Answer to "Why Are Christians So Intolerant?" by thereforegodexists
Another piece of the mind of Richard Bushey, author at thereforegodexists.com, dealing with the secular accusation of religion being intolerant. Let's see how he gets out of this one.
He opens with saying that <<Christians are willing to compromise and even abandon their beliefs to appease their fellow man, so that society will offer a nod of approval [...] >>. Yeah, I wish! The very meaning of the word intolerance implies that this is exactly what is not happening. Being called intolerant (with reason) should convince religious people to change their belief system to something that doesn't promote this state of mind. It just doesn't. Maybe this stems from thought processes like the following from the same article:
<<In statements such as, “Nobody comes to the Father except through me,” and “The way to destruction is broad, and many will enter,” the great Messiah literally preached intolerance.>>
Do defuse this bomb a little, he declares that whoever is criticizing a Christian for being intolerant because of following doctrine is being intolerant himself. Well that worked out just fine, didn't it? Except that he points out obvious differences between critique and intolerance just above that, while in his own case obviously not being able to distinguish the two:
<<There is a fundamental difference between a critique and intolerance, and this should be thoroughly noted.>>
Hell yeah it should. When atheists call a Christian intolerant because of his intolerance towards other behavior than his own that is not intolerance, it is a critique of intolerance itself and the decision of the person to be intolerant.
<<This is the most central doctrine of Christianity, and to challenge it with the charge of intolerance, is to be intolerant. The accuser therefore falls into their own trap and they stand in hypocrisy.>>
Very good! I submit! I subscribe! I am gladly seen as a person who is intolerant of intolerance! That is because it is a bad attribute to have, something that cuts into freedoms of other people that I shouldn't care about, that I shouldn't be concerned with.
The whole article would be much more accessible to reason if the author actually talked about exactly which accusations of intolerance he was talking about all along. To fill this gap I will present a few of them myself, free of charge:
Many Christians are intolerant of homosexuality merely because of their doctrine
Many Christians are intolerant of abortion because of their doctrine and no thoughts of their own (there are arguments for and against abortion outside of the circle of religious folks)
Many Christians are intolerant of other religions
Many Christians are intolerant of not being Christian
Many Christian parents are intolerant of their Children forming an opinion of their own
I'm sure I could add to the list and if I use intolerance practiced by the church in the past I could likely fill pages. This is not hypocrisy; these are accusations with background, based on facts accumulated through observation. No matter how many word games you play, you will still have to disarm these separately before being able to call yourself open.