Last night at Chi Alpha\u2019s week\u00adly meet\u00ading we had a guest speak\u00ader \u2014 mis\u00adsion\u00adary Mark Orfi\u00adla. He\u2019s been serv\u00ading for over a decade in east\u00adern Europe and has been think\u00ading very deeply about Amer\u00adi\u00adcan cul\u00adtur\u00adal val\u00adues and how they relate to the King\u00addom of God.<\/p>\n
He said a lot of very help\u00adful things last night, but I think the most help\u00adful went along these lines (the thoughts are his but the words are mine):<\/p>\n
\nIf I had to choose between tol\u00ader\u00adance and hatred, I\u2019d choose tol\u00ader\u00adance hands-down. <\/p>\n
But we\u2019re not fac\u00ading a bina\u00adry choice \u2014 we have a whole range of options avail\u00adable to us. And tol\u00ader\u00adance can\u2019t be the ulti\u00admate good in a soci\u00adety for two rea\u00adsons: one philo\u00adsoph\u00adi\u00adcal and one prac\u00adti\u00adcal. There must be some\u00adthing high\u00ader of which tol\u00ader\u00adance is a spe\u00adcial case, because if tol\u00ader\u00adance is the high\u00adest good then you have a real prob\u00adlem \u2014 how do you han\u00addle the intol\u00ader\u00adant mem\u00adbers of your own soci\u00adety? If you tol\u00ader\u00adate them, then you allow intol\u00ader\u00adance to flour\u00adish. If you don\u2019t tol\u00ader\u00adate them, then you pro\u00admote intol\u00ader\u00adance your\u00adself. Either way intol\u00ader\u00adance sneaks into your soci\u00adety. That\u2019s the philo\u00adsoph\u00adi\u00adcal approach. But there\u2019s an even big\u00adger prac\u00adti\u00adcal prob\u00adlem. Who wants to be tol\u00ader\u00adat\u00aded? Don\u2019t we all want more than to be put up with? Tol\u00ader\u00adance is a neg\u00ada\u00adtive virtue \u2014 it\u2019s about what we don\u2019t do to peo\u00adple. I won\u2019t hit you, I won\u2019t insult you, I won\u2019t stig\u00adma\u00adtize you. It\u2019s a pecu\u00adliar inverse of the gold\u00aden rule \u2014 tol\u00ader\u00adance tells us not to do to oth\u00aders what we don\u2019t want done to us. It cre\u00adates a dis\u00adtance between us and nev\u00ader forces us to cross it.<\/p>\n
The prob\u00adlem with tol\u00ader\u00adance for a Chris\u00adt\u00adian is not that it sets the bar too high but that it sets the bar too low.<\/strong> We are called to love one anoth\u00ader; in fact, we are even called to love our ene\u00admies. And rather than mere\u00adly respect\u00ading the dis\u00adtance between us, we are called to treat them the way we wish they would treat us. Tol\u00ader\u00adance is a poor sub\u00adsti\u00adtute for love. If it\u2019s the only offer on the table I\u2019ll take it, but in most sit\u00adu\u00ada\u00adtions we should demand more (espe\u00adcial\u00adly of our\u00adselves).\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Thanks for the clear think\u00ading on a cru\u00adcial sub\u00adject, Mark.<\/p>\n