Buddy Smith
AFA senior vice-president
March 2011 – Josh McDowell and Bob Hostetler in their book The New Tolerance: How a cultural movement threatens to destroy you, your faith, and your children, point out that not long ago, the word ‘tolerance’ meant bearing or putting up with someone or something not especially liked. However, now the word has been redefined to encompass all values, all beliefs, all lifestyles.
In this age of political correctness and “new tolerance” Christians are expected to conform their principles to fit into our culture – just get along and don’t make waves. But look around at the devastating results of such passivity and it’s everywhere. The virtue most praised today, even in some churches, is not truth but tolerance. We are expected to be tolerant of those who believe it is acceptable to take the lives of innocent unborn babies. We are expected to revere all religions and their claims about truth. So, all religions are right and lead to God. We are expected to be tolerant of those who deny others’ basic human freedoms. And we are expected to be tolerant of those who deny God’s plan for human sexuality. All too often, we are expected to tolerate evil. This is the new tolerance.
Researcher George Barna reported at the close of 2010 that this postmodern insistence on tolerance is winning over the Christian church. The researcher points out that change usually happens slowly in the church but he said last year was an exception. He then makes his case for that assessment:
… Our biblical illiteracy and lack of spiritual confidence has caused Americans to avoid making discerning choices for fear of being labeled judgmental. The result is a Church that has become tolerant of a vast array of morally and spiritually dubious behaviors and philosophies. This increased leniency is made possible by the limited accountability that occurs within the body of Christ. There are fewer and fewer issues that Christians believe churches should be dogmatic about. The idea of love has been redefined to mean the absence of conflict and confrontation, as if there are no moral absolutes that are worth fighting for. That may not be surprising in a Church in which the minority believes there are moral absolutes dictated by the Scriptures. …
Barna continues with the charge to Christian leaders to achieve the delicate balance between representing truth and acting in love. He continues with a challenge for every Christian to know his or her faith well enough to understand which battles are worth fighting, and which stands are non-negotiable. He concludes, “There is a place for tolerance in Christianity, knowing when and where to draw the line appears to perplex a growing proportion of Christians in this age of tolerance.”
We are actively engaged at AFA in humble pursuit of and as representatives of God’s truth. It is indeed a difficult and daily balancing act to counter this new doctrine of tolerance while acting in love. These words of Jesus establish our undertaking: “The truth will set you free” (John 8:32).
Our undertaking also involves teaching our children and grandchildren to embrace all people, but not all beliefs. It means showing them how to listen to and learn from all people without necessarily agreeing with them. It means helping them courageously but humbly live and speak the truth in love, even if it earns them the label of intolerant. Truth – God’s truth – is indeed the highest virtue. 
