TOLERANCE vs TRUTH
A memo written by Pastor Bob on 12/4/02 to members of an Anti-Bias
committee
We have had several meetings and I do not yet know what our real
purpose is or what exactly we are representing. My wife and I desire to
remain on the committee and to fully participate; however, time needs
to be given to educate us as to the goals, objectives, etc. At our last
meeting a statement was made to the effect that,” There is no right or
wrong”. I have thought a lot about that and cannot say I agree.
However, perhaps I did not fully understand or we need to have a
discussion of just what is meant by a statement of this kind. As far as
I am concerned “tolerance or bias” is not a matter of “right or wrong”
or “truth” or “equal”. It is a choice we make to respect the opinions,
beliefs, values or truth claims of others not to agree with them.
My understanding of our purpose:
I believe that the purpose of our existence is to encourage tolerance
and respect within our educational system and our community. We might
do this by sponsoring various events or activities as well as providing
the school board and administration ideas and support as well as our
opinions as they consider how to promote tolerance and antibias. In
other words, we are a group of individuals whose common purpose is to
educate our children and communities to be tolerant and to come against
bias and prejudice. I also thought we were to “represent” the views of
the community regarding these issues.
With this understanding I would like to state my views and encourage
each member of the committee to state theirs.
First of all I looked up the meanings of tolerant, tolerance, bias, and
biased on the internet. – Merriam-Webster Online. I felt this was
appropriate as we cannot realistically define our mission if we are not
in agreement as to the meanings of these terms.
Tolerance is defined as: 1 : inclined to tolerate;
especially : marked by forbearance or endurance 1 : capacity to endure
pain or hardship : ENDURANCE, FORTITUDE, STAMINA 2 a : sympathy or
indulgence for beliefs or practices differing from or conflicting with
one's own b : the act of allowing something : TOLERATION 3 : the
allowable deviation from a standard; especially : the range of
variation permitted in maintaining a specified dimension in machining a
piece.
Tolerance as defined in the Thesaurus: 1 the capacity to
bear something unpleasant, painful, or difficult had always had a
high tolerance to pain Synonyms: endurance, stamina, toleration
Related Words: fortitude, grit, guts; strength, vigor; long-suffering,
patience, sufferance; steadfastness, steadiness; opposition, resistance
Antonyms: intolerance 2 Synonyms: FORBEARANCE 2, clemency, indulgence,
lenience, leniency, mercifulness, toleration Related Words: liberality,
liberalness, open-mindedness, permissiveness
Contrasted Words: narrow-mindedness; prejudice; dogmatism; bigotry
Bias is defined as: 1 : exhibiting or characterized
by bias; especially : PREJUDICED 2 : tending to yield one
outcome more frequently than others in a statistical experiment a
biased coin
3 : having an expected value different from the quantity or
parameter estimated a biased estimate
Bias as defined in the Thesaurus: 1 Synonyms: LEANING 2,
bent, disposition, inclination, inclining, partiality, penchant,
predilection, predisposition, proclivity 2 Synonyms: PREJUDICE,
one-sidedness, partiality Related Words: inclination, predisposition;
slant, standpoint, viewpoint Contrasted Words: dispassionateness;
fairness, justness 3 a : BENT, TENDENCY b : an inclination of
temperament or outlook; especially : a personal and sometimes
unreasoned judgment : PREJUDICE c : an instance of such prejudice d (1)
: deviation of the expected value of a statistical estimate from the
quantity it estimates (2) : systematic error introduced into sampling
or testing by selecting or encouraging one outcome or answer over others
Discussion1
Tolerate is defined in Webster’s dictionary as, “to
recognize and respect [others beliefs, practices, etc.] without sharing
them”, and “to bear or put up with [someone or something not especially
liked].” 2
As a minister of the gospel I want to assure everyone that the Bible,
which I choose to believe to be the infallible word of God, the
revelation of God to man, is in complete agreement with this
definition.
Below are a number of scriptures that support my belief:
1 Corinthians 13:7 - (love) bears all things, believes all things,
hopes all things, endures all things. Romans 12:16 - Be of the same
mind toward one another; do not be haughty in mind, but associate with
the lowly. Do not be wise in your own estimation. Romans 12:18 - If
possible, so far as it depends on you, be at peace with all men. Romans
15:7 - Wherefore, accept one another, just as Christ also accepted us
to the glory of God. Ephesians 4:2 - with all humility and gentleness,
with patience, showing forbearance to one another in love, Ephesians
4:32 -And be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other,
just as God in Christ also has forgiven you. Col. 3:13 - bearing with
one another, and forgiving each other, whoever has a complaint against
anyone; just as the Lord forgave you, so also should you. Galatians
6:10 -So then, while we have opportunity, let us do good to all men,
and especially to those who are of the household of the faith.
Tolerance means respecting and protecting the legitimate rights of
others, even those with whom you disagree and those who are different
from you. In a passive sense, traditional tolerance means, “everyone
has a right to his own opinion.” Actively, it was traditional tolerance
that enabled Christians (and others) to fight for the abolition of
slavery in nineteenth century America, to shelter Jews from Hitler’s
Nazis, and to be among the leaders of the early civil-rights movement
in the U.S. and elsewhere.
Tolerance means listening to and learning from other perspectives,
cultures, and backgrounds.
Tolerance means living peaceably alongside others, in spite of
differences.
Tolerance means accepting other people, regardless of their race,
creed, nationality, or sex.
Tolerance respects, and accepts the individual without necessarily
approving or participating in his or her beliefs or behavior. Tolerance
differentiates between what a person thinks or does and the person
himself.
I do not believe that, “truth is relative to the community in which a
person participates. And since there are many human communities there
are necessarily many different truths.” Or… “Since there are multiple
descriptions of reality, no one view can be true in the ultimate
sense…. Since truth is described by language, and all language is
created by humans, all truth is created by humans.” Nor do I believe
that, if all truth is created by humans and all humans are “created
equal” (as the American Declaration of Independence says), that all
“truth” is equal.
In a recent book by Fernando Savater, “El Mito Nacionalista”,
the author stated “Tolerance … the doctrine in vogue, is that all
opinions are equal. Each one has its point, and all should be respected
or praised. That is to say, there is no rational way to discern between
them.”(1)
Thomas A. Helmbock, executive vice president of the national Lambda Chi
alpha fraternity wrote, “The definition of the new … tolerance is
that every individual’s beliefs, values, lifestyle, and perception of
truth claims are equal….. There is no hierarchy of truth. Your beliefs
and my beliefs are equal, and all truth is relative (2)
Traditional tolerance asserts that everyone has an equal right to
believe or say what he thinks is right. The new tolerance says
that what every individual believes or says is equally right, equally
valid. Not only does someone have an equal right to his beliefs, but
all beliefs are equal. All values are equal. All lifestyles are equal.
All truth claims are equal.
I personally do not agree with the above definition of “new tolerance”.
Edwin J. Delattre, writing for the Joseph & Edna Josephson
Institute, says: [All values, beliefs, lifestyles, and truth claims do]
not deserve to be respected for [their] own sake without regard to …
content….The values of the Ku Klux Klan do not deserve respect; nor of
any other racial, gender, or ethnic supremacist group. Neither do we
owe respect to the values and beliefs of the organized crime cartels
operating in the United States. We do not owe respect to the values of
countless other individuals and groups you can think of as well as I,
that are ambitious for power and use it without regard to
considerations of morality. (3)
Using the Bible as my standard, it is clear to me that scripture does
not agree that all values, beliefs, lifestyles, and truth claims are
equal. Some rather “intolerant” statements are made in both the Old and
New Testaments:
Jeremiah 10:10- But the Lord is the true God; He is the living
God and the everlasting King. At His wrath the earth quakes, And the
nations cannot endure His indignation.
Psalm 119:160 - The sum of Thy word is truth, And every one of
Thy righteous ordinances is everlasting.
Deut. 6:18 - "And you shall do what is right and good in the
sight of the Lord, that it may be well with you and that you may go in
and possess the good land which the Lord swore to give your fathers,
John 14:6 - Jesus said to him, "I am the way, and the truth, and
the life; no one comes to the Father, but through Me.
I believe that there is a standard, God. In His Sovereignty, He has
given to man a free will and each of us may chose for ourselves.
Neither I nor anyone else has the right to force their beliefs on
anyone. I firmly respect and would be willing to fight for your right
to choose. However, each of us must act according to our own conscience
and assume the full responsibility for our actions.
Authority has been given to the government to make laws restricting our
choices, hopefully, for the benefit of the society. However, just
because the state declares something legal does not make it true or
necessarily right. Consider Nazis Germany or the Soviet Union under
Stalin or slavery in the United States. There obviously is a difference
between right and wrong, between the truth and a lie (deception),
between normal and abnormal. It does not take a rocket scientist to
understand that for society to avoid anarchy and self-destruction it
must establish standards of right or wrong, truth or lies, good or bad,
normal or abnormal – for the common good. The question is then – whose
standard? As for me I would rather put my trust in God than man.
Having said all of this, I want to do all that I can to see that our
children, our communities and our society continue to be grounded on a
true tolerance, a respect for one another regardless of race, color,
nationality, creed, sex, life-style or any cultural difference. We must
teach a willingness to accept each person as a unique creation of God
without bias. However, I cannot accept that all truth claims, values,
life-styles and beliefs are equally valid.
In conclusion, children are not born with bias, prejudice or
intolerance - it is a learned behavior. When an individual decides to
fly a plane into the World Trade Center because of his learned values,
beliefs, life-style and truth claims are we to say, “Its OK, he just
believes differently than we do. This act is neither right nor wrong.
After all he really believed in what he was doing.”
Resources
1. Fernando Savater, El Mito Nacionalista (Madrid: Alianza Editorial,
1996), 16-19.
2. Thomas A. Helmbock, “Insights on Tolerance”, Cross and Crescent (the
publication of the Lambda Chi Alpha International Fraternity), summer
1996, 2. 3. Edwin J. Delattre, “Diversity, Ethics, and Education in
America” ETHICS: Easier Said Than Done, Joseph & Edna Josephson
Institute, 48-51.
Rev. Robert J. Paquet, Ph.D.
PO Box 285
Callicoon Center, NY 12724
1. Much of my
discussion is taken verbatim from the book, “
The New Tolerance” by Josh McDowell and Bob Hostetler (pp 15-20)
Tyndale House Publishers, Inc. Wheaton, Ill. (1998) (Back to "discussion1)
