Father Joseph Byerley of Holy Angels Parish in New Jersey wrote a great piece on the true meaning of “tolerance” and the danger the misunderstanding poses. A great piece.
Here it is:
According to Dictionary.com the principal definition for tolerance is: a fair, objective, and permissive attitude toward those whose opinions, practices, race, religion, nationality, etc., differ from one’s own; freedom from bigotry. That’s not a bad start but it is a somewhat distorted modern spin on the root meaning of the word. The definition of tolerance on the Merriam-Webster site is this: capacity to endure pain or hardship: endurance, fortitude, stamina. This definition is more in keeping with the original meaning which we have received from the Latin word “tolerare” which means “to bear, endure”. We “tolerate” something that displeases us. We don’t “tolerate” chocolate or pizza or a nice wine (unless we don’t like them to begin with). We tolerate Aunt Matilda’s horrible fruit cake (at least in front of her), we might tolerate the person in the express line with a full cart of groceries, and we tolerate our nosey neighbor’s constant questions. In all these examples, we tolerate, or endure, things that we don’t like, things that displease us; we don’t tolerate things we like. That’s what toleration means.
When it comes to people’s views on different issues, the same sense of tolerance should come in to play, we “endure” or “bear” the opinion or view that we don’t like or with which we don’t agree. But do we? Should we? Yes, we should. But it seems in our culture today that when we are told to “be tolerant” we are not merely being asked to endure something we don’t like, what we are really being told to do is to approve and support something with which we disagree. And when someone resists approving or supporting something, the person is called intolerant.
In 1931, Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen (well known for his writing and preaching and especially his work on television and radio) took quite a different track in an essay he wrote entitled: “A Plea for Intolerance”. It’s interesting to note that what we are experiencing today isn’t all that new. Here is a quote from the essay:
America, it is said, is suffering from intolerance—it is not. It is suffering from tolerance. Tolerance of right and wrong, truth and error, virtue and evil, Christ and chaos. Our country is not nearly so overrun with the bigoted as it is overrun with the broadminded. . . . Tolerance is an attitude of reasoned patience toward evil, a forbearance that restrains us from showing anger or inflicting punishment. Tolerance applies only to persons, never to truth. Tolerance applies to the erring, intolerance to the error. . . . Architects are as intolerant about sand as foundations for skyscrapers as doctors are intolerant about germs in the laboratory. Tolerance does not apply to truth or principles. About these things we must be intolerant, and for this kind of intolerance, so much needed to rouse us from sentimental gush, I make a plea. Intolerance of this kind is the foundation of all stability.
It is worthwhile noting the wisdom here. For too long the cultural discussion had been too often led and controlled by those, who in many ways, deny fundamental truths about humanity. All in the name of a warped one-sided view of tolerance that states, “you must tolerate (accept and support) me and my position but I don’t have to tolerate you”. Perhaps we should take Venerable Fulton J. Sheen’s words to heart and start standing up without fear and with ardent passion for the truths in which we believe. Because if we don’t, we will likely be beaten down into little dark holes and forced to obey by the so called “tolerant” culture of today.
God bless you,
Fr. Joseph Byerley
