Notice that one can't tolerate someone unless he disagrees with him. We don't "tolerate" people who share our views. They're on our side. There's nothing to put up with. Tolerance is reserved for those we think are wrong.

This essential element of tolerance–disagreement–has been completely lost in the modern distortion of the concept. Nowadays, if you think someone is wrong, you're called intolerant.

This presents us with a very curious problem. Judging someone wrong makes one intolerant, yet one must first think another is wrong in order to be tolerant. It's a "Catch-22." According to this approach, true tolerance is impossible. (Greg Koukl, Tolerance Requires Judgment, Stand to Reason)

Greg Koukl is one of my favorite authors. He has a way of talking about issues in a way that gets right to the heart of the matter.

I thought of this little article (reprinted in its entirety above) when I read these comments (on another blog that I will not link to due to the blog's disrespectful nature, although these comments themselves are a bit more amicable):

I firmly believe that a person of one religion should never attempt to dissuade a person of another religion from practicing thier faith. I don’t see a problem with encouraging someone to do research or open thier [sic] mind, but when it’s a “You’re wrong and I’m right” message, it sickens me. (Some guy)

For the record, I do encourage people to do research and approach faith with an open mind. However, I think that the above is an example of tolerance gone too far. Don't get me wrong, I am entirely for tolerance. No one should try to force their beliefs on anyone else. Of course, I would say that the person quoted above is violating his own principle, when he talks about what people "should" do. If I go along with his reasoning, he should not be trying to dissuade me from practicing my faith if my faith involves spreading the Good News about Jesus Christ.

But there's the rub! Why wouldn't a person be able to claim "I'm right, you're wrong" if that's what they believe and if they can present reasons to back themselves up? Sometimes people are wrong, even on matters regarding faith and religion. Why wouldn't someone be able to challenge others regarding their beliefs?

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