A certain prominent elder statesman recently gave a highly publicized speech on the movies and songs coming out of our entertainment industry. I do not care to mention his name because I'm not pushing politics, but I simply must quote something he said that is so true, so Biblical, so brilliant! Here is the quote and I want you to remember it because you will need it in the cultural debate that is occurring in our society right now.

"We must make it clear that tolerance does not mean neutrality between love and cruelty, between peace and violence, between right and wrong."

Tolerance is one of those hot buzz words being frequently used in our cultural debate, particularly by the homosexual and abortion lobbies. They call for greater tolerance for homosexuality, abortion etc. In the new educational strategy called Quality Performance Accreditation the Kansas State of Board of Education in 1992 adopted ten "clearly defined outcomes that all students must demonstrate when they exit." One of those goals was stated thusly: "All students are tolerant of individual differences and work together without prejudice, bias, or discrimination."

Tolerance, however, is being defined in certain quarters as something that it isn't. To many in the homosexuality movement etc. tolerance means not saying anything critical or disparaging about the homosexual lifestyle. One is said to be intolerant, according to their definition, if one criticizes the practice of homosexual. Some even go to the extreme of saying that if one does anything less than embrace homosexual. as a legitimate and acceptable lifestyle, then he is intolerant.

Our elder statesman makes a brilliant and much needed statement, however, when he points out that tolerance doesn't at all mean or require that one be neutral toward love and cruelty, peace and violence, good and evil. Inherent in the very word tolerate is the idea of putting up with something that to me is disagreeable, unbecoming, unfit, repugnant, or downright evil.

Consequently, I am not intolerant of something if I speak out against it. We must not let others accuse us of being intolerant simply because we forcefully speak out against what we perceive as evil. Indeed, it is impossible to be tolerant of something we like or embrace. We can only speak of being tolerant when we are talking of something we do not like or something we want to eliminate.

Tolerance does not mean that we become neutral toward what we perceive as good and evil. Don't let the opposition beat you down or silence you with this argument. So often Christians are characterized as being intolerant just for letting their opinions be heard or for criticizing certain beliefs, behaviors or lifestyles. Tolerance doesn't mean being neutral or silent in regard to good and evil.

God is tolerant. Rom. 2:4

And living in any social environment requires a certain level of tolerance. Our country was built on the principle of allowing a certain freedom of dissent. So we must tolerate some differences when we live in the midst of other people.

Nevertheless, tolerance doesn't mean we are required to be silent about what we perceive to be good and evil. We may tolerate various religions in our country and be willing to live with and allow people to believe things with which I disagree, but I have not become intolerant just because I openly oppose and criticize what I believe to be false religion.