tolerance or hate?

there have been a lot of changes in society in the last decade, and one of the biggest changes is the new religion of tolerance.  i call it a religion, because like religion, people live and die by it, it is exclusive, and its supporters preach it with the fervor of a street corner evangelist with a sandwich board and a microphone.  the ironic thing about the tolerance crowd is that they are usually the antithesis of what they teach and preach, because they are rarely tolerant of any idea that is not theirs.  spend any amount of time on social media or reading the comments section of a news article, and you will witness it first-hand. 

in order to understand tolerance, you have to first look at the definition.  tolerance defined, is simply tolerating something.  so when you look at the definition of tolerate, you find that it means to "allow without interference."  to dig even further, interfere means to "prevent from continuing," or to "become involved in the activities of others when your involvement is not wanted."  america is the land of the free, and we have embraced the law of thelema, the manifesto of magician and occultist aleister crowley, which states, "do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law.  love is the law..."  notice the contradiction in that statement?  on the surface it seems like a good concept, tolerance, which is why people have embraced it.  however, when you dig deeper below the surface of the concept of tolerance, you discover that instead of an expression of love and acceptance, used wrongly it can be a statement of passive hate, especially for the follower of CHRIST.

there are many things we can tolerate in life.  i tolerate people listening to country music although i personally can't stand it.  people tolerate differing tastes in clothing, food, music, cars, this blog, etc., with no harm to anyone.  nobody questions these expressions of tolerance.  it is what makes us a great nation.  there are countries that imprison musicians and bloggers for making statements against the government.  so for us to have the freedom to write something that people may not like is a good thing, and a perfect example of tolerance used correctly.  but tolerance is not an expression of love, as many would like to claim.  you can tolerate someone or their behavior without loving them.  as long as the person is not engaging in behavior that is harmful to themselves or others, tolerance is simply agreeing to disagree.

tolerance becomes passive hate whenever you see someone about to cause harm to themselves or others, and you stand by and do nothing.  for the CHRIST-follower, the implications of this are serious.  we are called to love others as CHRIST loves them, and sometimes that means risking offending them.  if you truly love someone, you want the best for them, and when you see someone going down a path that is harmful, love calls you to step forward and speak up.  people like to say that CHRIST accepted people as they were, which is true, but if you pay attention to the rest of the story, you see that He never left anyone where they were, but called them to repentance.  sure, anyone could come to Him, and He regularly ate and hung out with sinners, but notice that Scripture nowhere says that all of those sinners followed Him.  some chose to turn on Him and called for His crucifixion.  people loved His message of love and acceptance until they realized what that love meant, and that love would not allow them to continue in their sin.  it is the same way today.  people are all about the hippie Jesus, the one that preached meekness and love.  when you bring up the righteous, conquering CHRIST in Revelation, as He stands in judgment, people cry "foul."

penn jillette, of the famous magical duo "penn and teller," once read the Bible and even said on his video blog that he hoped that CHRISTians would tell him about Jesus, because if you truly believed that people who died without CHRIST went to a literal hell, then to not tell a sinner about CHRIST out of fear of offending them is essentially saying that you didn't love them.  to let people die and go to hell without telling them about CHRIST, is essentially saying that you hate them.  tolerating sin, especially sin that is harmful to that person or others, is passively saying that you hate them.

i love my sons, and i would do anything for them, including not tolerating their behavior when it has the potential to be harmful to them.  there are many parents that i know that let their kids talk to them however they want, act however they want, and do whatever they want.  those parents do that out of some misguided concept of love, embracing this culture of tolerance to their own kids' detriment.  i'm thankful every day that my parents loved me enough to get in the way of my destructive decisions.  some call it tough love, but it is love all the same.   

the caveat of all of this is that if you truly love someone enough to not tolerate their behavior, that same love has to be manifested in the prevention of that behavior.  the reason that society has embraced this culture of tolerance is the hateful manner in which people disagreed with others.  professing CHRISTians are some of the worst when it comes to this.  we put ourselves on the throne and claim the title of judge, jury, and executioner when it comes to the sins of others.  we like to quote John 3:16, but ignore 17, which says that CHRIST did not come into the world to condemn it, but to save it.  if we are to emulate CHRIST in our dealings with others, condemnation should not be a trait we ever manifest.  our calling others to repentance should always come out of love and concern because we know where the path that they are on leads.  one phrase i personally despise is the phrase, "go to hell!"  to me, there is no stronger expression of hate than that.

there are many things we can tolerate, but sin should never be one.  that includes within the church.  paul addressed this in his first letter to the church at corinth when he called them out on the sins that they were allowing to continue.  we have grown so tolerant of sin within the church that we now have churches that celebrate sin and embrace it.  that only makes the churches that stand on biblical principles look that much more hateful when we refuse to accept those sins within our congregations.  perhaps if we started showing others intolerance filled with love and prayer, we might see a change in how people perceive us.  either way, the reality is that CHRIST promised us we would be hated for His name's sake.  mankind is rebellious by nature, and does not like to be told that they are wrong.  so be intolerant of sin, and prepared to be labeled as "intolerant," but know in your heart that it is truly love.  do not buy into society's view of tolerance and love, a view which is truly neither.