Tolerance

Elder Neal. A. Maxwell of the Quorum of the 12 Apostles of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints has said " Secularism so often seizes upon a single true principle and elevates it above all others. This act of isolation does not make the principle seized upon any less true, but to isolate any principle is to make it monastic....most every secular cause about which I know anything at all usually focuses on a single principle or concern, but it is an act of isolation and not correlation."

One of the isolated virtues of the secular world is that of tolerance. Indeed it is taught as the crowning virtue. It's one of the few virtues that can be taught in schools, because secularists' desire it and the religious know that it is important. Elevated and isolated however tolerance can eat away at the moral fiber of individuals and societies. If not combined with the virtues of discipline, loyalty, decency, courage and respect, tolerance runs wild. It erodes social norms, because it insists that we tolerate everything. No wonder the secularists have elevated it to the one great virtue. It allows them to do everything they want and no one should be allowed a thought or comment of opposition. If they do, they are immediately branded intolerant and judgmental.

One of the favorite phrases of the up and coming generation is "It's all good." I detest that phrase because it's not all good. Some of it is very bad. Some things are evil and some things are sin. Tolerance without teaching makes for a weak generation. 

In his last speech, Thomas Monson, President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, said the following, "I recently read an article in the New York Times concerning a study which took place during the summer of 2008. A distinguished Notre Dame sociologist led a research team in conducting in-depth interviews with 230 young adults across America. I believe we can safely assume that the results would be similar in most parts of the world.

I share with you just a portion of this very telling article:

“The interviewers asked open-ended questions about right and wrong, moral dilemmas and the meaning of life. In the rambling answers, … you see the young people groping to say anything sensible on these matters. But they just don’t have the categories or vocabulary to do so.

“When asked to describe a moral dilemma they had faced, two-thirds of the young people either couldn’t answer the question or described problems that are not moral at all, like whether they could afford to rent a certain apartment or whether they had enough quarters to feed the meter at a parking spot.”

The article continues:

“The default position, which most of them came back to again and again, is that moral choices are just a matter of individual taste. ‘It’s personal,’ the respondents typically said. ‘It’s up to the individual. Who am I to say?’."

Who are we to say? Hopefully we are the courageous few.