Everybody’s supposed to be tolerant nowadays. That is code language, of course, for giving full approval to homosexuality. When it comes to gays and lesbians, tolerance takes a different turn, as this episode so colorfully illustrates. Obama has angered gays and lesbians by inviting Rick Warren to offer a prayer at the inauguration.
All the man is going to do is offer a prayer for the new president. Yet, in response to this, it seems many gays and lesbians are outraged, feeling betrayed. Now, how tolerant is that?
Of course, it is perfectly understandable to be prejudiced against a Christian pastor. After all, those guys are so intolerant…
Gregory C. Cochran 
Gay and lesbian people are certainly not the only ones who are angry at Obama’s choice, and it’s a complete misrepresentation of the facts to claim that they are. Many people hoped that Obama would at least try to be more secular than Bush, yet now he’s simply pandering to the religious right through Warren, who is very unpopular with a lot of different people. This is not ‘prejudice’, it’s people reacting to Warren’s own stated opinions and interests.
What would your idea of ‘tolerance’ be in this case? For everyone to say ‘Well, we completely disagree with the president-elect’s choice in inviting someone like Warren to speak at his inaugeration, but we’re going to shut up about it so as not to offend his poor Christian followers’?
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Augustine, you might have misunderstood my point. I know there are plenty of folks who don’t like Rick Warren, but there are plenty who do. He did not make the NYTimes bestseller list by selling books only to Christians. He has quite a bit of admiration from many non-Christians, but that isn’t the point.
The point also was not to say that gays or lesbians have no right to disagree with, disapprove of, or disavow Obama. The point is simply that it is hysterically hypocritical to scream tolerance and then be intolerant of others with whom you disagree.
I am not bothered by the outrage. I understand it completely. Having supported conservatives in the past, I know what it is like to promote someone on ideological grounds only to have those ideologies abandoned once in office. It is offensive. I have no problem with these folks being offended.
I just think it is impossible to live by the insane propositon of tolerance. Go ahead and disagree and get offended. Just don’t preach tolerance while doing it. Tolerance doesn’t allow outrage; this was the point of my post. I am sorry I didn’t spell that out more clearly. Yet, I think you point out yourself just how impossible it is to maintain a posture of tolerance in your last paragraph.
(Thanks for the comment).
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What makes you think that outrage is incompatible with tolerance? for that matter, what is ‘tolerance’ to you?
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