Why do the so-called "tolerant" lack tolerance when it comes to Christianity?

Question

I am not a fundamental evangelical christian. I have asked this question to prompt you into asking yourself that if you believe in tolerance, why you would discriminate against only one group.

Bad Liberal - so you think it is wise to throw out the baby with the bathwater?

I'd like to see answers with some kind of logic behind them. I'd hope that all of you are more mature than to pass along an insult and think you've somehow proven something - you haven't.

Provide any example you find relevant to support your answer. Feel free to come back to this and edit your answer if necessary.

I'm extending this to 7 days.

FUNCTIONAL logic, not circular reasoning.

dog sneeze - Great analysis, but I'm looking for justification from those who put intolerance into practice when they seem to be so vehemently against intolerance.

Bad Liberal - your clarification helps, some. Wasn't meaning to "pick on" you. Thanks for adding to your comment.

Answer 1

I simply refuse to be tolerant towards the intolerant. My freedom ends where another persons freedom starts, it's as simple as that.

I'm not intolerant towards Christians, Muslims, atheists or whatever. I am intolerant towards individuals. A person that tries to deny two of my male friends their basic human right to love each other in a way they both agree on, deserves my intolerance. Whether they do that with or without a Bible in their hands.

With every freedom comes responsibility. What we see nowadays is that the freedom has become a right that people abuse. Freedom of speech is abused as a right to spread hatred, discrimination, etc. In my country, Holland, we also have freedom of speech. Luckily it's forbidden to abuse it for inciting hatred or publicly discriminate. Discrimination based on sexual preference of a person, is also just that: discrimination. Again: it's doesn't matter whether or not a Bible is used in the act of discrimination.

So, I simply refuse to be tolerant towards the intolerant.

Answer 2

Depends. Some Christians demand that I "tolerate" their right to discriminate against homosexuals. The Ku Klux Klan (an organization that proclaims itself Christian) expect me to tolerate their assertion that blacks are inferior. The thing with Christians like that is they've got very little sense of irony. Combine that with a scripturally-enforced persecution complex, and the only response is ridicule.

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I don't know quite what you mean by the baby and the bathwater. Are you saying that I shouldn't be intolerant towards theists who AREN'T prejudiced in such ways? Well I hope it would be obvious that I wouldn't. I have plenty of Christian friends and I give to a charity called Christian Aid, because their disaster relief programmes are so good. That still leaves a lot of intolerant people I wouldn't give houseroom to.

Answer 3

It is the dual nature of Liberalism to both "transcend" points of view in order to adjudicate between them and also be a contending point of view for acceptance. Thus there is the tendency to say managerial things like "all religions are equally valid" and later condemn something Pat Robertson said as too extremist. It pretends to be above moral debate as a referee while also taking part in it --the "neutral" view and the one that competes against Christian ones.

The attack on Christianity is a consequence of Christianity being inherently exclusivistic, making claims to truth and morals that cannot be managed, socially or intellectually, by liberalism. This has forced a different tactic which is the privatization of religion, where all religious discourse is relegated to private, in-house, use and not public debate or reference. Privatizing religion and collapsing conservative morals into mere religious belief offers Liberalism a renewed custodial position in public discourse.

[edit] Re: Your comment:

I can't justify it or even think of a rational justification. None of the progressive intellectuals I read who hold radically liberal views (e.g. Richard Rorty, Noam Chomsky, etc) make such sophomoric accusations against Christianity. They even manage to embrace it to a point of being useful for their aims. Arguments like the one you state remain on the political sphere where rhetorical moves, repetition of claims, and demonization of "other" is about all one can expect by way of argument. "Fundamentalists threaten our freedoms and maybe our lives!"

Answer 4

I am a 'so call tolerant' person and Christian. And I am not at all tolerant of other Christians who distort the teaching of Christ. There is a limit to tolerance, for everyone. And I am referring to the same group that the Atheist are not 'tolerant' about. You know who you are.

Answer 5

It all depends. Most Christians are fine and dandy folks by me. It's mostly fundamentalists I have a beef with.

1) If somebody tells me God created the world and it never evolved and asks me for my opinion, I will tell them that makes no sense to me and I will tell them why that makes no sense to me. That's not persecution, that's just intellectual argument.
2) If somebody tells me I'm going to Hell for all eternity for my beliefs, I'll tell them to stuff it. Somebody just told me I was such a wicked person I deserved to be tortured for all of eternity, just because I am who I am. I have a right to feel insulted.
3) If they want to start teaching my kids to be intolerant and to limit my kids' view of the world and pervert my kids' ideas of right and wrong, I have every right to step in and say: Over my dead body.
4) If a Christian (or any other group) wants to curtail basic freedoms that have been fought long and hard for in the name of their belief, it is not only my right, but my duty as a citizen to fight them every inch of the way.

If fundamentalists read what is written in their Bibles, instead of what they wanted to believe is written, they would never engage in such arrogant, self-righteous, hateful behavior. I don't have a problem with people who believe in Christ and think that makes their lives meaningful and that gives them hope. More power to them.

Answer 6

Most of the atheists on YA are not in the least tolerant, they actually come here for the sole purpose of insulting and ridiculing christianity. They give the excuse that they're defending themselves, but if you just look at their "questions", you see that they are on the attack. No, the "tolerant" have no tolerance at all, most of them are nothing more than hatemongers. There are exceptions, of course, but you won't find many of them here.

And by the way, the KKK and skin heads may call themselves christian, but they have no concept of christianity, they're simply ignorant hatemongers, but worse than the so-called "tolerant" because they physically harm people. All so-called christians that say that someone else is going to hell are fools, trying to give themselves the job of judging, putting themselves right up there with Christ, I'm guessing they'll pay the price for that one day, but its not my call.

Answer 7

I think it's more of a response to the intolerance of christianity than anything.
It's hard to tolerate those who are so intolerant themselves.
If there was something of value to the belief, perhaps we could be more tolerant. But, it promotes exclusion, bigotry, prejudice, lack of responsibility, and hatred. That's very difficult for us to tolerate.

Answer 8

Someone has a bad case of the CPD (Christian Persecution Delusions). I'll take diversity advice from a Christian right after I start taking dieting tips from Micheal Moore. I'll start tolerating your ideas when you stop trying to make me live them. Until then I'm not fighting to be toleranted, I'm fighting for freedom.

Answer 9

Who are the "so-called tolerant" that you speak about? Christians, Atheists, Krishnas, Buddhists?

Answer 10

I am tolerant of believers of all stripes. Much of my family is Christian.