HOW CAN WE LOVE WITHOUT
TOLERANCE?
My blog series on John Wesley’s
Manifesto continues with “promote tolerance.” Well, that’s a hard one isn’t it?
Tolerance is defined as “the ability or willingness to tolerate something, in
particular the existence of opinions or behavior that one does not necessarily
agree with.”
It’s not a big surprise to anyone that
knows me that I love to read. Why would I would jump from tolerance to reading?
I mean I know that I can get to reading pretty easily, from pretty much
anywhere! But…I read.
·
I
read for entertainment
·
I
read for knowledge
·
I
read for different experiences
·
I
read …
Growing up, I couldn’t read enough. I would sit
at the kitchen table, eating my bowl of cereal and reading the back of the
cereal box (every day…same box). I would check biographies out of the school
library to learn more about someone mentioned in class. There was a long time
when I read any and every book I could read about the Civil War; diaries written
then, historical novels “set” in that time, history books, anything… When my
mother would “force” me to go outside to get fresh air in the summer, I’d just
take my book and go outside for a little light summer reading (think War and
Peace or Gone With the Wind). Currently, I read stewardship books
(for fun!).
But I also read books with opinions that I don’t
agree with! Why would I subject myself to sometimes stomach-churning,
anger-inducing opinions set out on a written page? Because…how can I say my
opinion is a valid opinion, if I haven’t considered someone else’s?
We are in a time where differences of opinion
and tolerance are suffering. Social media has, in a lot of ways, become the
avenue of discourse that is not open-minded or tolerant, but negative and
nasty.
· How
can we be tolerant of someone who holds an opinion that we think is morally bankrupt or even criminal?
·
How
can we be tolerant of someone whose religious beliefs differ from our own?
Tolerance, of course, includes religious tolerance.
John Wesley believed in religious freedom, preaching in his Sermon 39 –
Catholic Spirit, saying: "Not
that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God
so loved us, we ought also to love one another”
(verses 10, 11).
He had personal experience with lack of
tolerance. “On one particularly harrowing evening, Wesley was taken captive by
several mobs, who escorted him to the homes of indifferent magistrates, where
the mob cited disruptive Methodists who “sing Psalms all day, nay, and make
folks rise at five in the morning.” The magistrates refused to intervene,
leaving Wesley hostage, repeatedly pummeled, spouting blood from his mouth,
amid cries of “Hang him!” He afterwards claimed he felt no pain. Later the same
magistrates tried to press charges against him for disturbing the peace…’Suppose
we were dissenters . . . ; suppose we were Turks or Jews; still are we not to
have the benefit of the law of our country,” Wesley implored. “Proceed against
us by law, if you can or dare, but not by lawless violence. . . . This is flat
rebellion both against God and the king.’
The early Wesleyan revivals, although not
political, were democratizing and liberty enhancing in their ultimate social
impact, benefitting persons of all faiths and no faith. Christians of today,
in contending for full religious liberty, even on the edges, serve not just
themselves but the conscience rights of everyone.”[1]
We are different, but I believe, even in our
differences, in spite of our differences, or because of our differences, we can
be tolerant of others, even when we have a personal opinion that someone else’s
belief system is so completely different from our own that it cannot be
understood. We cannot formulate responses based on physical violence, or
emotional violence or violent speech on a Christian belief, can we?
Darkness
cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Life's
most persistent and urgent question is, 'What are you doing for others?' Martin Luther King, Jr.
So how can we love without tolerance?
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