As I was driving home tonight, reflecting on the season and the state of the world I found that Christmas carol on my mind "Peace on earth and mercy mild, God and sinner reconciled..." I don't know if the Bible ever promises peace on earth before the return of Jesus - in fact I know that it doesn't. This is a whole other topic, perhaps disheartening as we look at the brokenness in our world and long for reconciliation. Does it mean that we stop working to see the Kingdom of God established on this earth? No, for this is our calling. Anyway, that's for another day.
The thing I was really struck by is the way that we often call out for "peace on earth" but we call for it through the idea of tolerance, expressed in the famous phrase "Can't we all just get along?" I see it in the bumper stickers where "peace" is spelled out in religious symbols and when administrators on campus are so worried about giving privileges to one religious group over another that they border on being oppressive.
Tolerance is a load of $h!t. Sorry, I don't have much of a filter today and I'm frustrated with life so it's coming out in this post. Tolerance is our way of saying "I don't really want to get to know you. I'm just going to do my best to put up with you and not offend you." It lacks any real semblance of relationship or openness to change. Tolerance is not love or a step towards peace - it's apathy at it's worst.
The reality is that we don't want to work for peace - we just want it to happen. We want it to be easy. Tolerance is a quick fix - "I'm going to stand in the same room as you and if you promise not to challenge my belief system then I won't challenge your belief system. We'll tolerate each other's presence." But if we aren't willing to engage with each other around the difficult issues in our own lives and our world, if we aren't willing to wrestle over the validity of our belief systems, peace will never be a reality that we even begin to approach. Apathetic tolerance allows our world to spin out of control towards the violent and destructive reality that we are already approaching. Change, not just in ourselves, but in our community requires an enormous amount of effort. It requires heated debate, even arguement. Sociologists and psychologists will tell you that arguement and debate is a necessary component of healthy relationships and accomplishing meaningful work. But we avoid the possible pain in this by calling for "tolerance."
If you want to pursue "tolerance" that's great. But's let be real - tolerance is just a way for us to say "I know things need to change but I am unwilling to put in the time and energy necessary to accomplish this change." In my opinion, to pursue a life of tolerance is to waste this precious life. So when we sing that song "Peace on earth...", let's be reminded that it is a prayer that requires the incredible power of God to transform and we may be called to be the answer to that prayer.
