Intolerence

I wrote this on October 25, 2018.  I was holding on to it for a project I am working on but I think it should not wait.  It has not been edited since that date.

“… implore you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, showing tolerance for one another in love…”

                                                                                        Ephesians 4:1b-2

           I grieve in my inmost being at what our culture has become.  Our culture has become one where hatred and intolerance are the norm, and acceptance and love are the exception.  We have become a culture where a difference in opinion is tantamount to being a mortal enemy.  It has become acceptable to body slam people for being different, reporting something disagreeable to you or to someone else.  We have become the antithesis of freedom of speech.  We have become self-censors for fear of what others’ would say or think, or do to us.  We have those who would actively censor that speech if it didn’t agree with their opinion or stance on issues.  We have become far too close to what the world once fought against.  And it grieves my heart.

“1.  a fair, objective, and permissive attitude toward those whose opinions, beliefs, practices, racial or ethnic origins, etc., differ from one’s own; freedom from bigotry.  2.  A fair, objective, and permissive attitude toward opinions, beliefs, and practices that differ from one’s own. 3. Interest in and concern for ideas, opinions, practices, foreign to one’s own; a liberal, undogmatic viewpoint. 4. The act or capacity of enduring; endurance.”

“1.  Unwillingness or refusal to tolerate or respect opinions or beliefs contrary to one’s own. 2. Unwillingness or refusal to tolerate or respect persons of a different social group, especially members of a minority group. 3. Incapacity or indisposition to bear or endure.”

Which of the above describes our current culture?  The second one- it’s the definition of Intolerance. 

What grieves me most is that some who have become the most intolerant are those who subscribe to the verse from Ephesians above.  Before stopping reading here, know this: I subscribe to the verse above and the book from which it came.  It has become my life verse, changed from one that was for over 20 years.  Why?

Because I have a friend who is transgender, and I am sure there are those who were once close to her that are now not “showing tolerance for one another in love.”

Because I have a friend who just married her wife and there are those who would not endure with her in love.

Because I am divorced and have had people speak and judge for which they do not know-Those who purport to believe that the Bible is the inherent Word of God and that it is guiding their lives.

Am I giving up on the Bible and God?  Absolutely, positively not.  But what I am doing is going back to what we- as Christians, as Christ followers are called to do: Love God.  Love People. 

“And He said to them (the Pharisees and the Sadducees) … the second (commandment) is like it, You shall love your neighbor as yourself…” Matthew 22:37a, 39

The calling to love your neighbor as yourself is first found in Leviticus 19:18, this is nothing new. 

The command is clear:  LOVE.  Not hate. Not intolerance.  Not judgment, shaming or damning. Not casting out because you disagree with someone. Not sending pipe bombs to peoples’ homes because they hold a different political affiliation from you. Not warping the First Amendment to tell those who are exercising their freedom OF religion that your right is freedom FROM religion.

As a Christian, I am ashamed of the actions of many of my fellow Christians. I am saddened that the leadership of someone who claims to be a Christian, yet bears no fruit of that change, is the one who believes he is above an accountability call for his foul language, intolerance, divisiveness.

We are called to love and to keep the “unity of the Spirit and the bond of peace.” 

So I ask myself- Walking through what I have walked through, knowing those who have been ostracized for their opinions, their lifestyle, their love, and reading the Word of God for what the bottom line is:  what actions am I taking to “walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, showing tolerance for one another in love, being diligent to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.”

Last week, we received a notification in our very small town and even smaller neighborhood that a registered sex offender was moving in to an affluent area of our neighborhood.  He is listed as a “sexually violent predator” with a felony conviction and gang ties. My first inclination was to be disgusted, question the purchase of our home, be angry that someone with that history could be near our home, and be afraid.  Then I thought – this is not exhibiting love.  Instead when things settle down, my husband (without my son)  and I will introduce ourselves.  Maybe, just maybe this young man strayed down the wrong path because of hatred, intolerance, lack of love or acceptance in his life.  Whatever happened in his past which warranted this felony conviction was obviously wrong and possibly terrible.  But he’s still a person. 

What actions are you taking?  What needs to change about how you treat others, regardless of if you agree with them? We are called to love.  First.  Love.  Maybe we should stop there for now.  Learn to love our brothers and sisters again.  Learn to see the heart instead of the color, the gender, the life.

We’re not going to fix what is so wrong with our country with hatred and intolerance.  We’re only going to fix it when we can come to the table, maturely and in kindness and in tolerance of those we differ with.  And when we disagree, we can’t throw things at people, yell at them, become the kind of hatred and intolerance that killed so many in genocide.  As a quick reference, hatred and intolerance caused the following:

The Holocaust (1941-1945), German occupied Europe

The Holdomor (1932-1933), Ukranian Soviet Socialist Republic, Soviet Union

The Cambodian Genocide (1975-1979), Democratic Kampuchea

Kasakh Genocide (1931-1933), Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic

Armenian Genocide (1915-1922), Ottoman Empire (present day Turkey, Syria & Iraq)

Rwandan Genocide (1994), Rwanda

Zunghar Genocide (1755-1758), Qing Dynasty

Circassian Genocide (1964-1967) Circassia

Genocide by the Ustase (including Serbian Genocide) (1941-1945) Independent State of Croatia

Bangladesh Genocide (1971), Bangladesh

Greek Genocide (1914-1922), Ottoman Empire

Assyrian Genocide (1915-1923), Ottoman Empire

Albigensian Crusade (1209-1229), Languedoc, France

Aardakh Genocide (1944-1948), Soviet Union

Porajmos Genocide (1935-1945), Nazi Controlled Europe

Polish Operation of the NKVD (1937-1938), Soviet Union

Mass-Killings of Jews during the White Terror (1918-1923), current day Ukraine & Russia

Darfur Genocide (2003- current), Darfur, Sudan

East Timor Genocide (1975-1999), East Timor

Burundian Genocides of Hutus (1972-1993), Burundi

Libyan Genocide (1923-1932), Italian Libya

Isaaq Genocide (1988-1991), Somalia

Kurdish Genocide (1986-1989), Iraq

Guatemalan Genocide (1962-1996), Guatemala

Herero & Namaqua Genocide (1904-1908) German South-West Africa

Latvian Operation of the NKVD (Latvian Genocide) (1937-1938), Soviet Union

California Genocide (1846-1873), California

2017 Rohingya persecution (2017-current) Myanmar

Bosnian Genocide (1992-1995) Bosnia & Herzegovina

Canadian residential school system (Canadian Genocide) (1876-1996), Canada

Selk-nam Genocide (late 19^th century-early 20^th century), Chile Tierra Del Fuego

Genocide of Yazidis, by ISIL (2014-current) Northern Iraq & Syria

Black War (mid 1820s-1832), Tasmania, Australia

Hate and intolerance is not new, it’s old.  It has never solved anything, only ripped apart families, cultures, country and a world.  It must be put into check.

#lovenothate

#loveisthejob