Balancing Truth and Tolerance

As I was reading the Ensign Magazine last week, there was one article that really stood out to me. It’s quite lengthy so I copied and pasted some of my favorite parts to post on this blog. You can read the entire article in this month’s Ensign, February 2013. Or you can read the entire CES devotional transcript by going to the link posted below.

Balancing Truth and Tolerance

by Elder Dallin H. Oaks
Of the Quorum of the 12 Apostles

From a Church Educational System devotional address delivered on September 11, 2011. For the full text in English, go to lds.org/broadcasts/article/ces-devotionals/2011/01/truth-and-tolerance.

“We believe in absolute truth, including the existence of God and the right and wrong established by His commandments. We know that the existence of God and the existence of absolute truth are fundamental to life on this earth, whether they are believed in or not. We also know that evil exists and that some things are simply, seriously, and everlastingly wrong.

…We live in a world where more and more persons of influence are teaching and acting out a belief that there is no absolute right and wrong—that all authority and all rules of behavior are man-made choices that can prevail over the commandments of God. Many even question whether there is a God.

The philosophy of moral relativism, which holds that each person is free to choose for him or herself what is right and wrong, is becoming the unofficial creed for many in the United States and other Western nations. At the extreme level, evil acts that used to be localized and covered up like a boil are now legalized and paraded like a banner. Persuaded by this philosophy, many of the rising generation are caught up in self-serving pleasures, pornography, dishonesty, foul language, revealing attire, pagan painting and piercing of body parts, and degrading sexual indulgence.

Many religious leaders teach the existence of God as the ultimate lawgiver, by whose command certain behavior is absolutely right and true and other behavior is absolutely wrong and untrue.² Bible and Book of Mormon prophets foresaw this time, when men would be “lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God” (2 Timothy 3:4) and, indeed, when men would deny God (see Jude 1:4; 2 Nephi 28:5; Moroni 7:17; D&C 29:22).

In this troubled circumstance, we who believe in God and the corollary truth of absolute right and wrong have the challenge of living in a godless and increasingly amoral world. In this circumstance, all of us—especially the rising generation—have a duty to stand up and speak out to affirm that God exists and that there are absolute truths that His commandments establish.

…The kingdom of God is like leaven, Jesus taught (see Matthew 13:33). Leaven—yeast—is hidden away in the larger mass until the whole is leavened, which means raised by its influence. Our Savior also taught that His followers will have tribulation in the world (see John 16:33), that their numbers and dominions will be small (see 1 Nephi 14:12), and that they will be hated because they are not of the world (see John 17:14). But that is our role. We are called to live with other children of God who do not share our faith or our values and who do not have the covenant obligations we have assumed. We are to be in the world but not of the world.

Because followers of Jesus Christ are commanded to be leaven, we must seek tolerance from those who hate us for not being of the world. As part of this, we will sometimes need to challenge laws that would impair our freedom to practice our faith, doing so in reliance on our constitutional rights to the free exercise of religion. The big concern is “the ability of people of all faiths to work out their relationship with God and one another without the government looking over their shoulder.”⁴ That is why we need understanding and support when we must contend for religious freedom.

…We are cast as combatants in the war between truth and error. There is no middle ground. We must stand up for truth, even while we practice tolerance and respect for beliefs and ideas different from our own and for the people who hold them.

…President Boyd K. Packer, President of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, has said: “The word tolerance does not stand alone. It requires an object and a response to qualify it as a virtue. … Tolerance is often demanded but seldom returned. Beware of the word tolerance. It is a very unstable virtue.”⁶

…President Thomas S. Monson has taught: “The face of sin today often wears the mask of tolerance. Do not be deceived; behind that facade is heartache, unhappiness, and pain. … If your so-called friends urge you to do anything you know to be wrong, you be the one to make a stand for right, even if you stand alone.”⁸

Excerpts taken from: Balancing Truth and Tolerance, Ensign, February 2013

The above excerpts are just a small portion of the article/devotional address. I would highly recommend reading the entire thing.

Just this morning I was discussing, with Juliet, how much the world has changed in the past 30 years – since the days of Ronald Reagan and growing up during the awesome 80s J. As bad as the world was back then, it doesn’t hold a candle to today.

While being tolerant of others’ choices and agency – let us remember to stand for truth and righteousness. Do not fall for the “mask of tolerance” as Pres. Monson stated. The world is increasingly teaching that good is evil and evil is good.  “Woe unto them that call ^aevil ^bgood, and good evil; that put ^cdarkness for ^dlight, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!” – Isaiah 5:20

The world teaches that tolerance is embracing and accepting sin and evil. And if we don’t accept and embrace evil as good, then somehow we are seen as evil and “intolerant”. Isaiah’s prophecy is coming true. Or I should say – has already come true. This is the world we live in.

Beware but don’t be afraid. With the truth of the Gospel we can be in the world but not of the world.

That’s my two cents.