Tolerance in Society
Posted by Matt Postiff April 9, 2019 on Matt Postiff's Blog under Society
For sake of clarity, let me state up front that I am very strongly opposed to abortion at any stage of pregnancy. Consequently, I am not personally tolerant to the practice of abortion, and I don't look favorably upon those who practice it or promote it. I'm concerned for their eternal souls, for they too will be raised from the dead and face the judgment of God. Therefore, although I can't find abortion tolerable, I have a compassion for those who think it is OK, and those who promote it as a positive good, because their thoughts are darkened. They are not thinking right, and I hope they won't find that out at the judgment seat of God—when it is too late.
But putting that all aside for the moment, let us think about our society. It is, on the whole, tolerant of abortion. It allows babies to be killed, and increasingly so, even up to the moment of birth, or even after birth, as recent news has shown.
I would argue that since the society is tolerant of abortion, which has the irreversible effect of stopping the beating heart of a creature of the homo sapiens species, that logically our society should be willing to tolerate a number of other things. The most liberal among our society, since they tolerate the ending of the life of a baby, should be able to easily tolerate lesser things like:
- Christians preaching the gospel;
- Christians refusing to support gay marriage;
- Christians refusing to support transgender practice;
- Christians refusing to use state-mandated language such as certain pronouns, lest they face jailtime;
- So-called victimless crimes like drug possession and use;
- Churches and other religious organizations refusing to hire those who don't agree with them;
- Constitutional carry of guns;
- Harvesting of sea turtle eggs;
- Killing of deer to reduce herd population;
- Having a Bible in the public school library;
- Inviting a Christian pastor to talk about his job and beliefs in a public school;
- Public schools sending children to the Ark Encounter in and Creation Museum in Kentucky;
- Unlicensed hairdressers;
- Home schooling;
- Circumcision;
- Families who want to live in a patriarchal arrangement;
- Skepticism about vaccinations or refusal to do some vaccinations (what's the worst that can happen?);
- Racist speech;
- Preaching against other religions and sexual sins (such as homosexuality, heterosexual or homosexual lust, fornication, pornography, pedophilia, and bestiality).
I could go through this list and tell you some things I'm for and other things I'm very much against, and yet others that I'm a little on the fence about. My views on these issues flow from a different presuppositional foundation than that of the liberal--a high degree of respect for life, among other things. But that's not my point here. The point is that someone who supports abortion should be fine with all the the above things which have far lesser consequences than the ending of a human life. Otherwise, he (or she!) is morally and logically inconsistent.