What is Religious Tolerance?

D.A. Carson points out (at around 16:00) that the notion of "tolerance" was once defined in popular culture by what Voltaire said, if not directly, to the effect of:

"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it."

This illustrates a great American value, the freedom of speech.  But Carson makes the observation that this definition has changed and today it is in fact considered wrong to even suggest that someone is wrong in their beliefs, religious or otherwise.  Despite the self-contradicatory nature of saying this, most people we know would agree.  I find it interesting the evolution, or rather devolution, of the freedom of speech or what we could call "tolerance" as Voltaire once defined it.

In fact, this so-called tolerance (as currently held) is not tolerance at all, since you have to disagree with someone's beliefs before you can actually be tolerant of their right to believe them (if this is in fact what the big idea of freedom of speech is about, isn't it?), and what you don't have to agree with to be tolerant is the notion that it is wrong to say those beliefs are wrong, indeed this is something very different than what it means, as Voltaire defined it, to be tolerant of someone's beliefs!  Is it not?

Now, to be tolerant as a good Westerner means that you have to agree with the set of beliefs that asserts that it is wrong to say someone else is wrong in their set of beliefs.  But what if I say my particular set of beliefs asserts that this notion of tolerance, being that which states that it is wrong to say someone's beliefs are wrong, is wrong?  What then?  Am I accepted with open arms in the society of tolerance?  Probably not.  I think I would be socially shunned by the broad culture and maybe labelled as one lacking an enlightened mind, as has the population of these "narrow-minded" folk, which includes these freaks called Christians.  

I really wish someone would try to answer this accusation.

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