What has happened to TOLERANCE?
Dictionary definition of ‘tolerance’ = a fair, objective, and permissive attitude toward opinions, beliefs, and practices that differ from one’s own:
— If I have a moral conviction that a gay lifestyle is against my understanding of what is healthy and proper for humanity, and take a stance that I will not attack any person who so chooses to live, but I will not march in a parade that encourages such a lifestyle… Does that make me INTOLERANT? (Please, check the definition again.)
— What has happened to mankind that you make claims of hatred when all Christians do is accept another’s right to their own personal beliefs and behaviours and to TOLERATE their lifestyles, but choose not to encourage them to others, or live within those lifestyles?
God sent His son, Jesus to redeem (save) the world, not to join it.
— Since I follow His teachings and authority in my life, (and you are free to follow your own decisions), why can’t I require TOLERANCE from you?
— Should you not allow me to peaceably pursue my own moral lifestyle choices without persecution or hateful labelling?
Jesus taught that we must let others choose their way to follow. Some, He said would choose the way to destruction, but He urged you and I to choose the harder route which leads to life…
SEE Matthew 7:7-14 Ask, and you will receive. Search, and you will find. Knock, and the door will be opened for you. (8) Everyone who asks will receive. Everyone who searches will find. And the door will be opened for everyone who knocks. (9) Would any of you give your hungry child a stone, if the child asked for some bread? (10) Would you give your child a snake if the child asked for a fish? (11) As bad as you are, you still know how to give good gifts to your children. But your heavenly Father is even more ready to give good things to people who ask. (12) Treat others as you want them to treat you. This is what the Law and the Prophets are all about. (13) Go in through the narrow gate. The gate to destruction is wide, and the road that leads there is easy to follow. A lot of people go through that gate. (14) But the gate to life is very narrow. The road that leads there is so hard to follow that only a few people find it.
— This is not a heartless display of uncaring, rather this is how God looks at our freedom to choose for ourselves.
— That is the essence of tolerance.
— Jesus discouraged even the harsh laws of those days when He told them that anyone without sin could cast the first stone of judicial punishment. ( SEE the Gospel of John 8:1-11) However, Jesus then told that woman she was free to go, while cautioning her to “sin no more”.
— He TOLERATED her choices but tried to encourage her to make better ones in the future. However, those choices were still her’s to make.
— That is being tolerant, without being supportive of that lifestyle.
I choose to follow Jesus and His teachings of love and tolerance, versus judgement and hatred…
How about you?
Do your teachings encourage tolerance or hatred?