The Tolerance Paradox
How the most tolerant virtue became the most intolerant
Tolerance is perhaps the supreme virtue of our age. To be called intolerant is among the worst accusations one can face. But have we stopped to examine what tolerance has become?
The Shifting Definition
Tolerance once meant something quite simple: bearing with people and ideas you disagreed with. It assumed difference, even opposition. You could only tolerate what you found objectionable.
The new tolerance is something entirely different. It demands not just coexistence but celebration. Not just live-and-let-live but active affirmation. Disagreement itself has become intolerable.
The Hidden Religion
What we call tolerance is often functioning as a religion. It has its own:
- Doctrines: All truth claims are equally valid (except this one)
- Sins: Judgment, exclusivity, absolute truth claims
- Salvation: Liberation from traditional beliefs
- Evangelism: Education, media, social pressure
- Heresy: The claim that any way of life might be objectively wrong
And like all religions, it is exclusive. It cannot tolerate the intolerant—which conveniently includes anyone who maintains traditional moral convictions.
The Biblical Alternative
Scripture calls us to something more nuanced than either old-tolerance or new-tolerance.
We are called to love all people—genuinely, sacrificially, without condition. We are called to humility about our own failures and compassion for others’ struggles. We are called to welcome the outcast and befriend the sinner.
But we are not called to call good what God calls evil. We are not called to affirm what Scripture denies. We are not called to pretend that truth is whatever anyone believes it to be.
“Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.” — 1 Corinthians 13:6
Living Faithfully
The Christian path is harder than either capitulation or culture war. It requires us to:
- Distinguish between people (who deserve love) and ideas (which deserve evaluation)
- Hold moral convictions with both conviction and compassion
- Accept that faithfulness will be called intolerance
- Love our enemies, including those who call us enemies
The tolerant society our culture claims to want cannot exist without moral foundations. Ironically, it requires the very virtues—charity, patience, humility—that Christianity has always taught.