Why Does The Word, Tolerance Threaten Some People

[debrand]

I wouldn't call Billy Graham a far right fundie by any definition. However, his arguments against tolerance sums up what I've heard right leaning people say.

This is from 1959 which surprised me.

One of the pet words of this age is "tolerance." It is a good word, but we have tried to stretch it over too great an area of life. We have applied it too often where it does not belong. The word "tolerant" means "liberal," "broad-minded," "willing to put up with beliefs opposed to one's convictions," and "the allowance of something not wholly approved."

The only people that define tolerance in this matter are people on the right. If beliefs or practices aren't forced on others or used to create laws to stop other people from practicing their own right we should tolerate them and be respectful. That doesn't mean that I won't mock something that is presented to me as fact. For example, if a person wants to believe that the earth is a giant turtle but doesn't try to convince school students to study the turtle geography, I will probably ignore his/her weird beliefs. However, if the person tries to convince me that their beliefs are fact, I will mock them. I will not make a law to prevent the belief in turtle earth but I don't want it presented as fact to school kids or used to make laws against nonturtle earth believers.

Because we live in a free society, we have to 'put up with beliefs opposed to one's convictions'. Young earth creationists are wrong but I am not actively trying to hurt them or legally prevent them from believing the earth is young. As long as they keep their belief out of the school, I don't care if they teach it in church.

christianitytoday.com/ct/2008/octoberweb-only/144-212.0.html

I come across far right people often who hate the word tolerance and try to define it as allowing everything. Sometimes the far right will whine that moderates and the left aren't tolerant of them. It can be difficult to have a conversation with someone who thinks that tolerance is bad because it means that nothing is wrong or deserves criticism.

However, it leads me to wonder, why is the word, tolerant so threatening to some people? Jesus' statement to not judge others seems pretty tolerant to me. In fact, much of what Jesus taught is that the Christian should worry how well that he or she obeys god not what others do. That is tolerance!

Here is another article

christianpost.com/news/so-much-for-tolerance-48843/

I may not agree with my neighbor's religious beliefs, or lifestyle choices, or cultural mores, but as a law abiding, dignified citizen I tolerated these differences in a peaceable manner. My neighbor would extend me the same courtesy. If the occasion arose, say, come election season, we might engage in a lively discussion of our differences, debating the merits of each person's views

This is pretty much the definition of tolerance that I use.

So it is with the issue of homosexuality, and the conflict between the homosexual lifestyle and those who espouse a traditional understanding of marriage and family. Homosexual activists have said for years that all they want is tolerance, but it has become increasingly clear that mere tolerance is not enough. They want their lifestyle to be endorsed by society and affirmed through civil law. Enter the fast food chain Chick-Fil-A. According to a recent article in the New York Times, the restaurant's Christian roots have many homosexuals torn between their love of southern fried comfort fare and their sexual identity

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Ugh. Now the article descends into tolerate my intolerance or you are a hypocrite.

Given the recent focus on a need for renewed civility in public discourse, it is unfortunate that some within the homosexual community are attempting to stir up rancor and controversy where none need exist – that the same people who hold themselves up as defenders of tolerance are so intolerant themselves that they would destroy the good name and reputation of a respected business because of a disagreement over sexual morality.

So much for tolerance.

[the 4th survivor]

Doesn't threaten me at all, it's just that liberals only seem to be tolerant until you disagree with them or say something they don't like.

[FearLyss]

Personally- I take being tolerant of others to be compliment and something that should be embraced . . . but I have seen this before.

My cousin almost died in a car accident. She was in a coma. They did not know if she would survive and prayed non-stop for her life. She did wake up and her brain suffered no damage. Shortly after her discharge she came out to the family as a lesbian. Almost everybody decided she was no longer a member of the family. I got the impression from a few of them that they would have preferred her dying. I was young and remember being so confused. I was taught to love like Jesus, to be tolerant like Jesus- but here was half of my family disowning my cousin in the name of Jesus. They have since adopted a "love the sinner but hate the sin" approach, which I don't think is much better, but at least they acknowledge her existence.

To them, being tolerant is not love. Love is helping the sinner to overcome their sin. Love is bringing somebody to Jesus. Love is not acceptance, because they can not accept that a loved one will go to hell. It took me a while to understand the dichotomy of their thinking. I will be seeing them in two weeks after five years of blissfully not seeing them, and I am pretty sure I will just tell them I am a christian so they don't harass me for the two days (of my 14 day trip) that I will be seeing them. Yeah, wish me luck.

On that side of my family, the word tolerance is almost synonymous with being liberal, which is a huge insult in their eyes (as is being called a feminist or an elitist). I have been called all of them, to which I responded "Thanks!" ;)

[LynnGrey]

In general, words like tolerance or love are guarded with suspicion by the Christian right because they conflict with things like holiness and righteousness, which are equally, if not more important to them.

We all have our limits on tolerance based on what we believe to be right and wrong. Liberals do not have tolerance for rape or misogyny in a similar way to how conservatives don't have tolerance for abortions or gay marriage. Nobody likes when the word "tolerance" is used against them to try to force them to accept something they believe to be wrong. It just happens that the Christian right believes a lot more things to be wrong than liberals do, and so they get accused of being intolerant more often. I'm not surprised they dislike that word.

[Maggie Mae]

I don't understand the disconnect that the far-right has when it comes to "tolerance."

Every liberal I know (with the exception of some ridiculous militant atheists whom I also disagree with) doesn't give a shit if you believe in Jesus, or unicorns, or the loch ness monster. As far as I know, people don't care if you want to dress up like Harry Potter on the weekends and play Muggle Quidditch or if you would rather shop at Lowes and do home repair. Because it is your choice, and we live in a society where we can do what we want, as long as it doesn't harm another person or have the potential to harm another human being.

But the far right people are trying to introduce legislation to put wacked-out, unscientific, untrue lies in our public school. I can not tolerate people who try to make me believe in their sky-fairy. Why is it so important to them to coerce people into their beliefs?

How is it that I am considered intolerant?

I think you should go to church if that is your thing. By all means, worship whomever you want. Teach your kids to do that as well, if you'd like. But stop trying to mandate religion through the laws. Put the ten commandments in your house, not in the public courtroom. In case you haven't noticed, there are OTHER PEOPLE in this country. People who believe in all sorts of things. Some of them will hear what you consider "the good news of Jesus Christ" and dismiss it just as you dismissed the people who believed in the power of Unicorn farts. And that is okay, as long as the Society for Unicorn Protection doesn't mandate that we place a photo of a unicorn in the doorway of every courthouse with their guide for living.

The society for the protection of Unicorns is not going to affect your daily life, any more than you praying in whatever assembly you choose affects mine. I become intolerant when people try to take away rights from people solely on the basis of "my god tells me so."

My Unicorn God says that all eligible females must not appear in public without pink sparkly nail polish. We can do that and believe that because it doesn't harm other people. You are free to tell us that we are stupid just as I can tell you that you are stupid for believing that the world we live on was created in 6 days. That does not cause harm.

I can say that no one who has a visible birthmark will be allowed into my clubhouse where we pray to unicorns and fairies, just as some religions can say that people who consider themselves to be gay may not worship at their church. It's not nice, but it is legal. I don't have to support that or go to that church.

What someone can not do is say "My church says x, y, and z, and therefore we need a law to enforce x, y, and z." Church is separate from laws. Why is that so difficult to understand.

I don't care if you want to waste your weekends praying to whomever you choose to pray to. No one is stopping you. You have the right to believe what you want. The first amendment guarantees that.

[Anxious Girl]

Doesn't threaten me at all, it's just that liberals only seem to be tolerant until you disagree with them or say something they don't like.

Lazy way of saying that there should be laws for people who disagree with conservatives. Fixed it for ya. ;)

[formergothardite]

Doesn't threaten me at all, it's just that liberals only seem to be tolerant until you disagree with them or say something they don't like.

Give examples of this. The conservatives are the most likely to not be tolerant.

Gay people - not tolerated

Women's rights - not tolerated(women are disposable, they can be forced to be pregnant even though this always puts them at a risk for death)

And these are just a few.

[Anxious Girl]

Apparantly, neocons like the 4th survivor think it's ok to:

boycott companies that support LGBT rights,

deny families healthcare,

are pro-birthers,

not every single 1 of them has adopted,

don't let their kids choose if they want to be religious or not,

don't mind forcing people who don't believe in God to say the American Pledge of Alligiance,

are anti LGBT untill 1 of their own comes out,

are too lazy to google movements that aren't sourced from pro-birther and religious propaganda,

think all news media is false unless it supports their views

and won't let liberals boycott against organizations that have Jane Crow laws and are anti-minorities and anti-women because that's stamping all over their religious freedom! They're such bullshitters.

[ILoveJellybeans]

Being tolerant means allowing people to live the way they want and have equal rights (like giving gay people the right to marry, and giving black people the right to do everything white people do), and generally that is what liberals want.

It doesnt mean we should let everyone say what they want even if it is offensive, like letting people be racist, as thats the opposite of tolerance.

People have the right to have free speech, and this also means that other people have the right to debate or tell them to shut up when someone says something that is offensive.