Evangelical Atheists

Do you ever notice the folks who espouse tolerance never actually practice it?

As a general disclaimer, I don't believe in tolerance. To tolerate something is to endure or permit (not resist) the action (of a drug or food) without side effects/discomfort or put up with something less than ideal. It's putting up with stuff! It's not reaching towards perfection but instead accepting and yearning for less than perfect. Honestly does that make sense to anyone? People really get excited about that? What kind of people have we become that this is the great ideal?

Shouldn't we reach for excellence? Shouldn't we shoot for the moon because even if we miss we'll end up among the stars?We shouldn't tolerate illiteracy, poverty, injustices or evil. We sometimes disagree on what is evil. We paint broad strokes on what is evil and what is not. The devil's in the details. Yes he is! He'll confuse you blind until you can't tell what is right or wrong because it's under the beautiful guise of tolerance.

I find it funny that women who disagree with the thought of God being referred to as "He or Father", never once complain about referring to the devil as "he" but I digress. My whole purpose on introducing the tolerance topic is that the same people that espouse tolerance certainly can't practice it.

I travel a lot and I eat a lot, typically out. I enjoy meals. I love to plan my next meal as I'm enjoying my current meal. It's a small joy of mine. When I eat, regardless of my location, I pray. I make the sign of the cross and say my silent request to God, thanking him for the food, for my family for the company that joins me for my meal and for all the good things he's done for me. I ask him to bless all those around me and then I eat. I've grown accustomed to this pre-meal ritual of bowing my head and taking a moment in silence to orient myself to the greatest good. In my travels I ran across an evangelical atheist who took exception to my pre-meal silent ritual. I was immediately outed as a Christian and my denomination had to be known. I explained my faith was not a denomination. (Catholicism is not a denomination but just about everything else is because at some point other Christians broke from the Catholic church and thus making those religions denominations.) I was then blamed from everything from Pope Pius XII's outright assistance to the nazi's - lies(all of them) to the existence of Jesus and the evil and vicissitudes of the Pope. I listened quite politely, refraining from partaking of my grilled eggplant and proceeded to agree to disagree. I apologized that this was their thought on the matters but oh no, it wasn't over. It was only the beginning. The berating continued through dinner, dessert, taxi and I thanked God we were going separate ways after that but it resumed again the following day during the meeting breaks.

You make one little sign of the cross and try to thank God and the next thing you know, someone who professed to tolerate just about anything couldn't tolerate my reverence and love of God. For my part I was quite happy actually to sit there and delay my meal in order to be berated. That's the mark of the Christian. It's not that we are right or that we argue better or that we know more, or have more. It's that we love our neighbor even when our neighbor says or does disparaging things about our faith or mocks our faith.