Are we all TOO TOLERANT of others?

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tm30 said:
Let’s face it, as mere humans, we’re going to lose this battle with secularization.
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I’m not sure we should accept that sort of self-defeating attitude.

Would we not be better off to fight to protect our society from itself? Should we maybe start to become LESS TOLERANT and show it in our daily words and actions? I’m not talking about simply prayer, but rather talking about writing/calling the newspapers, TV stations, advertisers and others who promote overtly sinful lifestyles?

We are losing the battle a little bit every day. Why not try to take back a little bit today? And a little bit tomorrow? No tilting at windmills and taking on the big things, lets just fight against the little things we see every day. What if you just ask to talk to the manager at the store that sells bumper stickers that say “Don’t like my driving? Dial 1-800-Eat-S…” and tell him you are not going to shop there anymore because of some of his questionable merchandise?

Or how about the supermarket or drug store that has condoms out where anyone can reach them? What if we all just ask Walgreens or CVS or Rite Aid to put them back behind the counter? Make them LESS available. That is a good first step. The same can be done for smutty magazines that seem to be showing up more visibly in stores.

Sure, we can ask the store owners to stop selling them, but they probably will not do that. But what if we only ask for a little favor like put them out of sight?

Would it not remove the visible temptation? Isn’t that a good step forward? We can’t expect to with the war if we don’t have tactics that will allow us to win battles. Rather than picking big fights, let’s pick tiny ones and slowly win those little fights. Eventually they will add up.

Thoughts?
 
I agree we must begin with the little battles. Even little battles are not alway easy to fight. The hardest part is that it may not, at first, seem that good has won the battle. It is important to know that standing up for Christ always wins. We all become discouraged way to easily. Realize our enemy is evil, not a liberal. Prayer is so very important!
 
dkoinzan said:
I agree we must begin with the little battles. Even little battles are not alway easy to fight.
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The “little” battles I fight reside in my own heart. Just today I was driving by, and saw a beautiful young woman walking down the sidewalk with short shorts and a tight-tight t-shirt. I’m not immune. I say a Hail Mary whenever I am tempted like this, but sometimes, it’s all around me everywhere I look. It’s terrible!
And I’m not being facetious!
 
melensdad said:
I’m not sure we should accept that sort of self-defeating attitude.

Would we not be better off to fight to protect our society from itself? Should we maybe start to become LESS TOLERANT and show it in our daily words and actions? I’m not talking about simply prayer, but rather talking about writing/calling the newspapers, TV stations, advertisers and others who promote overtly sinful lifestyles?
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There’s not enough of us for them to care what we think. The question is how do you get the other 80% of non-practicing Catholics to follow suit?
We are losing the battle a little bit every day. Why not try to take back a little bit today? And a little bit tomorrow? No tilting at windmills and taking on the big things, lets just fight against the little things we see every day. What if you just ask to talk to the manager at the store that sells bumper stickers that say “Don’t like my driving? Dial 1-800-Eat-S…” and tell him you are not going to shop there anymore because of some of his questionable merchandise?

Or how about the supermarket or drug store that has condoms out where anyone can reach them? What if we all just ask Walgreens or CVS or Rite Aid to put them back behind the counter? Make them LESS available. That is a good first step. The same can be done for smutty magazines that seem to be showing up more visibly in stores.

Sure, we can ask the store owners to stop selling them, but they probably will not do that. But what if we only ask for a little favor like put them out of sight?

Would it not remove the visible temptation? Isn’t that a good step forward? We can’t expect to with the war if we don’t have tactics that will allow us to win battles. Rather than picking big fights, let’s pick tiny ones and slowly win those little fights. Eventually they will add up.

Thoughts?
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Those are good ideas, and perhaps they will be effective on a very small scale, but it’s a whisper in the hurricane. The secularist indoctrination of every facet of our society is a behemoth. Our country is attached to popular media like a baby to its umbilical cord, and the popular media is an abyss of godless greed, relativism, and homosexuality. As Catholics, we need to minister to those near us - i.e., family, friends, and co-workers (where possible) - and start saving the souls we can.

I’m not fond of my own cynicism, but our society is in a tailspin. We have neither the numbers nor the political power to perform the invasive surgery necessary to root out the cancer, so I don’t think it’s self-defeating to be realistic. The Vatican has vocally lamented the decline of religion in Europe and not shyed away from being brutally honest about the matter. Our country won’t do any soul-searching because it doesn’t even believe it has one to search. A confrontation between the Church and our secularist society is inevitable, and without some Divine intervention, we’re not going to win. That’s just my humble opinion, and not one I’ve come to with any ease. I hope I’m horribly wrong.
 
We should definitely speak out. The Second Vatican Counil explains it well (Gaudium et Spes):

“This love and good will, to be sure, must in no way render us indifferent to truth and goodness. Indeed love itself impels the disciples of Christ to speak the saving truth to all men. But it is necessary to distinguish between error, which always merits repudiation, and the person in error, who never loses the dignity of being a person even when he is flawed by false or inadequate religious notions.”
 
Taking back some ground does sound impossible, but were is your faith? God can do anything! Pray and sacrifice! We already know the end of the story. The book has already been written. We are held accountable for those things we can change. I would hate to get to the end and then see how many people I could have helped and I didn’t.
 
My favorite actor played a middle-aged rapist on one of the CSI shows on TV.

At one point, he is describing how hard it is to stop raping. I can’t quote the lines exactly, but the essence was, “I walk down the street and see billboards of 14-year-old girls wearing next to nothing and inviting me with their eyes to touch them. All around me, society is telling me it’s OK for me to have sex with a teenager. So why am I being charged with a crime for doing what you tell me is OK?”

Very thought-provoking, IMO. Very chilling.

I don’t think that billboards give anyone an excuse for raping or any violent crime, but I can certainly understand that when someone with a poorly-formed conscience who is without Christ is tempted over and over again, eventually they may be tempted “beyond what they are able to bear.”
 
Here’s the tricky thing with a secular society and tollerance. They (society) will demand tollerance of everyone and every thing, except intollerance. Thats where we come in. Because we have standards, uphold values, and cling to a moral code, we are seen as intollerant, and therfore a threat.
 
On EWTN news sight there is an article on Education in Faith, Discipleship and Witness from June 12th.

The Poe says,“There is talk of an ‘educational emergency,’ of the great difficulty encountered in transmitting the basic values of existance and correct behavior to new generations, a difficulty that involves both the school and the family and, it could be said, all other organization with educational aim.”

“We could also say,” he added “that such an emergency is inevitable. In a society and a culture that too often make relativism their creed, the light of truth slowly disappears and people end up doubting the goodness of life and the validity of the relationships and responsibities that constitite it…”

I just love my Pope!

A great book I have read in the last few weeks was, “HOWTO WIN THE CULTURE WAR,” by Peter Kreeft.

I think we all have a calling!
 
Depends on what way you look at it.
If you think that tolerance is freedom from bigotry then we can never be too tolerant.

If however we equate tolerance with permissivness then tolerance is to be kept in check!
 
Fergal said:
Depends on what way you look at it.
If you think that tolerance is freedom from bigotry then we can never be too tolerant.

If however we equate tolerance with permissivness then tolerance is to be kept in check!
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I have in the past way too much and had a hard time distinguishing between the two.

Do unto others … and try to be just no mud slinging but sometimes it is hard and if we aren’t in the power structure how does that help?

I never feel in the power structure.

Dessert
 
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