This is Life!: Revolutions Around the Cruciform Axis

The Intolerance of Tolerance

I submit to you this thought: Those who claim to be tolerant of all persons are the most intolerant of all persons.

Tolerance is the ubervirtue of modernist secular society. Modernist secularists abrogate rather arrogantly to themselves this ultimate compassion: the acceptance of all. The trouble is, it's all one big fat lie.

Don't believe me? Let's try a little thought experiment, shall we? We can take it as a given that modernist secularists are accepting of the lifestyle behaviors of gay and lesbian persons. But let's take that and push it around a bit, shall we? What does a modernist secularist do with, say, an ex-gay or ex-lesbian person? Have you ever see a conference devoted to tolerance and diversity in which one has equal representation and coverage of both gay and lesbian activist groups and, say, Exodus International? I thought not.

Or, let's try this one on for size. Modernist secularists are tolerant of people of all faiths. Er, except for those who hold faiths that are exclusivist: which pretty much boils down to conservative and/or traditional Christians. Roman Catholics can always be counted on to play the bad guy role, or at least can be mocked. But conservative evangelicals can always be counted on to play the role of sexually repressed, homophobic, misogynistic bigot. Orthodox Jews would receive much more mocking than they do except that the modernist secularist has this guilt complex over the Holocaust which does not allow him to break that tolerance taboo. And Orthodox Christians would be more denigrated more often if Americans had any idea just who the heck they were.

No, we can be tolerant of Islamist fascist terrorists and their supporting regimes--it's not their fault, it's the poverty, it's the American agressive world diplomatic policies, etc.--but not of Christians who claim some form of absolute truth. Modernist secularists do believe in the Antichrist, and they name him Benedict the XVI.

No, the calls to tolerance of modern day advocates are empty and hollow calls to simply conform to the Borg. And that's not tolerance at all.

No, give me the intolerance of a Mother Teresa who never countenanced one iota the evil of abortion. Give me the intolerance of Metropolitan Iakovos who could march against the evils of racism precisely because he believed that there is absolute truth that excludes those beliefs that contradict it. Yes, I'm intolerant in that way, and hope to become ever more so every remaining day of my life.

Posted by Clifton at May 9, 2005 09:00 AM | TrackBack