Thuggery Under the Banner of Tolerance

I long believed that the oft-discussed tolerance and compassion of secularists were remnants of Christianity or even seeds of the faith which given proper care could be guide those touting those values towards the faith. But I don't think I think that's the case anymore.

While being wrong is nothing new to me, this is especially painful in that I believed tolerance and compassion could bring secularists and Christians together, now I believe they will tear us apart further. In fact, the tolerance and compassion that I believed would bring us together is being used as a cudgel to attack Christians.

One must only look to the "tolerance" of those fighting religious freedom laws in Indiana. A pizza place said they would not cater a gay wedding. Release the Kraken!!! The pizza place did not say they wouldn't serve gays. They said they wouldn't take part in a gay marriage ceremony. That's a distinction worth making.

Two questions: How many pizza places have been asked to cater a same-sex wedding celebration? I'm going to bet it's about zero. And how many gays did Memories Pizza refuse to serve? None. So this is not an actual problem that exists in the real world. The real problem is that there are Christians.

I recall Archbishop Lori's analogy (parable?) in arguing that the HHS Mandate was like requiring all delicatessens to serve pork, including kosher delicatessens. That argument brought great amounts of derision from the secular media. Oh, how they howled. I thought he had a good point at the time. I still do. In fact, his argument seems all the more prescient with each passing day.

There have been several instances of Christian store owners facing crippling fines over their refusal to take part in a same-sex marriage ceremony. Tolerance for the gay agenda outweighs tolerance for Christians, I guess.

And now it becomes even more painfully obvious in that the Colorado Civil Rights Division ruled that a bakery in Denver did not illegally discriminate when it refused to make cakes with messages on them saying "Homosexuality is a detestable sin." The Civil Rights Division ruled that the bakery was allowed to discriminate against the request because it included “derogatory language and imagery.”

So, Christians can't refuse to bake a cake but others can. So you can refuse to bake a cake for the right reasons. But being a Christian is the wrong reason.

This is not tolerance or compassion. This is using those values as a cover for thuggery. Not just thuggery for thuggery's sake either but thuggery with an agenda. Tolerance is simply the banner they march under, their chant. But in reality, their agenda is ridding the public sphere of Christianity.