Essay On Religious Tolerance

Helen Keller once said, “tolerance is the highest form of education,” and although that may be true in some circumstances, when religion comes into play it becomes more of an excuse for not understanding others and less of something to be proud of. Tolerance is often used as a synonym for acceptance when it is not. It is the act of understanding something but not actively accepting it. Examples of such tolerance can be found in religious groups, and in the United States, According to the Oxford Dictionary, religious tolerance is the act of allowing other people to think about god(s) in ways that they do not think are true. They tolerate religious beliefs and practices which are different from their own beliefs or lack of beliefs. This can be very harmful to both religious groups because, according to religioustolerance.org, tolerating a religion means “allowing other faith groups equal rights; permitting them to exist.” Unfortunately, religious intolerance is more common than tolerance. Many religious groups in the past, Christians in particular, have called for the extermination of minority races, and other religious groups such as Wiccans, Judaists, and Muslims. “You can tolerate something without accepting it, but you cannot accept something
The next steps include acknowledge, examine, respect, learn, value, and finally, celebrate. In this example, celebrate is a synonym for acceptance (Robinson). Tolerance is kind of like the saying, “treat others the way you would like to be treated,” but in fact, the one on the receiving end of the tolerance might not want to be treated that way. There are religious leaders around the world wondering if religious tolerance is sufficient in this day and age. As Jo Garcia-Cobb, a student in a comparative religion course at Southern Oregon University, remarks, “Surely, we can tolerate a flea. But why must people of opposing religious views merely tolerate each