Tolerance and Being Judgemental

It's amazing how there have been so many recent disputes and arguments over the topics of intolerance and judgmentalism displayed by people (and not just Christians) who verbally disagree and question this society's thoughts and actions. This is because there has been great misunderstanding of the definition of “tolerance”. The most logical and correct definition is:

tolerant; to accept the person regardless of their worldview (but not necessarily accepting their worldview).

Now, at this point, you’re probably wondering what I'm on about but let me explain. The modern definition (that will probably seem most correct to you because modern society is being indoctrinated with this false and most misleading worldview) is:

tolerant; to accept the ideas and beliefs of the person, regardless of the validity of those ideas.

Let me explain the difference between those definitions. Accepting someone but not accepting their ideas means that that person may be wrong. Yes, you heard me, the person may be incorrect in what they believe and there is nothing wrong with telling them what they believe might actually be invalid. That’s one of the big no-no’s of modern tolerance, isn't it? Telling someone they’re wrong. The funny thing is, when a person (who believes this misleading definition) calls me intolerant, what they’re really saying is I’m wrong. That’s pretty intolerant, don’t you think? If telling someone they're wrong means we're being intolerant (which is obviously a grievous sin), we can’t tell someone stealing is wrong, because then we are being intolerant of their belief (that stealing is okay). If we can’t tell them that stealing is not okay, then we can’t call the police and get them arrested and send them to jail because it would be intolerant. If tolerance was defined in the modern version, the whole legal system would not be respected because people in the legal system are the most intolerant people of all!

So, as you can see, the modern definition of tolerance is not only impractical but self-refuting (calling someone intolerant makes yourself intolerant). The only logical and practical definition of tolerance is the first that I stated.

An issue closely linked to intolerance is judgementalism. Being judgmental is to pass moral judgment on a person by defining what is morally right and wrong. The problem with this is that not only are we living in a society which does not believe in moral absolutes (which is basically the root of the problem) but judgementalism has a negative connotation attached to it because it relates to intolerance. Most of the time, modern people show “intolerance” by being judgmental. In our society, telling someone they’re wrong registers as a direct and personal attack on them – not on their worldview. They take it as an insult. They think you are not accepting them because you disagree with their beliefs. That’s why people have now reinvented or misinterpreted the words “intolerant” and “judgmental” to make people (who are probably doing the right thing) feel bad because our society believes we are personally attacking them every time we tell them what they believe might be wrong. In any case, it is inevitable that we (as humans) would pass moral judgement because, subconsciously, we all have a moral standpoint. What our society must understand is that there's nothing wrong with pointing out to a person that their worldview may be inconsistent with reality. In fact, it's healthy that we do, so that we'll always keep ourselves in check.

Now you can tell someone they’re wrong and not feel bad about doing so (just so long as you’ve got good reasoning behind your accusation). It’s ironic that the person the world considers the most “intolerant” is actually the most tolerant person of all, and that would be God. No matter how the human race behaves because of our sins, God still finds a way for us to be accepted into His kingdom. Now that's amazing.