On Tolerance

When I first heard some of my conservative family members talk about liberals being "intolerant", I thought it was just another case of everyone wanting to be the underdog.

It's been a belief of mine for a while that people usually think that they're disadvantaged in some way. Christians think that the Atheists are pore powerful than them and out to keep them from worshiping God. Atheists think that the religious people are out to force their God on them. Jews think that the whole world hates them and wants to see them annihilated. White people think that affirmative action steals jobs, black people think that they can't get decent jobs because of institutional racism.

These folks are all right to some extent, but these ideas of persecution are usually exaggerated. I've heard Jews equate Evangelical Christianity with Antisemitism. Sure, there are some people who hate Jews still, but they don't make up a majority of the world or even a majority of Christianity. You get the idea.

So when it was suggested that the liberal Atheists were being "intolerant" of conservative Christians, I didn't take the idea too seriously.

This business with Miss California USA and Perez Hilton has me reconsidering that though. First of all, I will restate that I do not agree with her. I do not believe that what we call "Marriage" in this country should be exclusively between one man and one woman. A discussion that I had with a Mormon Libertarian caused me to refine this position, I do not believe the government should be involved in "Marriage" at all, but rather it should be responsible for issuing and dissolving Civil Unions for anyone (and any combination of consenting adults) who wants them and these Civil Unions should replace the LEGAL institution of "Marriage", leaving real Marriages the exclusive domain of the religions.

Previously, I saw nothing wrong with same-sex marriage. But it was suggested to me that if the government recognized same-sex marriages, then they government could force churches who believe that homosexuality is a sin, to marry homosexuals. This, to me, would amount to a terrible violation of the "Separation of Church & State," and I thought the idea was ridiculous and this could never happen. But it was further pointed out that the Southern Baptist church was forced by the government to perform inter-racial marriages with the threat of withdrawal of their tax-exempt status. One's first impulse would be, "Of course! You can't let those racists discriminate against blacks or gays or anyone else!" But if religion has no business dictating to government, doesn't the protection go both ways? Should the government demand that the Catholic Church allow Priests to marry? Or allow women to become Priests?

So if the government recognized same-sex marriage, there is a precedent for that to be taken a step further to forcing churches to recognize same-sex marriage. So I support Civil Unions for all, and marriages for those whose churches allow them. And if your church doesn't, maybe you should find a new church.

SO. Miss California USA was asked by Perez Hilton what she thought about same-sex marriage. Miss C-USA said she believed marriage should be between one man, and one woman. Perez Hilton called her a Bitch and a Cunt publicly. Though I basically disagree with Miss C-USA, I think this qualifies as intolerance. She has a right to her opinion, and her opinion may have effected the outcome of her contest. I suspect that PH knew what her answer was going to be before he asked the question. It should have been left at that.

But it wasn't, and it killed a little more of my liberal idealism.

I think that nasty attacks like this are why conservatives push back so hard, and try to pre-emptively ban same-sex unions. In my state, Ohio, we amended our constitution to ban any state even APPROXIMATING marriage for anyone but a man and a woman, effectively cutting off same-sex civil unions before they could happen. And it's bullshit like THAT, that makes liberals push back so hard.

So yes, idealogical intolerance, just like racism, can go both ways. And it's bullshit, either way.