CHRISTIAN LOVE CROWDS OUT TOLERANCE

By James Wilson

            The writer said, “I am not a reader of the Bible, nor am I a practicing member of a church…However, I am a Christian who believes in the message that God gave us when He sent His Son into the world on Christmas Day.  We are to care for the poor, the needy, the less fortunate than we are…”  She then attacked a local church she judged deficient in carrying out this message.  The trouble is, she has no idea what the Gospel is about.  She would have to read and believe the Bible to know that.

            Jesus does set a high priority on caring for the poor.  But the Gospel itself is much more personal.  The message is we cannot make it without entering a radically dependent relationship with Him.  Once we engage that relationship one of the signs will be caring for the poor.  God’s Word is just as clear, however, that we can care for the poor apart from Him and achieve only evil; read the temptation narratives in Matthew 4 and Luke 4.  Of course, this was a letter to the editor.  The attack e-mails I receive are personal.

Some would instruct me about prophecy, but I often get correction regarding the “Christian principles of love and tolerance.”  The writers – who are rarely believers – want to remind me of my responsibilities to these principles.  The trouble is, while love is paramount in the Christian faith, there is no such thing as Christian tolerance.  There are four ways to say “love” in the New Testament alone, but each of them means to embrace the other with compassion and committed relationship – treating the other as though he is more important than me.  The same principle applies to the radical act of love we call forgiveness.  Jesus requires that we approach our brethren seeking reconciliation (Matthew 5) before we approach Jesus Himself in worship.  He expects us to extend ourselves to the one who holds something against us before we offer gifts to Him – even if the other has no legitimate grievance.  Love – by the way – is action leading to warm feelings – if practiced consistently; it is not feelings that lead to action.

             Tolerance – toleration – is simply putting up with something or someone we detest and reject out of hand, hoping it does not show too much.  We tolerate bad weather, long lines, and dead-end jobs.  Christian love crowds out tolerance every time.  The crowding occurs because love is real and substantive while tolerance – applied to human relationships – is nothing but hypocrisy masquerading as apathy.

            The folks chanting tolerance as though it were a mantra understand this as well as I do.  If I own a business – from a bakery to photography – that caters to weddings in Oregon or Colorado – where, incidentally, gay marriage remains illegal – the government will run me out of business if I refuse to serve a gay wedding.  It is not enough that I make no fuss, that I am tolerant; I am required to embrace the people and the concept if I am to do business without serious penalty.  If I own Hobby Lobby it is not enough that I tolerate the legality of elective abortion in the land; the government expects me to supply abortion services to my employees because it expect me to embrace something that spits in the face of my faith convictions.  Tolerance is not enough; only loving embrace will do.  But those who insist I love have no clue what love is.

             As it is depicted in traditional wedding services, love hangs in there through thick and thin with people who may disappoint or even disgust the lover.  But like the famous expression of patriotic love spoken by Stephen Decatur, “Our country…may she always be in the right; but our country, right or wrong,” love is anything but a blanket endorsement of self-destructive behavior.  Jesus loved lepers; He hated leprosy.  I love my addicted friends and relatives; I hate their addiction.  I will speak against it whenever I can and tolerate it whenever I must.

             Some things are simply not tolerable.  Governors, attorneys general, and even presidents who won’t enforce – or will unilaterally re-write – the laws entrusted to them are not tolerable; they are to be opposed.  People who bully and terrorize those who do not conform to their ideas are not tolerable; they are to be stopped.  Non or marginal Christians who think they know my faith better than I do are to be ignored.  Yet Christians are called to love even these – and even as we ignore, oppose or stop them.  We’re called to love, not tolerate.