Pluralistic cultures like our own put a high value on tolerance. In matters of personal morality and religious faith, most things are tolerable except intolerance itself.
The healthy side of “politically correct” tolerance is that it attempts to assure mutual respect among people of different religious and cultural perspectives. The dangerous side is that children of such cultures are raised to consider all points of view as equally valid.
Where does this leave those of us who do not believe everything is relative or that all religious or philosophical views are equally valid? Should we be angry about a society that tolerates sexual immorality and philosophical relativism, while at the same time becomes increasingly intolerant of the Christian mission? Should we be angry that a nation which used to assume Judeo-Christian values is increasingly resistant to the Christian gospel?
If we are not careful, we might end up on the wrong side of this issue.
It is easy for us to feel insulted and intimidated by a government and society that attempts to marginalize people of “fundamentalist” conviction. It is easy to feel that we must fight all attempts to define us out of a government “of the people, by the people, and for the people.” It is easy to assume that because “sin is a reproach to any nation,” our mission is to make sure that government is a friend or at least a protector of our mission to evangelize. It is easy to assume that “tolerance of sin” is all wrong.
Policies of tolerance, however, are not all wrong. They form the mutual ground on which we can stand with non-Christians to press the point that while all religious points of view might be tolerated in a free society, all are not equally valid.
While the God of the Bible teaches us not to tolerate pride, greed, or sexual immorality in ourselves or in the lives of those who take the name of Christ, He teaches His people to tolerate sin in the lives of those who do not yet know Christ as Savior (1 Corinthians 5:7-13). To tolerate sin in the lives of non-Christian neighbors does not mean we condone their sin. It means we seek to patiently love them to Christ, as God has loved us to Himself.
As Christians we must not only pray for our enemies and give them reason to come to Christ, but we must also defend their right to disagree with us and reach conclusions inconsistent with our own. While we do not agree with such views or consider them equally valid, we must fight for their right to hold them.
What we must not do is argue our case and vote our morality in public forums for the purpose of “reclaiming our rights” or “to protect our children from the evils of unbelievers.” Those who don’t yet know Christ need to feel our compassion more than our desire for control. They need to see that we are not motivated by fear for ourselves, but by love for them.
Our path will not be easy. Our mission to tell our world about “one mediator between God and man” will be seen by multi-cultural societies as one more form of religious fundamentalism that is especially dangerous.
Anti-conversion policy will undoubtedly become a mark of the coming global village. The world of the future will offer religious freedom, while at the same time censuring any group that seeks converts.
World governments are under growing pressure to adopt policy designed to protect religious groups from threatening one another. The Republic of Turkey, for instance, offers religious freedom while at the same time taking a tough stance against any religious group that attempts to make converts from outside of its own members. While such laws seem designed to frustrate Christian missions, they were actually drafted to eliminate conflict between competing Muslim sects. The issue is not only the Christian message, but any religious message that threatens to disrupt societal cohesion.
All of this seems threatening. But this is no time to throw up our hands or throw in the towel. We have merely lived long enough to come full circle to first-century conditions. The church was born in a time marked by sexual immorality, and by the tolerance of all kinds of gods. The church was born in a day that tolerated almost anything except a faith that lovingly pointed others to the Lord of lords.
Father, help us to love others in the way You have instructed us (2 Timothy 2:24-26). Help us to live in the spirit of those apostles who found in a hostile environment an opportunity to love their enemies and to obey You rather than man.
