Christian Group's Brochure Offers Schools Help in Understanding Tolerance
I've lost track of the number of times I've been called "intolerant" on this blog for some of the stances I take on moral issues, homosexuality being one of them. As I've said before, I believe in Biblical Truths and Moral absolutes. This puts me crosswise with the "tolerant" crowd quite often. It would be nice to have the tolerance use correctly once in while. Tolerance does not mean that I have to embrace what I find objectionable in others and give up values dear to me.
(AgapePress) - A California-based Christian group called Gateways to Better Education is offering students and teachers an alternative way to respond to an upcoming homosexual activist event being promoted in public schools.
April 26 marks another "Day of Silence," an annual event organized by the Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network (GLSEN) and designed to protest the perceived intolerance and the "silence that LGBT people face each day." The event is meant to highlight what GLSEN sees as bullying and harassment of LGBT or lesbian, "gay" bisexual and transgender students by others. But on the following day, April 27, many Christians nationwide will be holding the second annual "Day of Truth," an event established to counter the "Day of Silence" and to express a viewpoint that opposes the homosexual agenda from a Christian perspective.
With these objectives in mind, the group "Gateways to Better Education" is asking Christian students and teachers to circulate a handout that the organization hopes will help clear up confusion on campuses regarding the issue of tolerance. The handout is titled "Promoting Tolerance," and Gateways president Eric Buehrer says his group is distributing it because tolerance is a word that is all too often misinterpreted to mean acceptance. He feels a better understanding would be to define tolerance as showing respect and courtesy while holding firmly to convictions.
"Too often, when someone is rightly intolerant of a particular belief or behavior or action, that's labeled as hate or bigotry, and that doesn't have to be labeled that way." Buehrer contends. "When someone is intolerant of something," he insists, "what's most important is the character they exhibit in their intolerance."
Based in Lake Forest, California, Gateways to Better Education exists to involve, equip, and support Christian parents, teachers, administrators, and school board members in America's 92,000 public schools. The group seeks to encourage these individuals in efforts to bring the influence of their Christian faith and values into their various areas of activity in academic settings.
Needed: A Working Definition of Tolerance That Tolerates Truth
Gateways has noted that schools, particularly in recent years, have given an increasing amount of attention to issues surrounding tolerance, and the group has identified a growing need for a clear and practical definition of the term. Tolerance does not mean universally accepting everyone's ideas or behaviors, Gateways' president says, and yet many students have been taught to understand the concept that way.
Buehrer believes schools need to focus more on character issues and less on pushing ideas that confuse students over what to tolerate and what not to tolerate. "The problem," he asserts, "is that too many people think they're being tolerant when actually they're only expressing indifference -- like, 'Oh, whatever'; or apathy, 'Who cares?'; or even recklessness, you know, 'Why not?' -- and they interpret that as tolerance."
The Gateways to Better Education spokesman feels such misinterpretations are morally dangerous to young people. "When tolerance is improperly understood, it can actually lead to disarming students of their proper convictions," he says.
The "Promoting Tolerance" brochure is designed to help students keep their convictions while responding to differences, Buehrer adds. The information in it can help students respond to events like the "Day of Silence" with biblically-based tolerance, showing courtesy and respecting others' differences while holding onto their own Christian beliefs and values.
Teachers and others interested in obtaining the "Promoting Tolerance" resource can go to Gateways' website or call 1-800-929-1163 to request the brochure.
posted by Steve | 4/14/2006 07:15:00 AM
10 Comments:
I agree whole heartedly with your statement: Tolerance does not mean that I have to embrace what I find objectionable in others and give up values dear to me. However, being tolerant does include how you treat those of differing viewpoints.
I have a different interpretation of the Bible than you do. I view the Bible more contextually and less literally than you do. I don't believe that difference diminishes the devotion to God and Christian teachings that either of us have; but it does make our devotions different. I have great respect for a person who thoughtfully examines his or her beliefs and then uses that as a framework for living out his or her life. I believe that to be an admirable and courageous way to live. But because of the differences in the way people interpret the Bible (even though you or I may think it's wrong) and live their lives according to that interpretation, differences do exist. We must extend respect and civility (and, for me, neighborly love if I live up to my own interpretation of the Bible) to those whose views we may disagree with vehemently. To me, respect, civility and tolerance precludes name calling, false accusations, and projecting unfounded predictions to support a point of view actions I see taken all too often when some (and I emphasize - some) Christians discuss homosexuality. It is simply a tactic of emotional terrorism and fear mongering and a different variation of social engineering. It certainly is not tolerance.
While I don't think schools should "promote" any kind of lifestyle, I do think they should teach about a wide array of belief systems. For example, I think there is a difference in teaching about Christianity, Judaism, Buddhism, Islam and in teaching or indoctrinating one to be a member of a particular religious belief.
I really don't believe school systems or the recent legislation you make mention of in your blog is designed to "promote" or "recruit" or "indoctrinate" anyone or anything. But children can be taught about controversial topics. And while it may be painful to see something with which you disagree even be addressed in schools, it is important to have our children understand that there are differences in the way people live, and as a result of that understanding, remove the fear of the unknown, to allow civility and respect for a person of a differing belief. This doesn't mean that you have to agree with or, in your words, "give up values dear" to you. Tolerance is about respecting beliefs. In my life, each time a person is baptized at my church, the members of the congregation reaffirm their own pledge to "strive for justice and peace among all people and respect the dignity of every human being." That is how I try to serve God.
Let's find a way to Love thy Neighbor, and let God sort out who the sinners are.
Wendy,
Thank you very much for commenting on my blog. Sorry for the delay in getting back to you, but we were busy over the weekend with Easter holiday activities.
Thank you for agreeing with me about not having to change my viewpoint in order to accommodate someone else’s. You are very correct that all people should be treated with respect.
Now with that said, let’s look at respect.
My mother-in-law loves the word “respect”. To her, respect means “stop arguing with me and do what I want you to do”. Sorry, Mom, I love ya bunches, but it ain’t gonna happen. You see, like the people who throw around the word “tolerance”, she likes to throw around the word “respect” in order to get things to go her way.
Respect is acknowledging another’s view point, politely listen to them, encouraging a logical, level-headed discussion and then either changing your mind to match their viewpoint or agreeing to disagree. Like the word “tolerance”, “respect” doesn’t mean leaving behind your views and values in order to avoid a difficult situation.
As for belief in the Bible, God inspired the whole book. I’d have to ask, what passage gives us the right to decide what to take literally and what to take figuratively? If we decide what to take figuratively, won’t your views differ from mine? Doesn’t it stand to reason that things you want to take literately, I may want to take figuratively?
Perhaps I might say to you “Jesus said ‘I am the Way the Truth and the Life; No one comes to the Father but through me’, but I choose to take this statement figuratively. There are lots of ways to get to heaven with Jesus only being one.”
Now as a Bible believing Christian, wouldn’t my statement be hard to swallow? Most likely. But let me add there are “Christian” fellowships around the world who believe exactly that. How did they get to that point? They started “interpreting” the Bible any way they wanted to.
Now you probably say, “we would never do that”. But once you start down that path, who is to say just what might be lost in the name of “interpretation”?
I have to laugh at the child’s cartoon where the two main characters get caught up in some kind of cult that worships hot dogs. That’s all they ever eat. When our heroes get tired of eating hot dogs and order a pizza, they are charged with heresy. The penalty is to be crushed by a large bowling ball. The cult leader reads from their sacred book “If there are those among you who do not wish to follow the way of the hot dog, you will release them and not roll large bowling balls over them.” Our hero claims “Oh, so you’re going to let us go?” The cult leader responds “No, it’s a matter of interpretation”. It’s sad when Hollywood gets it right. That’s how the world views Christians. “It’s a matter of interpretation” as our mantra.
Wendy, you say, “…I don't think schools should "promote" any kind of lifestyle…”
How is that possible when the “lifestyles” are in direct conflict with each other?
The homosexual community is attempting, via the courts and school systems, to redefine the family unit and remove all gender specific references from our society.
If being “tolerant” means teaching my children that the destructive homosexual lifestyle is normal and good, then expect me to very “intolerant”.
The homosexuals are attempting to show only their side of the issue. They take great pains to “normalize” their lifestyle and show only the “glamorous” side. They attempt to silence those who point out the increased chances of disease. They refuse to attend meetings where former homosexuals may be allowed to express their viewpoints. They are allowed to set up booths at school events, while those with a counter viewpoint are shut out or forced to leave. These are all documented, actual events that have taken place in our nation over the last year.
Wendy, I’ll tell you what. I’ll promise to be “tolerant” of the homosexuals the day they promise to become "tolerant” of my views and opinions. When they allow the free expressions of all facets and facts concerning their lifestyle, I’ll become a little more “tolerant”.
You see, I have no problem with the sin of homosexuality. God views it as sin just as he views theft, adultery and using His name in vain as sin. It’s all the same to Him.
God tells us to (paraphrasing) “Love the sinner, but hate the sin”. I do not have a problem with homosexuals and their sin. I can spread the word of God to them, but I will not give up my Biblical Truth and Moral Absolutes so that we can all “feel good”. I will not encourage another person to remain in unrepentant sin. Doing so would be contrary to everything the Bible teaches.
God Bless!!
After reading the webster's definition of "tolerance". I have decided that in fact, I am intolerant. Websters defines "tolerance" as the "readiness to alow others to act or believe the way they judge best". While I dont have any say in how people act or believe, I can have a say in how they publicly express their view or if they want to influence my children in some way.
Not only am I totally intolerant of people who flaunt blatant sin such as homosexuality, I also take the Bible very literally. Maybe that seems foolish to some, but I think when Jesus comes back we will ALL be convinced of the literal interpretation of the Bible. Did Jesus Himself not speak out against sin? Arent we to pattern ourselves after Him? Sure, people have different interpretations of the Bible, but one thing is true: Jesus does not change - God does not change. The same yesterday, today and forever! There is only one truth and God has ALREADY sorted that out. Homosexuality is a sin and as Christians, we should not tolerate that sin becoming so mainstream that our children are forced to learn about it in school!
Hi Beth!! Hope your Easter holiday was great. Hard to come back to work, that's for sure.
If I had a dollar for every time I've been called "intolerant" since starting this blog, I'd be pretty well off right now. :-)
You are right though...according to Webster's, we are intolerant. We refuse to give in to things what require us to give up values that we hold dear.
I completely agree with you about the Bible being true and factual. As I've said here before, I may not understand how everything that happened in the Bible was accomplished, but I have no doubt that every word is true. As I told Wendy, who decides what is fact and what is interpretation? Where is the line? If we give on one fact when people make it uncomfortable for us to believe in it, won’t we do so the next time?
As you said, God is unchanging. That fact is very hard for some to get their minds around.
You make good points, as always.
Again, as I told Wendy, if the homosexuals would just be up front about the dangers of their lifestyle, I’d be a lot more “tolerant” of them. I can make my case for the Lord and good morals when I’m allowed to present my side of the issue. The problem is, the homosexuals are attempting to hide all of that from our young people. This is something I will not allow to go unchallenged.
If you have not read it yet, go to the “Tolerance” brochure published by Gateways to Better Education that was referenced in the article. It is very well prepared.
The link is http://www.gtbe.org/news/images/promoting_tolerance.pdf
Hello again. Hope your Easter was as wonderful and filled with the Holy Spirit as I experienced. What a beautiful day!
Back to our discussion. I am going to ask a question that may sound smart-alecky, but I mean this sincerely. What translation of the Bible do you read and study literally? Here's my point: Since all Bibles we read tody have ultimately been translated in some way, and since translations by nature have an amount of error in them (for instance, when the Greeks wrote that Jesus sits at the right hand of God, they didn't mean he was literally sitting to God's right, they meant -- figuratively -- that he sat in power. Now that's just one example. But there are so many more. And remembering that Aramaic (sp?), the spoken word of Jesus, had no written language, it was only a spoken language, poses some problems for accurate translation.
I just don't know how to account for these phrases, that, literally taken, don't seem to make sense, but metaphorically make a great deal of sense. I see your point about the problematic nature of accepting ANY interpretation - but I think we need to really examine the text of the Bible for more than it's literalness. And it does take study! But in my experience, this has provided me with a much richer approach to living up to God's expectations of me.
Wendy,
It was a beautiful Easter day in Texas and we had a wonderful time enjoying the Lord’s blessings and filling our hearts with His Words. How lucky we are to serve a risen Savior!!
Bless your heart! I don’t take that question as “smart-alecky” at all. I’m glad you asked.
I have actually written an article about the truth of the Bible. I’ll use parts of it in my response to you here and provide a link.
To directly answer your question:
I use the New International Version for casual reading and the New American Standard Bible for in depth study. I also have the King James Version for when I just want to enjoy the poetic flow of the Bible.
Wow, am I complicated or what?
Let me explain.
If you study Bible translations, you will be very surprised to realize that, even though a word here and there is written incorrectly, there is actually very little difference between all of the Bible manuscripts in existence today. The type of discrepancies is more in the spelling of words rather then in the meaning. For instance, in Britain, the word “tyre” means a round object, usually made of some type of rubber, on which a vehicle rolls. In American English, we spell it as “tire”. It means the same thing and is easily identified as the same thing when read in a sentence. So it is with the mismatched words in the oldest Bible manuscripts.
When the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered, experts were very surprised to find out how closely they matched the other, newer manuscripts, even though they were hundreds of years older than any other copies.
I hate to get off on a tangent of which Bible is better then others. I have to say that all of them that are mainstream Bibles (in other words, no Jehovah’s Witness or Mormon) but ones that have been printed by a reputable group, are going to contain the information necessary to build a relationship with God. The so-called “errors” in translation do no have any affect on the overall message of salvation.
Now, I want to think about something for a moment.
You said that “…when the Greeks wrote that Jesus sits at the right hand of God, they didn't mean he was literally sitting to God's right, they meant -- figuratively -- that he sat in power”.
Why do you believe that it can only be thought of figuratively? I agree that it is saying that He is in power, but is it not also possible that He is to the Right of God? Does having Him located to the Right Hand of God detract in any way from the message of salvation?
Here is my point. Taking the Bible literally does not change the meaning of the message, and by doing so, we are able to avoid the trap of what to believe literally and what to believe figuratively.
If we Christians spend all of our time arguing if Noah’s flood actually flooded the whole world (the globe) or just a big potion of it (which to Noah seemed like the whole world), think about how much time and energy we have wasted that we could have been using to bring His Word to the unsaved. You see, it doesn’t matter to the message if the whole world was flooded or if just a portion was flooded. God destroyed all of mankind because they were evil and left only Noah, his family and the animals.
Satan loves it when we get distracted like that.
But if you will allow me to read between the lines, it seems to me that you are full of a willingness to know God’s will for you. I have discovered that no matter how confusing life can be, God will always let us know in no uncertain terms what He expects from us.
Continue to study His Word and live your life fully for Him.
God Bless You!!
PS:
Link to my article
http://worshippingchristian.org/bible_true.html
I read the brochure and I agree it is very well prepared. I was just thinking that I cant think of a time in the Bible when God calls us to be tolerant of sin. If Jesus were tolerant of sin, He would have never stormed into the temple and turned over the tables of the money changers. I just realized something....I have to be tolerant of the clerk at the store who moves too slowly for my taste - she isnt doing anything wrong, just not to my liking. But to the people who kill unborn babies, homosexuals and other groups who blatantly oppose God and His word - I am not to be tolerant at all. I believe we are to stand up and voice our opinions for the things of God and oppose those things that God detests. I think that intolerant (as it relates to sin) for Christians is a complement. I hope that I am always intolerant when it comes to calling sin what it is.
Thank you for your response. Let me use use the example of sitting at the right hand of God. In the text, if read literally, there is no reference to "power" so actually all you could infer literally is sort of a bit of geography. But isn't the power really the importance of the text -- Even though it is not spelled out, so to speak?
Here's another example of literalness that is a bit more extreme. Exodus 35:2 "For six days, work is to be done, but the seventh day shall be your holy day, a Sabbath of rest to the LORD. Whoever does any work on it must be put to death." How can we assimilate this into our lives today?
What are your thoughts?
Hi Beth!
Yeah, the brochure was well done. I knew what I wanted to say about "tolerance" but the brochure gave me some additional verbage to use that I hadn't thought of before.
Like I said above, if I had a dollar for ever time I've been called "intolerant" on this blog, I'd be in good shape financially. :-)
Like you, I hope that I will always be "intolerant" of sin and be accused of being "intolerant" when I do stand up for the Word of God.
You are right when you say that Jesus didn't tolerate sin. Look at what He said about the Pharisees and Teachers of the Law. He called them "a brood of vipers" amoung other things. I cannot remember one time when He sat down with unrepentent sinners.
Always glad to have your comments. Also, keep emailing ideas for us to use on the "Home Comforts" page. We appreciate them very much. She's going to use some of them in the next installment.
God Bless You, Beth!
Hi Wendy!!
Thanks for hanging in there and giving me such good questions!
I had a commentator awhile back who made the point that someone reading the Bible, for the first time, might come to the conclusion that Jesus was the best caterer (feeding the 5,000) and bar tender (changing water into wine) that history had ever known.
When we read the Bible, it is important to also take it in context. We know that Jesus was not attempting to be a caterer or a bar tender. We know this because we read those accounts as a whole. When the miracles are viewed in that context, it becomes very apparent that Jesus was more then just a normal man.
Let's take your first example.
All the way back in Genesis, placing someone on the "right" side or touching them with the right hand was a show of power and special blessing. It was very well known among the Jews and people of Jesus' time that being on the right was special.
Again, this is why context and Bible study are so important.
Let me give another example.
In Luke 14:26, Jesus says "If anyone comes to Me, and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be My disciple."
Is Jesus really telling us to hate our relatives, those closest to us, after He just got done telling us that we are to Love our enemies?
No, He is not. If one looks at the Greek word for "hate", we see that it doesn't mean to actually "hate" them as we understand the word in English, it means to "like them less" then Jesus.
You mention Exodus 35:2 as well.
Much as I hate to admit this, when God says that those who break the Sabbath are to be put to death, that is what He means. Period.
Guess I'm off to be stoned to death now.
Thank you Jesus for saving me from my sins!!
That's right Wendy, Jesus died not only for the people who are murders, adulterers, robbers and thieves, but also for the Sabbath breakers.
There are still Orthodox Jews who have to use timers on their lamps because the act of turning on a light on the Sabbath is a sin against God.
Jesus said, "Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish but to fulfill. For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or stroke shall pass from the Law until all is accomplished."
Jesus lived God's laws completely and without fail. That was the only way He could be the sinless sacrifice on the cross that God demanded for man's sin. That was the only way that death from sin could be abolished forever.
How can we assimilate God's laws into our lives? Wendy, we can't. That is why we must rely on the grace and mercy Jesus bought us on the cross and live our lives with total belief in Him.
I hope this has helped you understand my position better.
May God Bless You Always!!
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