Tolerance once meant that we could use our reason to discern good and evil in open debate. Today tolerance has been used to call good evil and evil good.
Interpretation
Tolerance has shifted from rational discussion to the confusion of right and wrong.
In this quote, Charles Colson reflects on the evolving definition of tolerance, indicating that it has changed from a useful tool for reasoned debate over morality to a concept that muddles the distinction between good and evil. Today, tolerance is often misused to justify wrongdoing while condemning righteousness, highlighting a troubling shift in societal values and the moral landscape.
In practice
During a seminar on ethics, one might use this quote to spark a discussion about the importance of discerning right from wrong.
The life function of [the local church] is to love the God who created it - to care for others out of obedience to Christ, to heal those who hurt, to take away fear, to restore community, to belong to one another, to proclaim the Good News while living it out. The church is the invisible made visible.
Life is a mess. And theology must be lived out in the midst of that mess.
Moral crusaders with zeal but no ethical understanding are likely to give us solutions that are worse than the problems.
People who cannot restrain their own baser instincts, who cannot treat one another with civility, are not capable of self-government... without virtue, a society can be ruled only by fear, a truth that tyrants understand all too well
One of the most wonderful things about being a Christian is that I don't ever get up in the morning and wonder if what I do matters. I live every day to the fullest because I can live it through Christ and I know no matter what I do today, I'm going to do something to advance the Kingdom of God.
I learned one thing in Watergate: I was well-intentioned but rationalized illegal behavior. You cannot live your life other than walking in the truth. Your means are as important as your ends.
True virtue is life under the direction of reason.
The sun never sets. It is only an appearance due to the observer's limited perspective. And yet, what a sublime illusion it is.
Anarchism, to me, means not only the denial of authority, not only a new economy, but a revision of the principles of morality. It means the development of the individual as well as the assertion of the individual. It means self-responsibility, and not leader worship.
I don't believe in God. But sitting there, in a room full of those who feel otherwise, I realize that I do believe in people. In their strength to help each other, and to thrive in spite of the odds, I believe that the extraordinary trumps the ordinary, any day. I believe that having something to hope for -- even if it's just a better tomorrow -- is the most powerful drug on this planet.
The magic of America is that we're a free and open society with a mixed population. Part of our security is our freedom.
Labor is the curse of the world, and nobody can meddle with it without becoming proportionately brutalized.
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