth options?

What about my city? Should I tolerate the existence of trash on my street? Should I tolerate the emphasis of city improvements for one socio-economic group while another is left ignored?Should I tolerate the practice of landlords charging high rental fees in exchange for substandard maintenance? Should I tolerate political or religious ideology which obscures vision and restrains activity to aid another?

Finally, I look at the larger world. Maybe I should tolerate human trafficking because what right do I have to tell someone that they can not kidnap, sell, and enslave another human being? Maybe we should tolerate the number of children who remain in foster care and not encourage families to participate with organizations such as the CALL or Together We Rise. Maybe we should tolerate the presence, practices, and beliefs of Joseph Kony, Kim-Jong-un, and Al-Qaeda.

Can we not agree that tolerance does not usher in the paradise we seek?

If I understand the argument for toleration, why should any of us lift a finger to inspire, influence, or liberate a precious soul from their personal chains or the chains of another? Am I misunderstanding the call for tolerance? As I observe the ardent voices of tolerance, I wonder what specifically they are asking for and more importantly, "What objective standard governs what is tolerated and what is not tolerated?" We can not apply the ideal of tolerance equally across the human experience just as we can not apply the ideal of intolerance across that same experience.

The ideal of complete tolerance while noble creates a situation in which people have no hope. If one truly believes in this utopian ideal of tolerance, then consistency must be demonstrated. It is a moral relativism that influences a man or woman during their journeys to avoid getting involved in the multitude of lives strewn down the Jericho road. The Good Samaritan refuses to live in a world of complete tolerance. His or her actions demonstrate an intolerance for those behaviors, opinions, and beliefs which contradict a higher objective law. It is by that same higher objective law he or she determines what behaviors, opinions, and beliefs are tolerable.

What is that higher objective law? I contend that love - love rooted and grounded in God who frees people to live and restrains destructive passions - stands as the great principle by which we determine tolerable and intolerable opinions, beliefs, and behaviors. Love liberates a person to form opinions, beliefs, and carry out behaviors that are in the best interest of one's neighbor. Love does not seek to do harm by stifling right opinions, beliefs, and behaviors. Yet love does act in such away to eliminate opinions, beliefs, and behaviors which are detrimental to your neighbor. Therefore, love is more than an emotion or flutter of the heart. Love is simultaneously liberating and restricting.

In 2014, I hope that our discovery of tolerance would be governed in love.