We
must recognize at the outset that there is a difference between tolerance and
tolerate. Your gracious tolerance for an individual does not grant him or her
license to do wrong, nor does your tolerance obligate you to tolerate his or
her misdeed. That distinction is fundamental to an understanding of this vital
virtue.
Neighboring
factions, whether they be identified as groups or gangs, schools or states,
counties or countries, often develop animosity. Such tendencies make me wonder:
Cannot boundary lines exist without becoming battle lines? Could not people
unite in waging war against the evils that beset mankind instead of waging war
on each other?
Risks
of Boundless Tolerance
An erroneous assumption could be made
that if a little of something is good, a lot must be better. Not so! Overdoses
of needed medication can be toxic. Boundless mercy could oppose justice. So
tolerance, without limit, could lead to spineless permissiveness.
The
Lord drew boundary lines to define acceptable limits of tolerance. Danger rises
when those divine limits are disobeyed. Just as parents teach little children
not to run and play in the street, the Savior taught us that we need not
tolerate evil. “Jesus went into the temple of God, and … and overthrew the tables
of the moneychangers.” Though He loved the sinner, the Lord said that He
“cannot look upon sin with the least degree of allowance.” His Apostle Paul
specified some of those sins in a letter to the Galatians. The list included
“adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness,
“Idolatry,
witchcraft, hatred, … wrath, strife, seditions, heresies,
“Envyings,
murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like.”
To
Paul’s list we might add the regrettable attitudes of bigotry, hypocrisy, and
prejudice.
“We
call upon all people everywhere to recommit themselves to the time-honored
ideals of tolerance and mutual respect. We sincerely believe that as we
acknowledge one another with consideration and compassion we will discover that
we can all peacefully coexist despite our deepest differences.”
Taken
from “Teach Us Tolerance and Love” by Russell M. Nelson.
Complete discourse
available at:
https://www.lds.org/general-conference/1994/04/teach-us-tolerance-and-love?lang=eng
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