Tolerance is Not the Answer

I am a Unitarian Universalist minister- and tolerance is not the answer.

If your pathway to the Ultimate involves transformative growth, exploration, and love- I will not merely tolerate you. I will aid and support you, walk beside you and hold you.

If your pathway declares that there is no Ultimate, and you seek to derive a personal moral and ethical system based on empirical knowledge and best practice- I will not simply tolerate you. I will work to provide you with the tools you need to find the answers you seek. I will be there when those answers seem challenging or hidden.

If you cannot find a pathway- I will not tolerate you. I will guide you to the places where all paths begin, and I will prepare you for your journey. And I will be there when you call, lost or afraid, to help you ask the questions that will make the path appear again.

If your pathway declares that one face, race, gender, and name of God is the only way to the Ultimate, I will not tolerate you. I will question and challenge you, calling you to mental border crossing and a realization that a creation which has physical and fixed race, gender, and human emotion cannot be an Ultimate creation. If "God" must be white and have a penis then what is the name of the being which imposes this rule on "God"?

If your pathway declares that those who do not believe as you do are evil, abomination, and destined to a great darkness- I will not tolerate you. I will work tirelessly to ensure that even those you feel are damned will be treated on Earth with compassion, honesty, humanity and grace. I will struggle to teach you that while you may believe that all will be judged, it should never be you or yours who punishes others here on Earth for violation of beliefs they may not share. I will hold you to my heart, and help you to understand the value of living as a shining example to be copied, rather than as a vicious overlord who sits in perpetual judgement.

If your pathway declares that all who do not believe as you do are to be feared and hated, forced to follow your beliefs, and physically killed, punished, or reviled if they do not- I will not tolerate you. I will fight you each day, denouncing your right to judge and punish, belittle and berate. I will stand in opposition- and be unafraid to say "This is intolerable, and must be stopped." I will fight hate, the anti-creation, the anti-God, in any form it occurs. And I will tell you again and again that there is no place for such malice in a world we wish to continue to exist. I will not judge- I will oppose.

And then I will welcome you to the place where all paths begin. And I will be there for you, with open arms. To tell you again that all are loved.

(This post is a reposting from one of my older blogs)