The following is a video about Barronelle Stutzman, an elderly florist in Washington state. Barronelle had served a gay man for 9 years in her florist shop but respectfully declined to participate in his wedding when he asked. I hope you will take the time to watch this video which will undoubtedly give you some perspective on the so called "same sex marriage" mandate.
What you will undoubtedly find in this video is one example (of many) of "tolerance" showing its true colors. Namely its unwavering commitment toward universal acceptance of its particular beliefs regardless of the beliefs of anyone else. The "genius" of the "tolerance" movement is that it has built its platform on the idea that it is for freedom. This is not true! Those who champion "tolerance" are not neutral. They are willing to fight tooth and nail until their worldview reigns to the point of oppressing all competing views.
But if you think about it, they are not doing anything different from anyone else. When it comes down to it, we are all doing this. At some point in everyone's belief system there is a line to be drawn. In the words of Chesterton "Morality, like art consists in drawing the line somewhere." the only issue that I have with this video is its naive belief that some sort of religious freedom is possible. At some level someone is going to be coerced. Even the most lurid proclaimers of religious liberty will not allow pagan human sacrifices to take place!
This is the main problem with the conservative approach to these issues; we believe that if the LGBTP(polygamy) would just listen to their own words and be "tolerant" then everything would be okay and we would not get along. This is not true. Barronelle Stutzman is NOT being tolerant AND THAT"S OKAY! At some point over the last several months Mark Driscoll argued something along the lines of "Everyone's intolerant...It's about who's right!" I couldn't agree more with Driscoll on this remark. We all go around pretending that we live in some neutral world where if everyone, including the tolerance mongorers, would simply leave each other alone then everything would be okay. This is a myth. At some level we must be intolerant.
The question all comes down to "by what standard".
"Tolerance = Good" & "Intolerance = Bad" can never be the lens through which we view the world; in fact, no one does. Whether you believe me or not, no matter what you believe, everyone's worldview is always: "What do we tolerate and what don't we tolerate and by what standard?"
Furthermore, the number of standards is surprisingly short. According to the Bible your standard for tolerance and intolerance is either going to be (you guessed it!) either the Bible or not the Bible. You are either going to tolerate everything the Bible says is tolerable and not tolerate things the Bible says are not tolerable. Or, you are going to come up with some other system (stealing bits and pieces from the Bible of course) which will ultimately create other standards of toleration.
Before I leave you with the video I would like to leave you with a quotation I used before from Douglas Wilson (surprise right?!):
The same sex "mirage" debate isn't over what two people do privately in their bedrooms. It's about what I am allowed to say about it publicly.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MDETkcCw63c#t=415
I'd love to hear your thoughts on this food for thought below!
Michael
