Blog: Intolerable? Unacceptable?

One of my favorite quotes in all of scripture, "My command is this: Tolerate one another as I have tolerated you." Warms the old cockles. Tolerate is such a frequent word in our lexicon today. We must find tolerance because tolerance will lead to understanding and so and so on. I think we use the word tolerance because it’s so easy for tolerant to become intolerant. Two letters and that which we should let be we, just as easily, dismiss. Like a black President. At best the Republican Party tolerated that idea. They have never accepted that it really happened. Since they barely tolerated the idea of a black president they found the reality intolerable. It would much harder to be intolerant of him if the Republican Party had ever accepted him as our President. If they publicly had said a few days after his inauguration, that they, the Republican members of Congress, accept that Barrack Obama is our President. Imagine how difficult it would have been for the Conservative Media to state with such startling impunity that he was not our President. There might have been a few but they would have been drown out in the joy that so many of us were feeling as this amazing man took the reins of leadership. That means the GOP in Congress would have respected and accepted the nation’s decision and would have worked with him as an equal partner in our Government. Instead they showed him, at best, diffident tolerance that quickly became intolerance. Acceptance would be what a Christian would do and a Christian or even a person of modest literacy would also know that Christ never said the word tolerate.

John 15/12 is “This I command you. LOVE one another as I have loved you.”  Now you can use the word ACCEPT instead of love and not miss much. Acceptance of another person, persons or idea is to have unequivocal respect for that person, persons or idea.  People are beginning to ACCEPT gay marriage not just tolerate it. As Senator Portman said (and I have no reason to not believe him) when his son told him he was gay two years ago and he made certain that his son knew he loved him.  That it took him two years to come to the conclusion that he would want his son to enjoy marriage as he has and accept same-sex marriage is inexplicable to me but not unbelievable. But why should this not be the way things are?

Tolerance is all the rage on Social Media. Love is too complicated for 140 characters. So often, persons tolerate one another on social media. It’s trending. FOXNEWS loves it!! Without anyone ever knowing you can defriend someone without anyone being the wiser. Especially the person you just defriended!! On Twitter you can unfollow anyone with just a click. If you have more than ten followers it might take you a while to figure out who stopped following. You see the number went down but they only tell you who when someone has decided to FOLLOW you not the other way around. Ah tolerance is so perfect for our fractured connectedness. That’s why when Facebook asks if you will accept the request I actually take it seriously. What a fool I am. I should take it as superficially as though an algorithm has asked me. Which is actually the case for real isn’t it?

So let’s clear some relationships up for me with others. If you are a FB friend I love you and accept you as a child of God and find you unique and beautiful.  If I follow you on Twitter I might not know you at all but most likely would love to know you and hopefully love you as well. I don’t follow people who make me mad when they tweet like… (fill in as you wish) The few of you on Twitter that I have a personal relationship with outside the virtual world know that I love you.  Further I accept with my whole heart that Barack Obama is my President just as with a heavy but whole heart accepted George W. Bush was as well. I wish I could’ve dismissed him and just tolerated him as President but I don’t get that choice as an American. No one was more surprised than me when President Bush was re-elected. I had to accept him again because that’s how our democracy works. 

I worked like hell to make sure we never made that mistake again. I gave to Hillary’s then Obama’s campaign and made my voice heard on Social Media and my personal life. I wrote my Congressional representatives and still do. I never wanted to be responsible for something like the Iraq War again. I was too young to have made a difference about Viet Nam but I sure did this time.  I opposed the war any way I could but it still happened and when we left I was so proud of our soldiers and our President. Some say the President should prosecute them all. Now is not their time. Justice will come to them before long but first let’s get the President his overdue acceptance as the President by the entire GOP Congressional membership. But I had to accept Bush eight long years ago and wait for the next time.

The next time came and it came again and we, once again, are in the midst of looking at the many of the same disrespectful people deciding our fate with their non-action on everything in front of them.  Shocking horrors have befallen our world recently and during the Bush years always.  Action must be taken now!! Please - PLEASE call out and brand this continued wicked behavior by the GOP in Congress. This situation is intolerable! And we can’t accept that!