Tolerance is an important principle in modern, multicultural societies. But is Christianity a religion that is prepared to be tolerant? Some argue that it isn't - and I'm not talking about nonbelieving critics.No, I'm talking about Christians who argue that the principle of tolerance isn't entirely compatible with Christianity. And they believe that this is a good thing.

Paul Proctor writes about "The Travesty of Tolerance" for Crossroad:

It may surprise many of you to learn that the word "tolerance" never even appeared in scripture until the 60's and 70's when the NEW American Standard and NEW International versions of the bible came into being. In the King James and original American Standard versions the word used was "forbearance" which itself could imply something altogether different. It should also be noted that at the time the NEW versions of the bible were printed, Marxist liberals were tenaciously teaching tolerance as the NEW measure of morality in America from kindergarten through seminary.

The cross is a lot of things to a lot of people but it IS NOT a lesson in tolerance. If God were tolerant of sin He never would have sacrificed His "Only Begotten" to suffer and die so horrendously for the likes of you and me. He would have simply winked at Him and said, "Ah...That's OK...Just stay here. They'll clean up their act sooner or later". But that never happened...

There is a fair argument behind the idea that Christians are called upon to be intolerant of that which they consider sinful. And, through Christian history, quite a lot has been treated as sinful. Does this mean that Christians who are tolerant of others are not living up to what it means to be a True Christian? Under some definitions of Christianity, that is indeed the case. They cannot effectively argue that intolerant Christianity is a "less valid" form; instead, they need to find a way to argue that Christianity is better off being tolerant than not, regardless of what the Bible says. Can they do it?

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• Fundamentalism
• Religious Right
• Religious Intolerance & Bigotry