The air waves are filled these days with talk of tolerance. We are urged to tolerate this lifestyle or that religion, or this or that idea. In the rampant cultural Marxism that is political correctness, we are being told that everything and everyone must be tolerated. Correction. We are being told to tolerate almost everything and everyone. We are, it seems, to blindly accept beliefs and practices that fly in the face of what we have long known and accepted. We are no longer to judge between right and wrong. We are to tolerate both right and wrong. Character, however, does not tolerate so unthinkingly. Character demands that we think carefully about our actions, and weigh what is right and wrong. We determine what moral excellence is and what it is not. We choose the excellent and reject the deficient.
Character or tolerance – choose! The cry seems to ring in our ears, but why must we choose? I include tolerance on my list of character traits, but that tolerance does not eliminate other character traits. Nor does it operate in a vacuum, apart and separate from the other character traits. Character traits are distinguishing qualities of character, and must operate together. They must exist in harmony. We cannot choose, because authentic tolerance is linked inseparably to prudence and discernment. It is part of a chain that includes responsibility, honesty, integrity, love, compassion, respect, and a host of other qualities.
Making a choice between tolerance and character may not be in the best interests of those whose beliefs, practices, or ideas we are to tolerate. Making that choice may not be in the best interests of our nation, or of global society. We must understand authentic tolerance, and reject that which is not authentic.
Authentic tolerance, on the one hand, permits others to hold beliefs or practices that differ from or conflict with our own. It recognizes that we may have different beliefs or practices, and urges a two-way street in which we all permit each other to hold the beliefs or practices we choose. There, authentic tolerance stops.
Modern tolerance, on the other hand, is very intolerant. It does not simply demand that we permit each other to hold beliefs or practices that may conflict with our own. It demands that we embrace beliefs or practices that conflict with our own. It demands that we allow their proponents to destroy the integrity of our own beliefs and practices. We must bend to the will of the loudest voice. We must teach our children to accept these things. We must add to our lives beliefs and practices that are inimical to our own. But there is danger there.
Tolerating “A” may extinguish society. Tolerating “A” could be the very chink in the armor through which enters a new thought system – a thought system that could lead to colossal intolerance of “B”, which is a vital institution in our society.
This is not the forum for a more specific or lengthy treatment of the issue, but I do believe those who are proponents of character – moral excellence – should think carefully about these matters. Character or tolerance – choose! If the tolerance is less than authentic, I choose character.
That’s the view from my chair. What’s your view?