Intolerance in the Name of Tolerance

Here is Bill Muehlenberg:

By now we all know that “tolerance” is one of the most abused, misused and bankrupt words going. It is of course used by the militant activist groups to shut down all debate and censor out all contrasting points of view. In the name of tolerance these groups are the most intolerant groups around.

Indeed, there is nothing tolerant about the secular left. As Mark Steyn puts it, “The Left does not want to win the debate, it wants to shut down the debate.” We see this happening every day. Just one recent case in point comes from the American state of North Carolina.

Because the government there dared to seek to protect children by not allowing adults into children’s bathrooms, the “tolerance” brigade is hyperventilating and foaming at the mouth. One leftist group after another has come out demonising the state and threatening it with any and every reprisal – all in the name of tolerance of course.

PayPal for example said it will pull all business from the state. Um, never mind that it has plenty of business dealings in countries where homosexuals are routinely being tortured and killed. Hypocrites much? And aging rocker Bruce Springsteen has cancelled a concert there because of this new ‘bathroom law’.

Moreover, the head of the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority has effectively banned agency employees from traveling to Charlotte, N.C., for a conference. And RINO presidential candidate John Kasich said he would not have signed the law if it were up to him.

Hmm, that sure is a whole lot of tolerance going on. I would hate to see what these guys are like when in intolerance mode. The double standards from these folks are utterly amazing to behold. As they hate on anyone who takes a different stance on issues, they insist we all be just like them – oh so tolerant. Yeah right.

Many have warned about the tolerance fascists that we face today. But some voices were writing about this long before we saw the full outbreak of ugly tolerance in action. For example Bishop Fulton J. Sheen (1895-1979) was a staunch defender of conservative values, and he often took on the reigning cultural and religious liberalism of his day.

In 1931 he penned a volume entitled Old Errors and New Labels. In it is a chapter called “A Plea for Intolerance”. It is a ripper, and one of the earliest pieces warning about both moral relativism and tolerance wrongly conceived. It is well worth quoting from at length.

Read more: Culture Watch

Image credit: Bishop Fulton J. Sheen/Culture Watch.