October 22, 2021

I borrowed this title from D.A. Carson’s excellent book, The Intolerance of Tolerance  If you want to learn more about this issue please click on the link and consider buying and reading the book.

Progressives, including abortion advocates, LBGTQ activists, and religious universalists, all ask us to be tolerant of their views. They expect and demand tolerance for their beliefs.

However, they have changed the definition and understanding of tolerance. That is the subject of this post.

How Do You Define Tolerance?

Well, that depends on whether you hold onto the traditional understanding of tolerance or are pushing for the new tolerance. Let’s compare the two.

The Traditional View

• Accepting the existence of different views.
• Recognizing other people’s right to have different beliefs and practices than I have.
• To accept that a different or opposing position exists and may exist does not prevent the opposition to the position or belief.
• Truth is objective and can be known.

The New (Progressive) View

• Accepting different views without criticism or disagreement.
• Accepting the different beliefs and practices of others unconditionally.
• By accepting a position different from your own means believing that position to be at least as true as your own.
• No one view is exclusively true.

So, we move from allowing the free expression of contrary opinions to the acceptance of all opinions; we leap from permitting the articulation of beliefs and claims with which we do not agree to asserting that all beliefs and claims are equally valid. Thus, we slide from the old tolerance to the new.

Can the New View of Tolerance be Correct? Consider this…

Mahatma Ghandi said, “Religions are different roads converging upon the same point. What does it matter that we take different roads so long as we reach the goal?

Jesus said, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. (John 14:6 ESV)

These are contradictory statements, and only one can be true. The “law of contradiction” says that only one or neither statement can be true. Both can’t be true at the same time.

So, Christians believe Jesus is the only way to God.

But does that make them intolerant? In the former sense of intolerant, not at all; the fact remains, however, that the new tolerance widely viewed as a sign of gross intolerance any sort of exclusive truth claim.

But Let’s Ignore Logic. You are now intolerant when…

• You say abortion is murder.
• You confirm the biblical teaching that homosexuality is sin.
• You refuse an invitation to a same-sex marriage ceremony.
• You say many terrorists are radical Islamists.
• You call a politician who says “I’m personally against abortion but don’t believe government should prohibit it” a hypocrite.
• You believe and teach morality is objective.
• You believe God made us male or female, and gender is not fluid.
• You cannot adhere to the new tolerance.

A Few More Comments on the “New” Tolerance

If you begin with this new view of tolerance, and then elevate this view to the supreme position in the hierarchy of moral values, the supreme sin is intolerance.

According to Carson …

Put simply, tyranny is not the inevitable outcome of an absolutist view of truth, but is, rather the direct product of relativism. Likewise, tolerance arises not from relativism but from the very thing that our society anathematizes – the belief in absolutes.

One of the prime targets of the new tolerance is Christianity

The “New” tolerance would prefer that Christianity be a “private” religion. But that is not the nature of Christianity. Christians are evangelical, sharing the Gospel to bring others into the kingdom of God.

Christianity is also a communal faith. Believers need the fellowship of other believers to grow in their faith and to strengthen it.

Freedom of Religion vs. Freedom of Worship

Freedom of religion represents the traditional view of tolerance. It says that while we allow others to believe differently from us, we do not have to accept what they believe.

Freedom of worship limits our faith to what we do within the walls or our church, synagogue, or mosque. Just don’t allow it to leak out into the public square.

This is what those who want to change freedom of religion to freedom of worship want to see.

We cannot separate this new tolerance from religious freedom and the attacks upon it.

How does this relate to freedom of religion?

True religious freedom means all different faiths exist side-by-side and independently of one another. All are free to practice, teach, and share their beliefs.

However, they are not required to accept the beliefs of another religion. In fact, they can openly disagree with other faiths.

People may choose from among these different religions.

This is the norm under the traditional understanding of tolerance.

Not So According to the New Tolerance

Different faiths exist side-by-side and independently of one another. All are free to practice, teach, and share their beliefs.

But they cannot disagree with the teachings of another religion.

Rather, they must agree to the idea that all faiths teach the truth, no matter obvious differences.

Conclusion

Please keep the following key points in mind:

• Traditional tolerance is accepting but critical of opposing beliefs.
• The new tolerance ignores the rules of logic.
• The new tolerance is really intolerance.
• Christians are the prime targets of the new tolerance.
• The new tolerance demands agreement with beliefs that are not our own.