Intolerance is a Beautiful Thing

I recently received an email from a close family member and thought I’d share it with you all because it is so great!  The following email reads:

May 17, 2010

"Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!"

Isaiah 5:20 (KJV)

Contrary to popular belief, Jesus Christ did not come to bring unity on earth. He even said so, in no uncertain terms. In verse 34 of the 10th chapter of the Gospel of Matthew, Christ is quoted as saying quite clearly, "Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword."

How in the world did we get that one so wrong? What about peace on earth, good will toward men, and all that. How is it that we miss the plain and simple language of the wisest and only truly divine man who ever walked the earth? Just what did He mean when He said, "I came not to send peace, but a sword"?

Today's social (and sociable) gospel has been so watered down as to be virtually ineffective, not unlike an inoculation against a disease; a small, diluted dose of the genuine article designed specifically to avoid catching the real thing.

Christ's bold proclamation is a warning that His spiritual tenets will be divisive because they are not open to interpretation. They are specific, and the man or woman who responds to them positively will be "born again," while those who respond negatively will have a visceral reaction that puts them at odds with Him and in alliance with His enemies.

In essence, they comprise a manifesto of intolerance — and intolerance is a beautiful thing. There are many things of which we should be intolerant. Abortion is the deliberate destruction of a human being, made in the image of God, Who tells us that children are a blessing from Him. Yet our society averts its eyes from the truth and calls the murder of that blessing a "choice." 

By every measure of human decency and understanding, homosexuality is a deviant activity, fraught with physical health hazards, psychological minefields and human heartbreak. Yet our society — the first in human history to do so — calls it an "alternate lifestyle," and is even poised to grant it credibility on a par with monogamous, heterosexual marriage.

Scripture teaches that if a man will not work, he shouldn't eat, yet we refuse to acknowledge the corrosive effects of welfare on a population so accustomed to "entitlements" our leaders continually refer to "jobs Americans just won't do."

Defense of our borders, language and culture is essential to keeping the light burning in this beacon of freedom we call the United States of America. Yet there are those who call good evil when they label as "racist" any policy that prevents anarchy along our national boundaries.

Secular forces in our society demand that we maintain a "wall of separation" between church and state, a phrase not from any founding document but rather from a letter to the Danbury Baptist Church in which Thomas Jefferson wrote of protecting the church from the state, not the other way around. Little do these secularists realize that they are helping to facilitate genuine change in America, the likes of which we have never seen. American Christians have not experienced the kind of persecution that has characterized the treatment of believers in other lands. As the assault upon our faith and our culture intensifies, a true spiritual revival is the only force that can restore the uniquely individual freedoms only Americans have ever experienced.

Human beings can be starved of many things — food, water, residence — but freedom is not one of them. No man can be forced to submit to the tyranny of dependency. We must acquiesce. As God is my witness, I will never submit to a power that places itself above Almighty God.

Armed with the sword of truth, I will continue to stand and speak until there is no more breath in my body. As for me and my house, we will never give in to the pressure to conform to a creed that calls good evil and evil good. As for me and my house, we will not embrace a watered-down gospel of "unity." As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.

Intolerance…It's a beautiful thing. As for me and my house, we will remain steadfastly intolerant.

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© 2010 by Doug Patton

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Doug Patton is a former speechwriter and public policy advisor who now works as a freelance writer. His weekly columns appear in newspapers across the country and on various Internet websites, including Human Events Online and GOPUSA.com, where he is a senior writer and state editor. Readers can e-mail him at dougpatton@cox.net.