Tolerance, Not Truth

D.A. Carson’s essay over at Eerdword is SPOT ON.

For more than two thousand years, tolerance was widely viewed as a virtue that was in some ways parasitic on a larger moral vision. A parasite draws its life from a larger organism; old-fashioned tolerance drew its life from the moral matrix in which it was embedded. In recent decades that has changed, and not for the better: tolerance has become independent, largely cut off from a larger moral framework.

Right!  Read the entire essay- it’s quite insightful.  Note the conclusion and especially the concluding sentence-

Believe me when I insist that this blog post has no interest in decreasing tolerance in the world. Rather, we must expose the intellectual and moral bankruptcy of this new tolerance, and we must strive to regain the old tolerance, which was attached to some sort of broad ethical and cultural vision, so that what we argue about with others is first of all the truthfulness or credibility or usefulness of the broad vision. And here, Christians can lead the way. The new tolerance will simply wrap us up in more chains, as every issue becomes, not, “What is the truth of the matter?” but “Has anyone been offended?”

Sometimes the truth offends.

2 thoughts on “Tolerance, Not Truth

  1. I’m nearly convinced that the reason so many utter “Don’t judge me/you can’t judge me” is because they fear that in that judgment the truth may be revealed, even if only a little. Such makes divine judgment all the more terrifying.

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    • oh there’s absolutely no doubt that the first words out of the guilty are ‘dont judge me’. with those three words they both try to stave off accusation and preserve their sinful behavior.

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