By Pastor Stephen Hess –
From the earliest days of the church, Christians have faced opposition and persecution for following Jesus. This has been apparent during our sermon series on the book of Acts, where the religious authorities of the day could not tolerate the message of Jesus and instead threatened the disciples and “charged them not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus” (Acts 4:18). What this shows us is that the gospel has always been a controversial message—a message that many people desire to suppress.
Understanding these realities is helpful for Christians living in the 21st century because we are facing many of the same realities as Christians in the early church. Our modern culture is extremely pluralistic and prides itself on being inclusive of all beliefs. Diversity and tolerance are the absolute virtues of our day. One might think in such a cultural climate that Christians would be welcome to share their beliefs. Yet the modern notion of “tolerance” has been taken to such an extreme that it has become the opposite of what it claims to be.
The word tolerance used to refer to how you treated people who disagreed with you. It assumed that there were differing worldviews (otherwise there would be nothing to “tolerate”) and that being a tolerant person meant treating others with respect even when you disagreed. This definition of tolerance is commendable and is something I believe Christians should embrace. Unfortunately, it is no longer the way most people define tolerance in our culture. The new “tolerance” is a highly relativist worldview that denies the existence of objective truth (particularly when it comes to religion). Furthermore, this worldview seeks to condemn and even silence those with whom it disagrees. The result is that this so called “tolerance” isn’t tolerant at all; it is highly intolerant!
To give an example, the U.S. Women’s Soccer Team announced in 2017 that it would celebrate LGBT Pride month by wearing “pride-inspired rainbow numbers” on their team jerseys for two matches between Sweden and Norway. Jaelene Hinkle, one of the team’s players since 2010, objected. As a Christian, Hinkle believes marriage is between a man and a woman. She decided not to play in the matches because she could not in good conscience wear the jersey. The team cut her from the roster in 2018 and some speculated that this was because of her Christian convictions.
In response to Hinkle’s religious views, some of her teammates strongly condemned her. One teammate, Ashlyn Harris, tweeted, “Hinkle, our team is about inclusion. Your religion was never the problem. The problem is your intolerance and you are homophobic. You don’t belong in a sport that aims to unite and bring people together. You would never fit into our pack or what this team stands for…Shame on you.” Apparently, Ashlyn Harris doesn’t see the irony of saying that her team is about “inclusion” and then in the same breath excluding and ostracizing one of her teammates based upon her Christian beliefs. This is the intolerance of tolerance. Essentially Ashlyn Harris is saying, “Either you agree with us, or we will condemn and silence you.”
Christians must be prepared for this kind of opposition to increase in our culture in the years to come. How should we respond? I don’t believe that we should sink to the same level as our antagonists by denouncing them or seeking to shut down their views. Rather, we should be prepared to peacefully engage with them and show them how their own worldview is inconsistent. True tolerance welcomes opposing ideas and those who are genuinely open-minded should be willing to hear about Christianity. Then, when they are ready to listen, we need to be prepared to show them how the Christian worldview is the only one that makes sense.
When we do this, some will undoubtedly scoff as they did when Paul preached in Athens (Acts 17:32). But others will want to hear more, and they just might discover that the gospel is what they’ve been missing.