3 Practical Steps to Resist the Tyranny of Tolerance
by Jonathan Morrow, courtesy of Tim Challies:
Is it OK to disagree with other peoples’ deeply held beliefs anymore? You’ve heard the buzzwords: Coexist. Hate speech. Discrimination. Micro-aggressions. Trigger warnings. Speech codes. It’s becoming obvious to anyone paying attention to the media these days that certain moral and religious viewpoints are simply no longer allowed in our classrooms or broader culture. They are either dismissed without argument as “irrational” or the people who hold these views are publically shamed or even shouted down. I call this new cultural reality the Tyranny of Tolerance.
As Christians who care about truth and want to love our neighbors well as people made in the image of God, what are we to do? Here are three practical steps you can take to resist the Tyranny of Tolerance.
1. Recognize the new moral code being imposed in our culture today. Denial is not a strategy; we must live in reality. According to a recent Barna study, 91% of Americans agreed with the statement “To find yourself you must look within yourself.” What this shows is that selective relativism is alive and well and has become the dominant view in our culture. In other words, truth depends on what the individual comes to believe. But our radically individualistic culture has also agreed upon some new moral absolutes—namely “People should not criticize someone else’s life’s choices” (89% of Americans affirm this). These two beliefs are obviously in competition with each other and form the basis of the Tyranny of Tolerance we are experiencing today. The rules of the game have changed and if we fail to recognize this fact then we will not engage well.
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