Last year, as I stood in line to see the tomb of Jesus in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, I realized that tolerating other religions, beliefs, and denominations is a complete waste of time.
We can put up with those of different beliefs than our own, sure. It’s not hard: you make clear distinctions between what is and isn’t acceptable dinner discussion, you tip-toe around which names of God you use in your prayers, and you mostly shut up about your faith, which is supposed to influence your every waking moment.
In truth, tolerance is another form of indifference. We practice closing ourselves off from any potential religious clash in the same way we ignore all the facts we know about sex-trafficking and homelessness in our own country. Shut if off and ignore it, it makes things easier. But I know one of the most important aspects in my own beliefs, which my grandmother practiced day in and day out, is that living a life of faith is not supposed to be easy. Charity is not easy, forgiveness can be next to impossible, and maintaining hope that things will be all right, that every human being contains the image of God, and that the worst aspects of ourselves can be redeemed by an all-loving God is a Herculean feat.
I can’t speak to the imperatives of Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, or many, many other beliefs out there. But for followers of Christ, Catholic and Protestant, we are not called to wall ourselves off and bury what we’ve been given. We are called to seek out the suffering of others, to engage with and love unconditionally those that we feel are removed from ourselves. Christ never called for me or any of his followers to practice tolerance, a calculated way of never having to be challenged by the lives and faiths of others.
Yes, Christ called Christians to spread the word of the Gospel. But if there’s one thing we as Christians have gotten bad at, it’s talking without listening. We shove a Bible in someone’s hands, we keep quoting scripture at them rather than to them, and we retreat back to a place of comfort and familiarity.
The bottom line is, I’ve had so many opportunities in my life to learn about beliefs outside of the one I chose to follow. God gave me the ability to listen and learn from people outside of my own faith life and I don’t plan on wasting that. I think as a Christian, I’m not supposed to only learn from Christians. I think I need to abandon tolerant indifference and take up a dialogue that will challenge my own faith and establish connections on a level that is not traditional.
I don’t want to coexist and tolerate. I want to act. I want to listen. I want to engage.
