Quotations generally supporting
the concept of
religious tolerance
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Note:
The term "religious tolerance" has two distinct meanings:
Conservative Protestants, often define the term "religious tolerance" as
meaning that
all religions and their associated beliefs are true.
Of course, this conflicts with their belief in absolute truth and that
only their faith correctly reflects "God's Word." Thus, many conservative
Protestants reject religious tolerance, as they define it, as a desirable goal.
Among other individuals and groups, it generally means to avoid
fearing, hating, oppressing or discriminating against persons whose religious beliefs
happen to be different from yours. Religious tolerance then becomes a human
rights issue -- something that most people, including most conservative
Christians, feel is desirable goal.
We use the second definition. However, we are continually criticized
because some of our visitors assume that we use the first meaning.
The English language has negative terms that describe
fear/hatred/discrimination directed at people because of their gender, race,
sexual orientation, gender identity, and national origin. The terms are: sexism,
racism, homophobia, transphobia, and xenophobia. But we have no term that
describes the fear/hatred/discrimination directed at people because of their
religion. We have suggested the term "religism" to
fill this gap
"Amanda:" An 8th grade student from Brooklyn NY. An excerpt from
her poem "Don't Go," about the 9-11 terrorist attack on the World
Trade Center:
"A shattered city is all that is left behind.
These acts of hatred have left us blind.
Too blind to see what the world would be,
With peace and love and all people free."
Anon (taken from the Native American Indian Traditional Code of
Ethics. Inter-Tribal Times, 1994-OCT)
"8. All the races and tribes in the world are like the different
colored flowers of one meadow. All are beautiful. As children of the
Creator they must all be respected."
Anon
"Toleration isn't much. But it is the first step towards curiosity, interest,
study, understanding, appreciating and finally valuing diversity. If we can get everyone
on the first step of tolerance, at least we won't be killing each other."
Anon
"Religious tolerance is not religious indifference. Tolerance means
to value the right of another person to hold beliefs that you know are
absolutely wrong."
Abdul Baha, "I Heard Him Say"
"Let us have love and more love; a love that melts all opposition, a love that
conquers all foes, a love that sweeps away all barriers, a love that aboundeth in charity,
a large-heartedness, tolerance, forgiveness and noble striving, a love that triumphs over
all obstacles."
Dr. Erhard Busek, M.P., Austria
"The struggle against intolerance is a duty of the individual as well
as an obligation of the society."
George W. Bush, President:
Address to a joint session of Congress,
2001-SEP-20.
"I ask you to uphold the values of America and remember why so many
have come here. We're in a fight for our principles, and our first
responsibility is to live by them. No one should be singled out for unfair
treatment or unkind words because of their ethnic background or religious
faith."
At a news conference on 2005-APR-28:
"Role of religion in our society? I view religion as a personal
matter. I think a person ought to be judged on how he or she lives his
life or lives her life. And that's how I've tried to live my life:
through example. Faith plays an important part in my life individually.
But I don't ascribe a person's opposing my nominations to an issue of
faith'. The great thing about America is that you should be allowed to
worship any way you want. And if you chose not to worship, you're
equally as patriotic as somebody who does worship. And if you choose to
worship, you're equally American if you're a Christian, a Jew, a Muslim."
Alexander Chase, journalist and editor:
"More and more people care about religious tolerance as fewer and
fewer care about religion."
"...tolerance is a personal decision that comes from an attitude that is learnable and embraceable
- a belief that every person in earth is a treasure, vital to the health and prosperity of all..."
Eldridge Cleaver, "Soul on Ice"
"The price of hating other human beings is loving oneself less."
James Dobson, founder and president of Focus on the Family"
interviewed by Tony Snow of Fox News Channel, 2001-SEP-20
"It is
very important to understand that pluralism is part of our system.
We don't all think the same thing and part of our strength is that
we come from different perspectives. We have to respect one another
even when we disagree with each other. There has to be a spirit of
tolerance for the views of others, while also being deeply committed
to the positions we hold. If we do that, I think we can coexist and
learn to love each other better." 2
Albert Einstein
"The wiser you are, the more you believe in equality, because the difference
between what the most and the least learned people know is inexpressibly trivial in
relation to all that is unknown."
George Eliot
"The responsibility of tolerance lies with those who have the wider
vision."
Walter Farrell, "The Looking Glass"
"Tolerance does not...do anything, embrace anyone, champion any
issue. It wipes the notes off the score of life and replaces them with
one long bar of rest. It does not attack error, it does not champion
truth, it does not hate evil, it does not love good."
Robert I. Gannon
"Tolerance...is the lowest form of human cooperation. It is the
drab, uncomfortable, halfway house between hate and charity."
Kahlil Gibran, Lebanese artist & poet (1883 - 1931)
"I have learned silence from the talkative, toleration from the
intolerant, and kindness from the unkind; yet, strange, I am ungrateful to
those teachers."
Goethe, "Maxims and Reflections"
"Toleration ought in reality to be merely a transitory mood. It must
lead to recognition. To tolerate is to affront."
Senator Barry M. Goldwater, 1981-SEP-16
"The great decisions of government cannot be dictated by the concerns
of religious factions.... We have succeeded for 205 years in keeping the affairs
of state separate from the uncompromising idealism of religious groups and we
mustn't stop now. To retreat from that separation would violate the principles
of conservatism and the values upon which the framers built this democratic
republic."
David Grayson
"Commandment #1 of any truly civilized society is this: Let people be
different."
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Joshua Liebman, social critic:
"Tolerance is the posture and cordial effort to understand another's
beliefs, practices, and habits without necessarily sharing or accepting
them."
Martin Luther King, Jr.
"I have a dream...that some day my children will be judged not by the
color of their skin but rather by the content of their character."
Dr. Thomas Klestil, President of the Federal Republic of Austria:
"The more people come together, the more borders will be opened and people and
opinions get together, the more unrenouncable tolerance will be a fundamental part of our
social life. Without tolerance there is no religious liberty, no freedom of conscience and
no freedom of thought."
C Everett Kopp, former U.S. Surgeon General
"The American ideal is not that we all agree with each other, or even
like each other, every minute of the day. It is rather that we will respect each
other's rights, especially the right to be different, and that, at the end of
the day, we will understand that we are one people, one country, and one
community, and that our well-being is inextricably bound up with the well-being
of each and every one of our fellow citizens."
Eric von Kuehnelt-Leddihn, "Principles of the Portland
Declaration"1
"19. Tolerance can be exercised only by those who have
well-grounded convictions (although it will not always be exercised even
by them). For such people tolerance is an act of self-abnegation; although
they are convinced that those who differ from them must be wrong, they
nevertheless will protect their rights."
Hans Kung, Theologian
"There will be peace on earth when there is peace among the world
religions."
Martin Luther
"Peace if possible, but truth at any rate."
Richard D. Mohr, "A More Perfect Union"
"Religious belief is a fine guide around which a person might organize his own
life, but an awful instrument around which to organize someone else's life."
Bill Moyers
"If being tolerant of differing opinions, if believing that America
has to make it as a pluralistic nation, if being civil, if that makes you a
liberal, I plead guilty."
Prophet Muhammad: Riyadh us-Saleheen Volume 1:632
"You have two qualities which God, the Most Exalted, likes and
loves. One is mildness and the other is toleration."
Prof. Fritz Muliar, Austrian actor
"Tolerance is obvious, but tolerance alone is not enough. Tolerance means more
than toleration. I want more."
National Conference of Christians and Jews: Statement on Religious
Freedom and Mormonism
"It is not the policy of the National Conference to promote one religious
faith over another or to champion the views of any religious group. However, it is our
intent and our very purpose to oppose vigorously the actions of any group, religious or
secular, that would enhance or engender religious prejudice."
Martin Niemoller
"In Germany, the Nazis first came for the Communists, and I did not speak up,
for I was not a Communist. Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak up, for I was
not a Jew. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak up, for I was not a
trade unionist. Then they came for the Catholics, and I did not speak up, for I was a
Protestant. And then they came for me, and by that time, no one was left to speak up."
A time to look backwards and condemn the religious
intolerance that drove (and drives) religious
fanatics to murder innocent people in New York,
Washington, Sudan, Bosnia, etc.
A time to look forward and dedicate ourselves as
individuals to the creation of a just world, free
of religious hatred.
A time for us to hold our faith groups to a higher
standard of love and justice.
A time for us to realize that our perception of
God's light can guide us or can blind us."
REL Guy, posting on an Amazon.com forum "What is wrong with
Christians?" on 2008-MAY-05:
"
I find tolerance based on the
intolerance of intolerance intolerable."
Senator Warren Rudman
"The millions of Christians in this country reflect just about every
conceivable political point of view. For one highly conservative group to
proclaim itself 'the Christian Coalition' strikes me as decidedly un-Christian
arrogance.... We reflect countless races, religions and lifestyles, and we often
differ on questions of morality and behavior. The only way so diverse a nation
can survive is by all of us practicing a high degree of tolerance. But tolerance
is not the way of the Christian right. Its leaders want to impose their
one-size-fits-all morality on everyone. It won't work. When any group tries to
impose its values on everyone else, the result will inevitably be resentment,
hatred and violence.
John Shelby Spong, Episcopal Bishop
"
When the dust settles and the pages of history are written, it will not be
the angry defenders of intolerance who have made the difference. The reward will go to
those who dared to step outside the safety of their privacy in order to expose and rout
the prevailing prejudices."
"What matters," Synesius [of Cyrene] said excitedly, "is the actions of any given
people. Suppose you were a Babylonian, and you worshipped Marduk, and
the way you worshipped him was to dance around a fire, throwing spices
into the flame. . . or suppose you worshipped Dionysus. . . but suppose
that whoever you worshipped, you were kind to your neighbors, loving to
your children, respectful of the elderly. It wouldn't matter what God or
Gods you bow before!"
Simon Wiesenthal
"Tolerance and human rights require each other."
Wendell Willke
"No man has a right, in America,
to treat any other man TOLERANTLY, for TOLERANCE is the assumption of
superiority."
Zain Winter
"The idea that a country or a people could somehow be ordained by
heaven to commit unspeakable acts in God's name is insane. Unfortunately,
history is full of inhuman acts by religious leaders in the name of their
dogma or holy war. Only when the world accepts there are no chosen people
and no chosen religions will we earn the right to call ourselves human
beings."
The term "pluralism" is ambiguous.
Here, Dr. Dobson appears to be using the word to refer to religious diversity
in the country. Other times, the word is used to refer to the belief that all religions are true.
Al Cronkrite, "Henotheism, America's Religion? Diluting Belief In
Sovereignty of One True God," The Covenant News, 2005-MAY-07, at:
http://www.covenantnews.com/
