Is Tolerance the Best We Can Do?

The web site, “Teaching Tolerance” at www.tolerance.org, quotes UNESCO, The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization.

“Tolerance is respect, acceptance and appreciation of the rich diversity of our world's cultures, our forms of expression and ways of being human. Tolerance is harmony in difference.” The site then quotes the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. who used the Greek term “agape” to describe a universal love that “discovers the neighbor in every man it meets."

The site is a great resource, I believe, especially for teachers, offering help on how best to teach tolerance. God knows, the world could use more appreciation for our diversity.

But if I had to choose between the quotes above to recommend to people searching for God I would go with Martin Luther King in a heartbeat. At least for those searching for God in the Christian tradition, mere tolerance is not enough.

That’s because Jesus’ standard is much higher, so high, in fact, that Jesus himself was doubtful that many could achieve it. Jesus says nothing about tolerance, but insists that people searching for God follow the “law” of love.

Clear in his story
The kind of love Jesus demands is clear in his story of the Good Samaritan, which is echoed in Martin Luther King’s words about discovering the neighbor in every person we meet.

Karl Marx, the brains behind international communism, is often quoted as saying that “religion is the opium of the people,” meaning that it consoles us, making us less fearful of the cold, impersonal reality of life and the prospect of eternal oblivion.

But many of Jesus’ messages are far from “consoling.” On the contrary, he makes serious demands on his followers. He wants them to be much better than the Pharisees of his time; to forgive others as his father forgives them; to be poor in spirit, clean of heart, merciful, bereft of pride; he wants them to be peacemakers and to hunger and thirst for righteousness.

Google Image
He wants them to “enter by the narrow gate,” saying that “the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.
 
“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven,” he says, “but the one who does the will of my Father ….”

Writes Thomas Halik in Night of the Confessor: Christian Faith in an Age of Uncertainty: “Jesus clearly states that those who decide to follow in his footsteps must not be under any illusion that it is the wide, comfortable path chosen by the majority, or that its difficulties might ‘pay off’ and lead to success in this world.”

It’s true that tolerance, especially in the face of the varying religious beliefs and cultural differences of others, is better than intolerance. And that’s especially true of the intolerance generated by religious belief in the past, where it was at times considered a testament to one’s faith to support burning at the stake of people of differing cultures and beliefs.

No, tolerance is clearly better, but today we have a form of tolerance that says, “Believe what you like, but don’t bother me with it.” We understand differences of opinion - sometimes leading to armed conflict - when it’s about money, nationalism, race, or borders, things that are “important.”

Incomprehensible
But arguing about religion? It’s clearly incomprehensible for many in today’s world. (I’m not suggesting here that fighting over religion is a good thing; only that many people today don’t believe religion is worth fighting over.)

If you’re searching for God in the Christian tradition, it’s not enough to merely tolerate the differences of others, then ignore those others. That smacks of the minimalist approach to Christianity, expressed as, “Tell me how little I have to do to be a Christian.”

Tolerance implies enduring the presence and actions of others. Love means caring about the other, and that’s what I believe Jesus had in mind for his followers and for all people searching for God.   

The First Letter of John in the Christian Bible sums it up nicely: “No man has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.”

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