Is Tolerance a Good Thing?

[MineralMan]

If you're saying WTF? to this question, perhaps you're thinking too quickly. Let's take a closer look:

The Roman Catholic Church has been quite tolerant of its priests sexually molesting children for decades, or even centuries. It has not condemned nor punished them, even when that behavior was discovered. Instead, it often just moved offending priests to another place, where their behavior was not known. Tolerance of evil deeds is not a good thing.

I tend to criticize religious organizations and people who do things that are not considered to be acceptable. Does that make me intolerant of religion? It does not. It makes me intolerant of bad behavior. So, I openly criticize religious groups which tolerate child sexual abuse or prohibit women from exercising their reproductive rights. I am intolerant of such behaviors. I freely admit that.

I do not criticize religious organizations who do not promote such things. In fact, i don't even mention them, because I don't care what deities people worship or what doctrines they follow, unless such deities and doctrines result in unfair treatment of people who are not part of that faith tradition.

Tolerance, like most characteristics, is not always one thing or always a good thing. I do not tolerate racism. I do not tolerate government officials who use their offices to create profits for themselves. I do not tolerate priests who sexually abuse children, nor their superiors who tolerate such priests.

I am tolerant of most things that do not harm anyone. I am intolerant of things that do harm people unjustly. So, I'm neither tolerant nor intolerant on a general basis. Tolerance is not one thing, nor is it always a positive thing. Intolerance is also not one thing, nor always a negative thing.

I am intolerant of societies which limit the beliefs of their members. I am intolerant of intolerance. I am intolerant of anyone who harms others who are innocent of doing harm. I am intolerant of any organization or group that is intolerant on general principles of people outside of that organization or group.

Everything is relative. We too often forget that.

Before we discuss the nature of words like tolerance, we need to define them quite clearly. Otherwise, we waste a good deal of our time.