Column: The virus of intolerance

By: Dylan Polk/Columnist

Posted: 9/4/08

It's hard out there for a Christian.

Whether or not people admit it, it's hard to remain steadfast in any given faith when you're met by opposition, or even if you're brought down by the faith itself.

Not long ago, I read a message my younger sister had posted on Facebook.

While walking through the quad at Illinois State, she noticed a couple of women holding a sign that read, "Hell is horrible. No warning is too harsh." A crowd had gathered, and curious as my sister is, she just had to hear what the women were saying.

My sister was horrified to learn their message, one not far off from the Westboro Baptist Church's old adage: "God Hates Fags."

The women were berating all of Illinois State for their sins.

"God hates you."

Really now?

Intolerance is a disease. It trickles down through a family, passed on through generations and ignored by those smart enough to let it go.

Unfortunately, there is no cure for intolerance. Sadly, it will always be there. People will always be bigoted and there is really no way to change them once and for all.

However, as Christians, it should be expected of them to accept others. After all, God is love (I John 4:8). Any self-respecting Christian should live by this message, as well as the one taught by Jesus in Matthew 22: "Love your neighbor as yourself."

A popular misconception is that all Christians are war-mongering, bigoted, pious blowhards who condemn anyone who thinks differently.

I can assure you, anyone who abides by that sort of attitude is not Christian.

It blows my mind how people can take a message of tolerance and twist it into a message of hate.

But it's that message of intolerance that makes the rest of us Christians look bad.

Because of people similar to those who my sister encountered, parts of society create this twisted, perverted image of Christians that paints a completely inaccurate picture of all Christians.

In a similar manner, people will see a Muslim extremist fly a plane into a building and immediately think all Muslims are calling for the death of America and all its citizens. That is not true.

Intolerance, like a virus, multiplies itself and fills the brain with messages of hate until an individual is isolated within a tiny, self-built box of loathing.

And don't think intolerance is only limited to the religious. It's tragic, really, to think about those who despise the religious because of a few outspoken nuts who have practically raped the true message of the faith as it was.

Intolerance is flung on both sides like some juvenile mud fight. Both sides are guilty of harboring at least a hint of intolerance, even if it doesn't reach all followers of some given school of thought. It's a shame people have to face intolerance, and it's even more disappointing that their arguments fall on deaf ears.

All I can say is beware of intolerance to avoid catching it. Be safe. Be intelligent.

Dylan Polk is a senior journalism major. He can be reached at 581-7942 or at DENopinions@gmail.com.