On Another Take on Tolerance: Intolerance need not be viewed negatively

"coal elevator to the fires of Hell," uploaded on February 9, 2006 by Picture_taking_fool on flickr
licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.0 Generic


No need for any comment on this one. Depending on how "devil," "hell fire," "damnation," etc., is defined, this has a certain logic. -gw

The Beauty of Intolerance

Just today, I was reading a rambling diatribe written in support of the Baha'i religion. What was beautiful about it, is that it exposed the devil's soft underbelly. In other words, even as the Baha'is seek to preach unity, peace, coalescence of all things, and world-wide good feelings about everything--they are, in fact, quite intolerant.

Intolerant of what? Christianity. Of whom, in particular? The Christian clergy.

Interesting. But intolerance, in itself, is not a bad thing. In fact, it's a good thing. Tolerance of all things is hatred, and demonstrates the epitome of an uncaring spirit. Intolerance has the courage, and the integrity to say, "No, this is not true; this is not good; this will do you harm."

Part of the problem with intolerance is the unfortunate reputation it has developed, (probably, at least partly, through fault and error). But intolerance need not be viewed negatively at all. An intolerant, yet gracious soul is a beauty to behold. A person who can love another; and yet, at the same time, oppose and disagree with that other--is not a monster, but rather a gem.

Intolerance is actually inevitable. All people are intolerant. God Himself is intolerant. Even the devil is intolerant. Intolerance is a good thing: it guards us from hell fire, damnation, harm, misery, sin, and despair.

http://revivingthetruereligion.blogspot.com/2008/01/beauty-of-intolerance.html