We're Getting Tolerance Wrong

I just watched the Movie “The Princess Bride” the other day and came across one of my top ten favorite movie lines: “You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.” Mandy Patinkin’s character Inigo Montoya says the line to Vizzini, who all too often used the word “Inconceivable!” in less than appropriate situations

Well, I’ve got another word that fits here. “Tolerance.” We are getting it wrong. I know for sure it doesn’t mean what a lot of people think it means.

Dictionary.com says the definition of tolerance is “a fair, respectful, and permissive attitude or policy toward people whose opinions, beliefs, practices, racial, or ethnic origins, etc., differ from one’s own or those of the majority, freedom from bigotry and an insistence on conformity.”

The world's definition of tolerance has changed dramatically

“Freedom from an insistence on conformity.” If I were to put it another way, it means we don’t have to think the same way to get along. Whatever happened to a respectful and permissive attitude toward people whose opinions, beliefs, practices, racial, or ethnic origins were different than ours? One of the great nicknames of America was the “Great Melting Pot.” When did we lose that?

The Stand to Reason website offers this example of what today’s culture defines as tolerant. “Culturally speaking, we want to believe that tolerance is total agreement with people and accepting of all ideas.” But the culture also takes it one step further: “It’s more than accepting those people and ideas, it’s also affirming all ideas.”

Here’s where problems can happen. The Lifeway research website notes that tolerance today can go even further. We are expected to affirm, accept, and even celebrate values that may be irreconcilable with our own beliefs.

Modern America wants me to be more tolerant. Everyone just needs to get along, right? Be more tolerant like Jesus was. We hear that a lot in what passes for “news media” these days. Evidently, Christians are the only ones who are supposed to be tolerant.

I offer up the example of Pastor Rob Ketterling of River Valley Church. His crime, according to some? He’s been vocal at the capitol and in the pulpit on an issue regarding the Minnesota Human Rights Act. But he’s not against human rights or people who disagree with the Church.

According to the Alpha News website, until last year, gender identity was part of the Act’s definition of sexual orientation. However, Democrats in the state legislature created a new definition of the term without establishing a corresponding religious exemption. Those groups now fear they’ll face legal issues for operating in accordance with sincerely held religious beliefs.

An amendment that would have protected religious institutions was voted down repeatedly by Democrats who hold the majority at the Capitol.

Ketterling pointed out to Liz Collins of Alpha News that churches have moral standards that don’t always align with the culture. “They’ve always given us these exceptions, and now it doesn’t exist,” he said. “If we deny transgender folks the ability to do something based on our beliefs, are we going to get sued without these protections?”

By the way, this lack of protection doesn’t just apply to Christians. Ketterling points out that Muslims and Jewish people have all been at the Capitol saying they want the exemption for deeply held beliefs. Democrats gave it a resounding no.

Ketterling is paying the price for speaking out on the issue. He says exemption opponents have crossed a line.

What line have they crossed? Do you know what it means to be “doxed?” He and his wife both had their cell phone numbers published on a trans site. Not only that, but the couple’s address also is out there for the world to see.

People are calling the family’s house and saying, “I’m coming to your house to murder your family.” During a recent sermon, people were sending him texts of pictures of the devil. While he was preaching.

This is what tolerance SHOULD look like

The Ketterlings have taken steps to install new software on their phones and updated their security systems. But let me ask this. Where is the tolerance that these same people are yelling about to anyone who will listen?

“This isn’t the America I grew up in,” Ketterling said sadly. “We used to respect each other’s beliefs and wouldn’t try to force them on each other. Now, we have the Minnesota legislature saying if I don’t use pronoun hospitality, it’s no longer just hatred. Now it’s violence. How did we get here?”

Didn’t we used to respect each other’s right to believe what we wanted? You go your way, and I go mine.

Harvest House Publishers says it this way: “The very idea of tolerance means you don’t agree with another person’s viewpoint, but in the name of love and respect for humanity, you accept the person’s right to embrace another viewpoint.”

The Bible says it best, as usual: 1 Peter 3:8 – “Finally, all of you be of one mind, having compassion for one another; love as brothers (and sisters), be tenderhearted, be courteous."

Matthew 7:12 - "Therefore, whatever you want men (and women) to do to you, do also to them."

You know, the good old "Golden Rule."