Alan Shlemon on Tolerance

"Tolerance...has never meant endorsement or acceptance, but just the opposite. The dictionary defines it this way:  'To recognize and respect others' beliefs and practices without sharing them, to bear or put up with someone or something not necessarily liked.' Notice, you must disagree with someone before  true tolerance is possible...Further, tolerance can be applied to behavior, ideas, and people. No culture tolerates all behaviors. Murder, theft, and child abuse (to name a few) are a threat to the common good, so we make laws restricting them. We don't tolerate all ideas, either. Though people are free to express their views, not every view has equal merit. We reject some ideas (geocentrism, bigotry, slavery, etc.) as false or immoral. When it comes to people, though, we show tolerance-that is, we treat them with equal dignity. Even when we vehemently disagree with them, we still respect them as individuals. A problem occurs, though, when these three categories of tolerance (behavior, ideas, and people) are conflated. When a Christian rejects another person's behavior or ideas, he is immediately accused of being intolerant of the person. This is confused. Opposition to the idea of Islam is not the same as intolerance to Muslm people. Opposition to homosexual behavior is not the same as intolerance to homosexual people. It's possible to oppose their ideas and behavior while remaining tolerant of them."1

Stand firm in Christ,
Chasen

Footnotes:

1. Shlemon, Alan. The Ambassador's Guide to Understanding Homosexuality. pages 4-6.