Tolerance is Overrated…

I think to a certain extent, tolerance is over-rated.  According to Webster’s dictionary, tolerance is defined as follows:

1: capacity to endure pain or hardship;

2: sympathy or indulgence for beliefs or practices differing from or conflicting with one's own; the act of allowing something;

3: the allowable deviation from a standard.

Tolerance is always talked about as a good thing.  However, the definition above belies any positive spin that people may place on the term.  Unless you are a sadomasochist, no one likes to endure pain or hardship.  Likewise, indulging beliefs or practices differing from your own or allowing something, does not sound much better.

Don’t get me wrong.  A certain amount of tolerance is required.  In fact, tolerance is not really the right word; rather, one should always have compassion for others.  One should have compassion for those who are in a inferior state than we are.  One should show the handicapped compassion.  One should show the poor compassion.  One should show the disenfranchised compassion.  Mere tolerance is not enough.

However, more often than not, tolerance is discussed in terms of alternate beliefs than are own.  It is commonly held that we should have tolerance for others of a different faith.  This is likely to a misunderstanding of the Establishment clause in the United States Constitution.  The country’s founders believed that the government should not establish a certain religion and that the state should be separate from church.  This I believe too.

However, the founders may not necessarily have believed that you had tolerate the beliefs of others.  I am Catholic.  Catholics are taught that there is only one “true” church, that is the Catholic church.  One of the things Catholics are taught is to pray for the reunion of those persons who strayed away from the Church back into the fold.

There are some practices of the Catholic Church in which others are just not allowed to participate.  For example, the sacred host is reserved only for those who have gone through the proper rites to be able to participate in such sacrament. 

Catholics also believe in the importance of Mary, that she has a special place with God.  Most non-denominational churches believe that Mary is just a woman.  Some go as far as to claim that the Catholic Church worships Mary as a God.  Often, these are the same churches that eschew images of the saints or of Jesus’s life.  These same churches refuse to permit the image of Jesus on the cross. 

I cannot tolerate these beliefs.  Toleration of these nondenominational beliefs means that have to give legitimacy to these ideas, to perhaps admit that the Catholic faith might be wrong.  Accordingly, there is no toleration for this.

Does this mean I am friends only with Catholics?  No.  Some of my best friends are of different faiths.  Consequently, I do not discuss religion with them.  However, if pressed against the wall, I will tell them what I know to be the truth.  

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