Chesterton on tolerance
An ornament on Kyle's sermon yesterday...
"Tolerance is the virtue of the man without convictions."
At least, tolerance how it's often defined today. (Ironically, true tolerance requires immense conviction!) Interestingly, the mis-definition extends back, at least, to Chesterton's time. Those who are concerned about this would probably be surprised to learn that this is not just a contemporary concern.
One other thing from Kyle's sermon: from his primary text in Matthew 16, he drew a nice distinction between 13's "people" and 15's "you"-- the difference between what "they" say and what you say.
He also cited Schaefer's "51% morality"-- where people follow popular opinion. You see this in everything from a deference for majority rule (sometimes independent of morality and justice) or citing poll results to bolster one's position on a policy issue.
posted by Eric Schansberg @ 8:51 AM
1 Comments
1 Comments:
This lines up with my ongoing social thesis which suggests that more and more often, people with any sort of conviction are scorned. (i.e. it’s not possible to be convinced of anything, so let’s just accept everything and anything)
Chesterton does a fine job of explaining it in one simple sentence.
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home