OPINION:
If you’re honestly following America’s culture wars, you must admit that many of the ideas and values that were once considered a necessary predicate to our constitutional republic have substantially eroded. Key virtues thought to be the bedrock of our free society are no longer recognized. One of the casualties in this battle over definitions and meaning is the word “love.”
Today it is assumed that love means tolerance, and tolerance means love. But any cursory review of these two terms betrays that they are not the same. To tolerate someone does not mean you even care about them, let alone love them. None of us sent our spouses an “I tolerate you” card on our anniversary, and there’s a reason we didn’t. It wouldn’t have ended well.
Tolerance is an inferior virtue. Love, on the other hand, is superior. Tolerance says, “I really don’t care, do what you want,” whereas love says, “I care deeply enough to tell you to stop.” The bottom line is that tolerance cares less, while love cares a great deal. We don’t send “I tolerate you” cards to those we love.
Tolerance, as it is currently practiced, is more about dominance than it is about acceptance. The leaders of the left are so “tolerant” that they dismiss, if not completely shut down, anyone who dares disagree with them. Their “tolerance” is on full display as they shamelessly tell Christians and conservative Jews that they are intolerable. They’re so “tolerant” that they censor the likes of Ben Shapiro, Dennis Prager and Matt Walsh, and even open-minded secularists such as Dave Rubin and Adam Carolla. “Tolerance” says all are welcome unless you are Tucker Carlson, Candace Owens or Justice Clarence Thomas.
Love presupposes the freedom of both parties to suggest the other is wrong. It assumes the obligation to stand in the way of someone who is hurting himself and tell him to stop. Love tries to prevent other people from self-harm. A true friend tells us when we are wrong. If you are enabling rather than confronting, you might want to do a friendship check. All of us have to be told that we should stop if we are doing foolish, stupid and sinful things.
By “tolerating” or showing support for behavior that we know is bad, we’re not proving our love but demonstrating our apathy. We should want the best for those we love, which means being willing to confront them when they’re hurting their mind, body or soul, or someone else’s.
Progressive tolerance demands that we abandon our friends to whatever “moral” code is fashionable at the time. Progressive tolerance is unstable. It is constantly blown around by the winds of political fads. It has no consistent standard, and its target is always moving. Tolerance, as it is defined today, can quickly become tyranny. It squashes debate, derides dissent and silences speech.
Progressives strut about in this brave new world naked as a jaybird, wearing their emperor’s new clothes and waving their banners of “love” while actually looking forward to the day of sitting in the Colosseum and being entertained as they watch all who dare dissent from their accepted orthodoxy being brought to their knees.
The hypocrisy of all of this gets lost on those who have willfully given away one of the greatest freedoms all human beings have, the freedom of thought. Indoctrination has overtaken education as students are cloned into the spitting image of progressive professors who will tolerate nothing less than full subservience. Welcome to the contemporary ivory tower, a place of selfishness, arrogance and condescension.
All this Orwellian doublespeak is the antithesis of true love. Real self-giving love is not found in rioting against others who disagree or in ruining the lives of those who think differently. “My feelings matter more than your facts!” is a declaration of pride and self-importance, neither of which is a characteristic of love.
St. John once wrote that “God is love.” If love is defined by a gang pushing an agenda, then love is lost. But if God is the very definition of love, then we learn what love is by learning more about God, and here, the Gospel is clear: The love of God is more than a feeling that he has for us. It is an unchangeable and eternal fact.
God does not tolerate us! He gave His life for us! “Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.” This is so much more than mere tolerance. This, and this alone, is love.
• Everett Piper (dreverettpiper.com, @dreverettpiper), a columnist for The Washington Times, is a former university president and radio host.
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