Commentary: 'Tolerance' - the new theology

WASHINGTON, Nov. 3 (UPI) -- When 2,500 worshipers cheered at the consecration of V. Gene Robinson as Episcopal bishop of New Hampshire, what were they so jubilant about? Was it that by this very the elevation of an adulterer and open homosexual to the office of bishop a rupture within the Anglican Communion occurred?

No, they welcomed a new theology. It is no longer based on Scripture but on post-modernity's premier secular virtue -- "tolerance." Of course, Scripture, and especially the New Testament, is crystal clear in its opposition to prejudice. "There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus," writes the apostle Paul (Galations 3:28).

But the Bible -- both Testaments -- sets standards of moral behavior. Bishop Robinson violated these standards on two counts -- adultery and homosexuality. According to the teachings of the 2,000-year-old Christian Church, this makes him one of us -- a sinner. Therefore, Christ's word applies to him as to any other sinner: "Judge not lest you be judged" (Matthew 7:1).

Some rigid denominations shun unrepentant sinners. But this is not very satisfactory because it smacks of self-righteousness. For Scripture makes it obvious that there is nobody without sin. Furthermore: How do I know that the adulterer or homosexual kneeling next to me at Holy Communion is not remorseful? And who can tell what dirty thoughts are in the minds of the apparent paragon of piety kneeling on my other side? Therefore to commune with both is the right thing to do. We can't look into their hearts. Only God can. That's sufficient.

That said, most people with unbiblical sexual inclinations don't strive to become bishops, overseers of the Church, pastors of pastors, models to the Christian community and especially the young. Most want to keep private things private, again like the rest of us.

However, just as we expect secular leaders to uphold the law, we must expect spiritual leaders to uphold their constitution, which in Christianity is Holy Scripture. And that can't be changed by majority vote, nor can it be changed by V. Gene Robinson's assertion that God wanted him to wear the miter without altering his lifestyle.

To the majority of Christians -- especially those living in the Southern Hemisphere -- this implies that God has gone back on his word, for to them Scripture is the inspired word of God. But if God were to go back on his word at every whim of the sinner, what kind of God would he be?

Which brings us to the evident conflict between God's word and the secular commandment to be tolerant -- a commandment Rabbi Daniel Lapin branded as tyrannical, and rightly so. In some academic settings, your tolerance must be so limitless that you must not allow yourself to disbelieve in Darwinism, lest you be prevented from graduating in medicine.

And according to the latest ruling by a Colorado judge, you may not home-school your children, unless you promise not to teach biblical standards of sexual behavior because those might inculcate the kids with "homophobia." Taken to its extreme, the tyranny of tolerance is bound to lead to the persecution of orthodox believers affirming the sanctity of marriage as an order of creation or the sanctity of life, born or unborn.

Already, the tyranny of tolerance has made victims of scores of millions of Bible-believing Anglicans worldwide -- those with whom the Episcopal Church has broken fellowship by leaving the common platform when it consecrated V. Gene Robinson at the expense of Holy Scripture, and embraced the new theology of tolerance.

In effect, the tiny Episcopal Church USA -- 2.1 million members -- told those masses: What you backward folks believe, and what our ancestors believed, is of no concern to us. That's massive discrimination and a display of massive intolerance. No wonder even Christians in other parts of the world -- never mind the Muslims -- become more and more outraged by this relentless display of what they understandably perceive as American arrogance.