Tolerance

You may not move in baby seal clubber circles like I do, so you may not be regularly exposed to gross examples of intolerant behavior.

Recently, there was a group of protestors that went to a government facility to protest. It was a peaceful protest, in which they held signs. (Oh, and it sounds like they had bagpipes also.)

At first, people who supported the government facility arrived and staged a counter-protest, holding up their own signs and making noise with a large metal trash can. Inasmuch as the protestors were playing bagpipes, no one can really complain about that.

Then it got ugly.

[T]wo [persons opposing the protestors] spit on our flier and threw it down at our feet and two others burned them....

"Where are they burning the fliers?" asked a reporter...."I heard they are burning your fliers." Then I discovered some bad news: [opponents] managed to steal a box of 1,200 [protestor] fliers. They walked off with them unnoticed because [protestors were] busy in discussion circles. An intensive search for the stolen fliers proved fruitless. It was a real shame.

Moments later, smoke started billowing out of...one of the steel trash cans about 200 feet away.

So people engage in peaceful protest, and their fliers get burned, necessitating a call from the fire department.

QUESTION: Under which circumstances would the counter-protesters' behavior be acceptable?

A. If the protesters were antiwar activists protesting against the war at a military recruiting office, and the counter-protesters who burned the fliers were Young Republicans

B. If the protesters were Roman Catholic activists protesting in support of the sanctity of traditional marriage at the University of California at Berkeley, and the counter-protesters who burned the fliers were UC Berkeley students

C. If the protesters were socialists protesting against the AIG bailout at Federal Reserve headquarters, and the counter-protesters who burned the fliers were undergraduate business students

D. If the protesters were anti-illegal immigration activists arguing for the release of Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean in front of a Federal prison, and the counter-protesters who burned the fliers were immigrant rights activists

E. The burning of the fliers from the counter-protesters was permissible in all four cases above

F. The burning of the fliers from the counter-protesters was NOT permissible in ANY of the four cases above

Back to my story, which is taken from this post. It's interesting to note what happened after the firefighters were called.

Students who initially refused to take our flier, after seeing the fire and smelling the smoke, turned back shocked: "Can you give me one of those?" A steady stream of students approached to ask for fliers. This is unusual.

But not everyone was won over.

A pro-homosexual student sitting on a bench was overheard saying: "I want to punch the bagpiper out!"

And it goes without saying that if a group can go onto a campus and proclaim that homosexual activities are undesirable, another group has the equal right to go onto a campus and proclaim that worship of Jesus is undesirable. Specifically, from Lorain County Community College:

News reports describe a large poster put up by an atheist student group depicting a Christ figure being kissed by a man, with the words, "Jesus Christ had a homosexual relationship".

Many other students were upset by this and when one of them took the poster down, he was turned over to security.

In this case, I agree that the student who ripped the poster down in Lorain County should have been turned over to security, just as the students who started the fire in Berkeley should have been turned over to security.

As a believing Christian, I have no problem per se with the publication of blasphemous material. (Within limits; I don't want re-enactments of sacrifices to Molech during the Saturday morning network cartoon time.) I figure that - eventually - all of the issues regarding blasphemy will be worked out.

Sphere: Related Content