Inauguration 2009

A Word About Tolerance

I wrote a version of this in the comments and thought I'd graduate it up to its own thing.

This isn't about tolerating Rick Warren or not. I'm tolerant of his opinions and lifestyle in that I don't think he should be punished or forbidden from doing and saying whatever he wants, just so long as it doesn't infringe upon my liberty or the liberties of others. Hell, I'll even pay attention to what he has to say, as long as I'm also at liberty to vigorously disagree.

But that doesn't mean we ought to, in the spirit of "tolerance," go around rewarding and aggrandizing the loathsome, dangerous and divisive idea that same-sex marriages are a moral gateway to incest or pedophilia, and therefore a gateway to felony offenses.

If tolerance or intolerance were the issue, why did we work so hard to yank Rick "Gay Leads To Pedophilia and Man-on-Dog" Santorum out of the Senate? Shouldn't we have, you know, tolerated him? Maybe we should've let him keep his seat. You know, to extend a hand in the spirit of unity.