Tolerance is not enough.

A few weeks ago, Oklahoma County District Court Judge Bill Graves was "reassigned" to duties not usually assigned to a full District Court Judge. The speculation both in Oklahoma and nationally has been that he is being punished for his public opposition to new proposed "gay friendly" Oklahoma Bar Association Rules for Judicial Conduct. These ABA sponsored proposed rules make even a perceived unpleasant facial expression when gays are mentioned misconduct.

The argument being made by gays is that gays just want to be treated like everyone else ... even though they define themselves as being entirely different from most of us. But, inside the gay movement the goals are much more ambitious and the argument is about much, much more that tolerance. It is about making the majority population accept, approve of and encourage their behavior. The following is taken from a recent article by Dr. Josh Corvino, a nationally recognized gay spokesman who is a professor at Wayne State University: (Link HERE)

.... Roughly, “tolerance” involves leaving people alone to live as they choose, even when you don’t approve, whereas acceptance involves somehow affirming their choices. But even “acceptance” seems too weak here. Acceptance sounds close to acquiescence, which is scarcely distinguishable from tolerance. Gay people don’t want merely to be tolerated or accepted, we want to be embraced and encouraged—like everyone else in society.

The shift from tolerance to acceptance is apparent in the movement’s goals. When I came out in the late 1980’s, we were still fighting to make gay sex legal. As late as 2003, homosexual sodomy was criminal in over a dozen states. That’s when the U.S. Supreme Court finally declared sodomy laws unconstitutional in Lawrence v. Texas, overturning Bowers v. Hardwick. Suddenly, tolerance was legally mandated.

Then things changed—rapidly.

Just a few months later, the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts declared the state’s ban on same-sex marriage unconstitutional. Gays and lesbian Americans began legally marrying the following year, and marriage became the predominant gay-rights issue in this country. Now California’s doing it (despite the threat of an amendment overturning that decision), and a handful of other states have civil unions or domestic partnerships.

Legally speaking, when it comes to marriage, “tolerance” may be enough. A marriage is legal whether people approve of it or not. Socially speaking, however, marriage requires more.

.... Obviously, not everyone will approve of everyone else’s marriage. You politely applaud at a wedding even if you think the groom is a jerk. But the ideal is still one where others’ participation is crucial. I’ve even been to wedding ceremonies—straight and gay—where the minister turns during the vows and asks, “Do you pledge to support Whosie and Whatsit in their marriage?” and the audience responds “We do!”

That’s one reason why same-sex marriage is so contentious. We are not simply asking people to “tolerate” something we do “in the privacy of our bedrooms.” We are asking them to support and encourage something we do publicly. We are asking them, in effect, to participate.

The late Dr. D. James Kennedy explained this phenomenon shortly before his death in an article in the Christian Post: (Link HERE )

Tolerance is being willing to put up with, endure, and bear with those whose views or lifestyles are different from others’ views, without agreeing with them. Every Christian should be tolerant in the correct and historical meaning of that word. It is what the Bible means in the love chapter of I Corinthians 13: “Love endureth all things.” Every Christian should be tolerant.

However, if you think that is what is being taught in the curricula of this country, you are very mistaken, as Josh McDowell points out in his book, The New Tolerance, which is the principal source of research for this message.

The “new tolerance” means: Not only do you put up with and endure and bear with those who have different views, habits, and/or lifestyles than your own, but you agree with their views as well.

Furthermore, you hold that their lifestyle is equally true and equally valid as your own and, therefore, there is no possible way that you could be intolerant, because there is nothing to be intolerant of. You must even be willing to promote and endorse that other lifestyle, since it is every bit as good as yours.

We have even invented a new post-modern civil right—the civil right for my feelings not to be hurt. For example, a young lady in one of the high schools recently sued because they sang a patriotic song that had some religious words in it. She said that it hurt her “feelings.”

Tolerance is the last virtue of a depraved society. When you have an immoral society that has blatantly, proudly, violated all of the commandments of God, there is one last virtue they insist upon: tolerance for their immorality. They will not have you condemning what they have done as being wrong, and they have created a belief system in which it is not, and in which they are no longer the criminal or the villain or the evil person, but you are!

Which brings us back to Judge Bill Graves, a committed Christian and long time conservative Oklahoma legislator. He simply exercised his legal rights as an influential member of the Oklahoma Bar to voice his disapproval of a new set of rules which would make it difficult or impossible for traditional Christians like himself to become judges or even remain on the bench. The result, he was effectively demoted. And, like the California court system employees who told their employers that their faith would not allow them to conduct gay marriages or participate in them, he found that long held constitutional protections of religious faith in the United States no longer apply if your faith disapproves of homosexuality.

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Further examples of the new "tolerance:"

California: Christian MD's have no constitutional right to abstain from providing elective fertility treatment to gays wishing to have children

Texas: Christian Pharmacists fired for refusing to dispense abortion pill

Iowa: Christian employee fired for objecting to participation in diversity training which celebrated homosexuality

California: Christian HP employee fired for "anti-gay" Bible verses on desk

New York: Kodak fires man over objections to pro-gay diversity training

Ohio: Black university employee fired over newspaper column objecting to comparisons of gay agenda and civil rights struggle for blacks

California: Red Cross employee fired for refusing to celebrate "Gay and Lesbian Pride Month."

Canada: Christian officials told to resign if they object to performing gay marriages, other ....

New Mexico: Christian owned photography studio fined for refusing to photograph "gay wedding."

Massachusetts: Cape Cod officials report rash of (mostly gay) public sex acts on beaches

Florida: Protesting Pastors jailed at homosexual festival

Kansas: City of Wichita sued for arresting pastor on sidewalk near gay event

Missouri: FBI refuses to protect Baptist church after gay threats

Sweden: Pentecostal Pastor jailed for "anti-gay" sermon

Canada: Christian printer fined for refusing to print gay gay propaganda

Canada: Christian teacher suspended for "anti-gay" letters to editor