The word 'tolerance' once meant we all have the right to argue rationally for our deepest convictions in the public arena. Now it means those convictions are not even subject to rational debate.
Interpretation
Tolerance has shifted from allowing rational debate to silencing differing opinions.
Nancy Pearcey highlights the changing definition of tolerance, suggesting that it has evolved from an encouragement of rational discourse about differing beliefs to a state where opposing convictions are no longer open for debate. This perspective invites us to reflect on the implications of this change for public discourse and societal engagement with differing views.
In practice
This quote could be used in a debate about freedom of speech at a university event.
The gospel is like a caged lion,' said the great baptist preacher Charles Spurgeon. 'It does not need to be defended, it simply needs to be let out of it's cage' Today, the cage is our accommodation to the secular/sacred split that reduces Christianity to a matter of personal belief. To unlock the cage, we need to become utterly convinced that, as Francis Schaeffer said, Christianity is not merely religious truth, it is total truth- truth about the whole of reality.
Men gladly believe what they wish. -Libenter homines id quod volunt credunt
Laws: We know what they are, and what they are worth! They are spider webs for the rich and mighty, steel chains for the poor and weak, fishing nets in the hands of government.
Any man's life, told truly, is a novel.
It is fateful and ironic how the lie we need in order to live dooms us to a life that is never really ours.
Let me tell you something my friend. Hope is a dangerous thing. Hope can drive a man insane.
Tell me what you yearn for and I shall tell you who you are. We are what we reach for, the idealized image that drives our wandering.
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