Olli Dürr

Die Welt konservativ betrachtet

Tolerance towards fellow human beings – intolerance against syncretism

Immanuel Kant Denkmal

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After a period of “tolerance drunkenness”, the term “tolerance” has long since become a taken-for-granted part of our society. As one-sided as tolerance is tolerated, all those faithful to the gospel must be equally intolerant of compromises and mixing of beliefs (syncretism).

Tolerance is “naturalized” along the way

A few years ago, the federal territory was overwhelmed by the wave of “tolerance”. A term that has been preached up and down in the headlines on various topics. Now taken for granted, “tolerance” has long since been replaced by other narratives. Ultimately, it is important to shape society in a “progressive” way.

Just as the almost limitless tolerance towards “everything and everyone” was advocated, this is applied one-sidedly by the same institutions and their mouthpieces. Teddy bears are thrown as a sign of tolerance and hospitality, but people with different opinions than “lateral thinkers” do not want to be tolerated. Tolerance is clearly only accepted within a narrow corridor and only when it benefits one’s own agenda.

Die Wandlung der Toleranz

Chameleon
Old terms are often changed

However, what is interpreted philosophically and socially ethically today as “allowing” and “allowing” someone to do so has a slightly different origin. The Latin word “tolerare” means “to endure” or “endure”. The word tolerance only received an expansion of this term in the sense of “tolerance, forbearance, generosity” in the course of the 18th century, i.e. at the “heyday” of the great poets, thinkers and enlighteners.
Anyone who tolerates someone else’s behavior can endure this behavior or can cope with it.

Tolerance – A great template for the EKD

The Evangelical Church in Germany (EKD) would not be the EKD if, as usual, far from the gospel, it had not thrown itself into the term “tolerance” in order to illuminate and interpret it on a socio-political level. Tolerance is the “most important guarantee for the future of Europe,” said the EKD’s foreign bishop, Martin Schindehütte, in 2013 (Source).

In 2008, Bishop Wolfgang Huber, then chairman of the EKD Council, explained that tolerance from a Christian perspective must be based on a certainty of faith. “Tolerance is not arbitrariness,” says Huber (Source). Different beliefs must be respected.

A “Thinker” has to help out

Immanuel Kant monument
Poets – Thinkers – Enlighteners – the world changers

Tolerance was discovered by the Protestant churches in order to draw a common line across the globe in the spirit of the World Council of Churches. Bishop Huber understood the idea of ​​tolerance not as a “religious indifference” but as a certainty of faith. This means that no one can “absolve themselves of the question of truth”. For this “wisdom”, the Protestant bishop did not use any statements from the Bible, but from the work “Nathan the Wise” by Gotthold Ephraim Lessing. In his time in the 18th century, Lessing was considered one of the most important poets of the “Enlightenment”.

In other words, the movement that, among other things, cast doubt on the statements of the Bible and sought to replace them using human reason. Immanuel Kant belonged to this group, as did M. de Voltaire and Adam Weishaupt. This enlightenment resulted in the French Revolution, in which not only was the Pope removed from his realm (Info), but there were also religious bans and Bible burnings.

Tolerance for common denominators

According to the bishop, the question of peace and tolerance cannot be answered through a “global ethic project,” but rather through a way in which the differences in the understanding of faith do not endanger peace, but rather strengthen it. This particularly concerns the question “whether the confession of the three monotheistic religions to the one God represents a confession to the same one God.” If God really appears in other religions, then it must be the one God who is attested to by the biblical message “and to whom we as Christians profess,” said the bishop.

Compromises are impossible

On this question, the question of tolerance should actually be closed without further discussion. The God of Islam cannot be the same God of Christianity (Info), and anyone who does not accept Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, who dwelt among us in flesh and blood as the Messiah announced in Daniel 9, as such cannot be “compatible” either. Where should tolerance begin at this point? Any compromises? Here, tolerance ended before it even began. Compatibility is impossible without compromise. It’s squaring the circle.

Flexibility in Contemplating God

bubble gum
So-called theologians show a lot of flexibility when considering God

To get around this dilemma of “enforced intolerance”, people took the side of “Christianity” and simply redefined the term “God”. Around 15 years have now passed since the bishop’s statement, and the result has become very visible today. God has now been “soaked” (Info) and sin has simply been “redefined” (Info).

Tolerance in the Bible

The bishop apparently resorted to reading a “great enlightened” instead of the Bible as a makeshift measure. The term tolerance appears a total of 0 times in the Bible. Accordingly, the prophets and Jesus Christ preached “little” about tolerance. The buzzword “tolerance” could not be used from a biblical perspective.

Does the Gospel say something indirectly about tolerance? In a way, yes. However, this only applies to putting up with (tolerating) people of other faiths and the attacks they may be subjected to, but not to the mixing of the Gospel with the practices and ceremonies of other religions. Dealing with other people (“love your neighbor”, “love your enemy”) is characterized by tolerance in the current sense. However, the gospel faithful person should be completely intolerant of any approach to syncretism. The ancient people of Israel are vastly inferior to such tolerance. The consequences followed regularly.

With all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love; Endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
Ephesians 4:2-3

Bible verses from King James Version

Tolerance towards fellow human beings – intolerance against syncretism
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