Tolerance, eh?

I've been amazed over the years to see how “tolerance” and “equality” has been playing out in our society. It's a confusing world we live in. I make no apology for the sick treatment of “people groups” in the past and present by other “people groups”. Isn't the very history of humanity rife with sin and darkness? One group cannot claim moral superiority over another, especially because of how they have been treated.

For years, I guess, women have been treated “poorly” by men. I've witnessed the behavior of certain men towards women in general, and certain women in particular. It's sick! It's perverse! It's sin. I have also witnessed the behavior of certain women towards men in general, and certain men in particular. Usually, though not always, this behavior in women towards men is overlooked or made to be less-serious than if the situation were reversed. We can understand why women feel and behave the way they do towards men because of the “way they have been treated”. No such understanding is allowed the men.

A girl I knew told me of her time at a Native American school. Now the “Natives” in the places where I have grown up are viewed as lower than anyone else – a more or less despised people group. Attending this school were “full-blooded” natives and Metis. Now the Metis are “mixed-bloods” - usually French/Indian, German/Indian or Scottish/Indian (by the way my wordings were not meant to be racist. Indian/French, Indian/German or Indian/Scottish – feel better?). The Metis were looked down upon by the full-blooded Natives and treated with disdain. I laughed at the absurdity of it. A “despised” people group in turn despising another people group. It's sick! It's perverse! It's sin.

My best friend is a black man. He has told me of some of his experiences, and these boggle my mind. He was continually pulled over by the police under the guise of “routine checks”. Three or four times a week, every week. He is married to a white woman and they have two, beautiful little boys. The questions they have fielded from family and friends regarding their relationship and their children has been...interesting, and hard for them. We talked one time about his kids and he said one of the things his boys are going to have to deal with as they grow up is how they are viewed by the white and the black communities. You see, having darker skin they will be viewed as “not white” by the white community. As they have a white mother, they will be viewed as “not black enough” by the black community. When he told me this I laughed – the stupidity of it all! It's sick! It's perverse! It's sin.

Dare we talk about the genocides, slavery, invasions, murders, rapes, occupations, conquerors and the conquered, etc.? All these have been committed by humanity against humanity, tribes against other tribes, religious groups against other religious groups, people groups against other people groups, countries against other countries, nations against other nations. These are sick! These are perversions! These are sin.

This now brings me to this news item, a not-unexpected change that is taking place within my country, this story on a recent Supreme Court Ruling

The definition of Tolerance:

1: capacity to endure pain or hardship : endurance, fortitude, stamina

2a : sympathy or indulgence for beliefs or practices differing from or conflicting with one's own

b : the act of allowing something : toleration

3: the allowable deviation from a standard; especially : the range of variation permitted in maintaining a specified dimension in machining a piece

4a (1) : the capacity of the body to endure or become less responsive to a substance (as a drug) or a physiological insult especially with repeated use or exposure tolerance

to painkillers>; also : the immunological state marked by unresponsiveness to a specific antigen (2) : relative capacity of an organism to grow or thrive when subjected to an unfavorable environmental factor

b : the maximum amount of a pesticide residue that may lawfully remain on or in food.

After reading this, definition #2, I think, pertains mostly to man. For the most part this is the attitude of humanity at large. But man is inconsistent at best and so, although this is an ideal that man today strives for, he never truly achieves it. You see, tolerance as #2 states will eventually be overruled in man by #3, for good or evil. Man is a moral being, having the Law of God written on his heart (Romans 2:15). Eventually, man in his quest to be tolerant will run into something that goes against that law and he must answer this question: What is right and what is wrong? Tolerance, in man, gives full reign to what is wrong and harnesses, cages and imprisons what is right. We are witnessing the results of this now.

God is the opposite of this. God does not allow deviation from His standard – we either meet it or we don't. And we don't! ALL humanity stands condemned (John 3:18) because we do not meet His righteous standard, because we have all sinned (Romans 3:23). In Genesis 1 God tells us the perfection of His original creation, and then the Fall. Ever since then sin has cursed this creation. Humanity is cursed and stands condemned by God because of sin. God, in His infinite mercy, sent Jesus to redeem and reconcile sinful man. And sinful man continues to pervert what is right, culminating in hatred towards God.

Recounting Genesis and the perfection of creation before sin Jesus said in Matthew 19:4 “Haven’t you read,” he replied, “that at the beginning the Creator ‘made them male and female,”. This was God's original design – male and female. After the Fall, with regards to human sexuality, there are all kinds of perversions of God's original, perfect, intended design – incest, prostitution, rape, adultery, bestiality and, yes, homosexuality!  

God has His standard and man does not measure up to it. And so we are rightly and justly condemned as the sinners we are. But, Romans 8:7,8 says “the sinful mind is hostile to God. It does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so. Those controlled by the sinful nature cannot please God.” And there you have it. Rather than come to Jesus Christ to be reconciled to God, to the One who took our justly deserved punishment on the cross, Who paid the penalty for my sin – rather than do this, sinful man justifies his sin and does what the prophet Isaiah described in Isaiah 5:20, “Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!” And now, to call sinful, homosexual and lesbian men and women to repentance and reconciliation to God is hate speech! Hate speech! Someone who murders another person – is it “hate speech” to say that is wrong and call that person a murderer? Someone who tells a lie – is it hate speech to say that is wrong and call that person a liar? Is it “hate speech” for a parent to point out the sin of their children? Is it “hate speech”for a doctor to tell a patient that the patient has cancer and is going to die? In Mark 2:17 Jesus said to them, "It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners."

Every human being on this planet is sick! We are all sinners and need the Doctor. But if you continue in the belief that you are healthy, that you are righteous, that there is absolutely nothing wrong with you, that you don't require the Doctor, then your illness will prove fatal. In John 8:23,24 Jesus said, “You are from below; I am from above. You are of this world; I am not of this world. I told you that you would die in your sins, for unless you believe that I am he you will die in your sins.”