The Most Misunderstood Word in America

Author Greg Koukl once said, “There is one word that can stop a follower of Christ in his tracks as he seeks to ‘give an account for the hope’ that is in him. That word is ‘tolerance.’”¹

If you listen carefully to the voices on social media, in popular culture, and even in churches, you’ll conclude that tolerance is the highest ideal in our culture. But tolerance is also the most misunderstood word in our culture.

The way our culture defines it, tolerance is a vice that smothers our witness. But correctly understood, tolerance is a virtue that enhances our ability to influence the world for Christ.

The Definition of Tolerance

To properly understand tolerance, let’s look at the definition of tolerate according to Webster’s New World College Dictionary:

1. to not interfere with; allow; permit

2. to recognize and respect (others’ beliefs, practices, etc.) without sharing them

3. to bear, or put up with (someone or something not especially liked) ²

Koukl summarized tolerance as allowing something you disagree with or dislike while respecting the other person in the process.

The Tenets of Pseudotolerance

In our culture, the concept of tolerance has undergone a radical transformation. I call this perverted idea of tolerance “pseudotolerance.” Today, when people say, “You must be tolerant,” they mean, “You must accept all beliefs and behaviors as equally valid.”

Pseudotolerance is radically different from the historical understanding of tolerance in three distinct ways:

• Pseudotolerance rejects absolute truth. Proponents of pseudotolerance say that every moral and spiritual principle is relative rather than absolute, meaning we can’t say that something is always right or always wrong.

• Pseudotolerance is intolerant of other points of view. G. K. Chesterton put it this way: “The people who are most bigoted are the people who have no convictions at all.”³

• Pseudotolerance refuses to separate people from their beliefs and behaviors. According to proponents of pseudotolerance, to disagree with someone’s beliefs or behaviors is to reject that person, a perspective that stifles all discussion.

Modeling True Tolerance

Instead of rejecting the concept of tolerance altogether, we need to return to the historical understanding of tolerance. By modeling true tolerance, we can enhance our ability to share the gospel and influence the culture for Christ.

How does true tolerance differ from pseudotolerance?

True Tolerance Requires Making a Judgment

You can only tolerate those things you disagree with or dislike. That means you have to make a judgment. Yet proponents of pseudotolerance have convinced us that it’s unloving, unkind, and un-Christian to make any kind of moral or spiritual judgment. After all, they argue, didn’t Jesus say, “Do not judge so that you will not be judged”?

Yes, Jesus said that. He was criticizing the Pharisees, who condemned other people while ignoring their own shortcomings. In the same passage, He also said, “First take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye” (Matthew 7:5).

Jesus was not opposed to making judgments. Notice He didn’t say, “Never remove the speck from your brother’s eye.” No, He said you should help your fellow Christian remove the sin in his life, but before you do, you need to make sure you’re not blinded by sin in your own life. And to confront the sin in somebody else’s life (or your own), you have to make a judgment that their behavior is sinful in the first place. True tolerance requires making a judgment.

True Tolerance Is Grounded in a Genuine Concern for Others

According to pseudotolerance, if we say somebody’s beliefs or behaviors are wrong, then we’re being hateful. But the truth is, remaining silent when a person is engaging in something that will ultimately cause them harm is the most unloving thing we can do.

In 1 Corinthians 5, Paul chastised the Corinthian church for allowing a man who was involved in immorality to remain in the church. Paul said they ought to remove that man from the church not out of hatred but “so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus” (v. 5). Blithely allowing a Christian to engage in sin is unloving, Paul said. Instead, you need to correct that person, even if it causes temporary pain.

Don’t fall for the lie that making judgments about another person’s behavior is hateful. True tolerance shows a genuine concern for others.

True Tolerance Allows for Preferences

Proponents of pseudotolerance have convinced us that tolerance necessitates neutrality. But to be truly tolerant of others, we need to express our preference for certain beliefs and behaviors.

Several years ago, I was interviewed by the late Fox News commentator Alan Colmes. He accused me of being “hateful” toward people of different faiths because I had publicly suggested that Christian voters ought to give preference to Christian political candidates. He said, “So, you want to keep Jews, Muslims, and Hindus from running for office?”

“I didn’t say that,” I responded. “I said that Christians have every right to prefer to vote for Christians over non-Christians as our leaders.” True tolerance allows for preferences.

Conviction with Compassion

When we demonstrate our preferences, we need to follow the example of Jesus Christ. He was tough when it came to His beliefs yet tender when it came to people. If we’re going to be effective in sharing the gospel and influencing our culture for Christ, we have to find that same mix between conviction and compassion. We have to learn to say, “I respect your right to believe what you want to believe and to behave as you want to behave, but I also love you too much to remain silent about it.” That is true tolerance.

1. Greg Koukl, “The Intolerance of Tolerance,” Stand to Reason, January 1, 2006, https://www.str.org/w/the-intolerance-of-tolerance.

2. Webster’s New World College Dictionary, 4th ed. (1999), s.v. “tolerate.”

3. G. K. Chesterton, Heretics (John Lane, 1909), 295.