Religious freedom
I've been thinking quite a bit lately about tolerance. It just seems to me that we as Americans have developed a habit of using the word tolerance in contexts and ways it does not really mean or apply to. What I mean by this is that we have a tendency to cover up compromise by describing it in terms of tolerance. Take the current holiday season. "Tolerance" as we now use it means finding ways to celebrate the holiday season without offending others. That's not tolerance, it's avoiding conflict with compromise.
Tolerance means living next to someone who's beliefs and their practices are offensive to me without it preventing me from being a good neighbor or even a friend. True religious tolerance means living with each other despite the aspects of our various faiths that others find offensive. And there are things that are offensive. If your faith is different than mine then there are going to be things I believe that are offensive to you and vice versa. And the beauty of America is that this is a founding principle. Many of the first colonists came to the New World to find freedom of religious practice. In recent years we've taken that freedom and shackled it in the name of "tolerance".
Here's the text of the 1st Amendment:
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
Changing how I practice and express my religious faith because some may find it offensive prohibits my free exercise of religion. I don't like everything I see people doing or saying around me. I don't like many of the things that I see people believing. But I don't try to constrain their beliefs and practices and I don't want them to do the same to me. As a Christian what I often see is the practice of religious freedoms for some religions but not all. And in today's cultural climate it is usually Christianity that is expected to make way and be restrained so that others might practice their religion or lack there of freely.
And the holiday season is the peak of this activity. Christmas may be based on religious beliefs but its general practice is far from those origins. What does a Christmas tree have to do with the events surrounding Christ's birth? Nothing! But we feel the need to call it a holiday tree so that it doesn't offend non-Christians?! I'm offended!
Tolerance means living next to someone who's beliefs and their practices are offensive to me without it preventing me from being a good neighbor or even a friend. True religious tolerance means living with each other despite the aspects of our various faiths that others find offensive. And there are things that are offensive. If your faith is different than mine then there are going to be things I believe that are offensive to you and vice versa. And the beauty of America is that this is a founding principle. Many of the first colonists came to the New World to find freedom of religious practice. In recent years we've taken that freedom and shackled it in the name of "tolerance".
Here's the text of the 1st Amendment:
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
Changing how I practice and express my religious faith because some may find it offensive prohibits my free exercise of religion. I don't like everything I see people doing or saying around me. I don't like many of the things that I see people believing. But I don't try to constrain their beliefs and practices and I don't want them to do the same to me. As a Christian what I often see is the practice of religious freedoms for some religions but not all. And in today's cultural climate it is usually Christianity that is expected to make way and be restrained so that others might practice their religion or lack there of freely.
And the holiday season is the peak of this activity. Christmas may be based on religious beliefs but its general practice is far from those origins. What does a Christmas tree have to do with the events surrounding Christ's birth? Nothing! But we feel the need to call it a holiday tree so that it doesn't offend non-Christians?! I'm offended!
posted by emmausmike at 5:46 PM
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