The Virtue of Intolerance

Intolerance is baked into our everyday lives, so much so that we hardly think about how often we are intolerant.

Being tolerant of another person’s aberrant thinking is caused by either laziness or fear. When we let someone espouse an untruth as if it were true and not challenge their position, it often goes back to not undertaking the heavy lifting that it takes to explore what is true. But the most prevalent reason for being tolerant of someone’s weak reasoning is fear of relational estrangement. Should we push back on their position, we fear rejection.