Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!usc!rutgers!aramis.rutgers.edu!athos.rutgers.edu!christian From: gilham@csl.sri.com (Fred Gilham) Newsgroups: soc.religion.christian Subject: Tolerance (was Re: Communion and Religiosity (was Re: Communion without alcohol?)) Message-ID: Date: 22 Feb 90 09:19:47 GMT Sender: hedrick@athos.rutgers.edu Organization: Computer Science Lab, SRI International, Menlo Park, CA. Lines: 29 Approved: christian@aramis.rutgers.edu It seems that intolerance is the only mortal sin these days! I somewhat agree with the referenced posting that we can't let cultural norms prevent us from asserting that there is truth and falsehood, good and evil, etc. The problem comes when we as Christians seem to be saying that we POSESS good, or truth, or whatever. On the one hand, we should remember that one of the strongest psychological drives is the drive to justify one's self; it seems to me that much of the ``sinfulness'' of intolerance lies in its refusal to allow people to freely indulge in wishful thinking in this area. On the other hand, we must remember that as Christians, we have declared moral bankruptcy. We have given up our claim on self justification, and any justification, rightness, wholeness, goodness in our lives is external, that is, from Christ. Thus as Christians we identify with unsaved, rather than condemn them. Jesus himself, the perfect one, said that he came not to condemn but to save. I have always enjoyed the ironic comparison between the Pharisees and Christ in Mark, where the Pharisees come from the marketplace and scrub furiously to remove all the pollution and corruption they have been tainted with there, while Christ goes to the marketplace and heals, cleanses, and frees those he finds there. Two different forms of righteousness: one is, by its own admission, tainted by contact with evil; the other overcomes and removes it. -Fred Gilham gilham@csl.sri.com