Religious Tolerance

What is Religious Tolerance? According to Religious Tolerance.org:

IT SHOULD BE:

  1. Accepting that followers of various religions consider their own beliefs to be true. Most people believe that their religious beliefs are true, perhaps even true on an absolute scale.
  2. Allowing others to hold religious beliefs that are different from yours. No society is truly free unless there is freedom of religious association for all.
  3. Allowing others to freely change religions, or denominations or beliefs. Freedom of religion includes the right to change one's faith.
  4. Allowing others to practice their religious faith, within reasonable limits. Religion is more than belief; it involves practices as well.
  5. Refusing to discriminate in employment, accommodation etc. on religious grounds. People who follow minority religions have the right to be treated fairly in the workplace and society generally.
  6. Trying to accommodate other people's religious needs. For example:
    • Be flexible; allowing an employee to work overtime in order to take off a religious festival or holy day that is significant to them.
    • Schedule meetings so that they do not conflict with common holy days.

IT SHOULD NOT BE:

  1. Believing that all religions are the same. In fact, religions differ greatly in their beliefs and practices. So do divisions within a given religion.
  2. Believing that all sets of religious beliefs are equally true. Most people consider their beliefs to be true and others to be at least partly false.
  3. Believing that all faiths are equally beneficial and equally harmless to society. Some religions weaken society by teaching racism, sexism, homophobia, etc.
  4. Believing that all religious groups are equally beneficial and equally harmless to their followers. Some religions expect their members to follow practices that are hazardous to their health.
  5. Refraining from criticizing religious practices of others. Some religions teach their followers to actively discriminate on the basis of race, gender, sexual orientation, nationality, etc. Such practices, in our opinion, should be criticized.
  6. Refraining from talking about your beliefs to others. Of course, if they indicate that they don't want to talk about religion, then continued proselytizing is a form of harassment.
  7. Ignoring your own religious ideas. It is not necessary, nor is it desirable, for an individual to suppress their own religious beliefs, in order to accept the human rights of others to follow a different religion. It is not necessary to accept others' beliefs as valid; you are merely valuing them freedom of religious belief.

Tolerance Quotes:

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."

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."

Eldridge Cleaver, "Soul on Ice"

"The price of hating other human beings is loving oneself less."

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."
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."

Robert F. Kennedy

"Each time a person stands up for an idea, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a timy ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring, those ripples build a current that can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance."

Martin Luther King

"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."

Arthur J. Kropp, 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."
Hans Kung, Theologian

"There will be peace on earth when there is peace among the world religions."

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."

Prof. Fritz Muliar, Austrian actor

"Tolerance is obvious, but tolerance alone is not enough. Tolerance means more than toleration. I want more."

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."

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."

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."

Simon Wiesenthal

"Tolerance and human rights require each other."

The Bible, Micah 4:3-5 "...they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks: nation shall not lift up a sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more. But they shall sit every man under his vine and under his fig tree; and none shall make them afraid: for the mouth of the LORD of hosts hat spoken it. For all people will walk every one in the name of his god, and we will walk in the name of the LORD our God for ever and ever." (KJV)

The Bible,1 Corinthians 10:31-32 "Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God. Give none offence, neither to the Jews, nor to the Gentiles, nor to the church of God:"

Pope John Paul II, Message for the World Day of Peace: "Thanks to the healing power of love, which has its first source in God who is Love. . . . Divine love is the foundation of the reconciliation to which all of us are called. . . . In a certain sense every baptized person must consider himself a 'minister of reconciliation' since, having been reconciled with God and the brethren, he is called to build peace with the power of truth and justice."

Hans Kung, Theologian: "There will be peace on earth when there is peace among the world religions." ....."No world peace without peace among religions; no peace among religions without dialog between religions."

David Odell-Scott, associate professor of philosophy at Kent State University."To simply be tolerant doesn't feel too good. People should have a deep sense of appreciation of people different from them."



Declaration of a Global Ethic This statement was prepared by about 200 scholars from many faiths, presented at the 1993 Parliament of the World's Religions, in 1993 and signed by 143 religious leaders.

"...Time and again we see leaders and members of religions incite aggression, fanaticism, hate and xenophobia - even inspire and legitimize violent and bloody conflicts. Religion is often misused for purely power-political goals, including war. We are filled with disgust...."

...religions are credible only when they eliminate those conflicts which spring from the religions themselves, dismantling mutual arrogance, mistrust, prejudice, and even hostile images, and thus demonstrating respect for the traditions, holy places, feasts and rituals of people who believed differently..."

"...Every people, every race, every religion must show tolerance and respect - indeed high appreciation - for every other. Minorities need protection and support, whether they be racial, ethnic or religious..."

"...all over the world, we find endless lies and deceit, swindling and hypocrisy, ideology and demagoguery... Representatives of religions who dismiss other religions as of little value and who preach fanaticism and intolerance instead of respect and understanding...No woman or man, no institution, no state or church or religious community has the right to speak lies to other humans...This is especially true...for representatives of religion - when they stir up prejudice, hatred and enmity towards those of different belief, or even incite or legitimize religious wars, they deserve the condemnation of humankind and the loss of their adherents." .....

"...We have the duty to resist whenever the domination of one sex over the other is preached - even in the name of religious conviction..."

The Roman Catholic Church 1965-OCT-28, the Vatican issued a "Declaration on the Relation of the Church to non-Christian Religions." ( Nostra Aetate) :

"The Catholic Church rejects nothing that is true and holy in these religions."

"The Church therefore, exhorts her sons, that through dialogue and collaboration with the followers of other religions... they recognize, preserve and promote the good things, spiritual and moral, as well as the socio-cultural values found among these men."

"The Church regards with esteem also the Moslems."

"Since the spiritual patrimony common to Christians and Jews is thus so great, this Sacred Synod wants to foster and recommend that mutual understanding and respect which is the fruit, above all, of biblical and theological studies as well as fraternal dialogues."


Kerr Cuhulain, a respected Neo-Pagan, "This is exclusivism: the idea that there can only be one true faith. The same individuals who make this suggestion usually accuse any faith or Christian denomination other than their own of being anti-Christian or Satanic...We are not anti-Christian. We are simply different."

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