When I saw the headline yesterday about how Duck Dynasty" patriarch Phil Robertson had commented on a certain sexuality-defined group I wondered how long it would be before he got the treatment."I saw the next headline no more than a few hours later.In case you havent heard the faith-filled Louisianan wound up in hot water after being asked what was sinful by a GQ interviewer and offering the following answer as presented by the magazine:Start with homosexual behavior and just morph out from there. Bestiality sleeping around with this woman and that woman and that woman and those men" he says. Then he paraphrases Corinthians: Dont be deceived. Neither the adulterers the idolaters the male prostitutes the homosexual offenders the greedy the drunkards the slanderers the swindlers they wont inherit the kingdom of God."Can you guess which of the above groups caused what subsequently befell Robertson: suspension from his A&E show?It wasnt the greedy.Or the idolaters.It wasnt bestialists though theres an effort to legitimize their behavior now too.The swindlers?Nope not the slanderers either.Hint: One of the organizations whose complaints got Robertson suspended was GLAAD and that doesnt stand for Guiding Light Advocates for Adulterers and Drunkards.Of course we all know the answer. GLAAD characterized Robertsons comments as vile and extreme" and now he joins Dr. Laura Schlessinger and others whose careers were hobbled by the Velvet Mafia.This is probably where Im expected to ask Wheres freedom of speech?" or whine about how the left should respect the other sides beliefs. But this would ignore reality which is that every civilization has its values." And as someone once pointed out stigmas are the corollaries of values; if were going to value certain things it follows that what contradicts or condemns them will be de-valued.People who dont understand this will utter refrains such as I dont care what you do in your private life just dont shove it in my face" as if something can be completely de-stigmatized but then somehow remain in the closet. Those who do grasp it however might say something such as what homosexual activists Hunter Madsen and Marshall Kirk wrote in their book After the Ball: How America Will Conquer Its Fear and Hatred of Gays in the 90s. They said that once homosexuality was normalized those who would still feel compelled" to oppose it would be cowed and silenced…as far as possible" and that if homosexual activists can produce a major realignment solidly in favour of gay rights the intransigents (like the racists of twenty years ago) will eventually be effectively silenced by both law and polite society." And what do we see 20 years later? Criticism of homosexuality will get overseas Westerners punished through law and Americans punished through social pressure.Hows that tolerance workin for ya?Tolerance" as it has been marketed was always a con. Aristotle said that tolerance is the last virtue of a dying society" but its also the vice that kills it. And it so often is a vice because its generally misunderstood. For one thing tolerance always implies a negative real or perceived; you wouldnt have to tolerate a beautiful car or a delectable meal you relish those things. But you might have to tolerate a cold or bad weather. Thus tolerance is only noble in two situations: One is when dealing with something objectively negative that cannot be eliminated such as irremediable pain. The other is when confronted with something you dont happen to like and could avoid but that is objectively good or neutral; an example would be tolerating a food you detest in order to avoid offending your hosts.So while we might admire a person who can bear a cross with a stiff upper lip what if he abides a negative he neednt put up with? He then is either a doormat or a masochist.Thats us.The doormat that is.This brings us back to that modernistic I dont care…just dont shove it in my face" attitude. This is a pipe dream and the first step toward degradation and tyranny; it is a false Americanism. As John Wesley said What one generation tolerates the next generation will embrace." And once this happens it is ridiculous to wonder why the thing in question is out of the closet; accepted things by definition always will be. At this point those with an affinity for it will take the next step: marketing.This is precisely what Madsen and Kirk prescribed with respect to homosexuality writing that Americans needed to be desensitized to the behavior via a continuous flood of gay-related advertising" a conversion of the average Americans emotions mind and will through a planned psychological attack in the form of propaganda fed to the nation via the media." Madsen mind you was a marketing man by trade.And when this marketing is successful enough and the newly exalted product is considered a good what will that which condemns it be considered? This is how good becomes bad bad becomes good and those conned into being tolerant come to be seen as intolerable (I discuss this in-depth here).And thus is Christianity being suppressed. Make no mistake the concept of sin is central to Christianity and sexual sin is part of that centrality. Lust correctly defined as disordered sexual desire is one of the Seven Deadly Sins. So saying you cannot talk about sexual sin in its entirety is to say you cannot talk about Christianity in its entirety. And this is part of the process of relegating Christianity to the closet.This tolerance trap is why Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen wrote in 1931:America it is said is suffering from intolerance it is not. It is suffering from tolerance. Tolerance of right and wrong truth and error virtue and evil Christ and chaos. Our country is not nearly so overrun with the bigoted as it is overrun with the broadminded.…Tolerance is an attitude of reasoned patience toward evil and a forbearance that restrains us from showing anger or inflicting punishment. …Architects are as intolerant about sand as foundations for skyscrapers as doctors are intolerant about germs in their laboratories….Tolerance does not apply to truth or principles. About these things we must be intolerant and for this kind of intolerance so much needed to rouse us from sentimental gush I make a plea. Intolerance of this kind is the foundation of all stability.Our culture war is a fight to the death. The barbarians are inside the gate and they dont listen to reason. Show them the same tolerance they show you and then show them the door. In the case of A&E what should happen is that they be boycotted till brought to their knees.To their knees.Unless we can rediscover virtue and muster total intolerance for the intolerable our decline will be inexorable.
