Vain Jangling
You are intolerant.
This is a common thread: You are so—or You are just being—intolerant.
We never see ourselves as intolerant. And why should we? We are proudly tolerant of everyone else’s lifestyles, beliefs. They can be who they want to be, love who they want to love, believe what they want to believe, identify how they want to identify. We really do not have a problem with any of it. We support their right—their freedom—to be true to themselves in voice and deed. Who am I to condemn or judge them?
However, when it comes to Christians—those who hold to some antiquated moral code, found in a book they believe is authoritative, which lends them a differing worldview—tolerance seems less absolute, less important, less relevant, less practiced. It is okay to silence them, ridicule them, punish them, even hate them, their words, their views. Truth and morals may be relative within the world, but they must not be inclusive or tolerant of the truth and morals of Christianity.
Tolerance—by definition—is the fair, objective, permissive attitude toward those who have different opinions, beliefs, practices, etc. than oneself. This is not the same as accepting, approving, or making such opinions, beliefs, practices, etc. one’s own. The vain jangling comes in when those who claim tolerance are found to be most intolerant of the Word of God and the message of Jesus Christ. And thus, all who proclaim it.
Vain Janglings 