Ask Me Anything by J. Budziszewski

Author:J. Budziszewski
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781576836507
Publisher: The Navigators
Published: 2004-04-29T04:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER ELEVEN

THE WORD WARS

THE ATTITUDE IN HIGHER EDUCATION IS AS SIMPLE AS

ABC: ANYTHING BUT CHRISTIANITY.

I’d returned some examinations to my eight o’clock class, and students had lined up outside my door all morning to talk about them. The last student had just left (or so I thought), and I was rising from my desk when a voice from the door arrested me. “Professor Theophilus?” Turning, I saw Mark and Sarah. Mark said, “I was coming over to talk with you, and I bumped into Sarah and discovered that she’s irritated by the same thing I am. So I invited her to come along.”

“Hi, Professor.”

“Hi, people. Have a seat.” They refused coffee, so I warmed up my own mug from the pot in the corner of the desk and sat down again. “What are you irritated about? Me?”

“No, we were just hoping you’d have some ideas. Around this campus, every point of view gets heard but one. Sarah and I have both been trying to get a little air time for Christianity.”

“Air time?”

“Not radio or TV. I just mean we speak up.”

“Good. So what’s the problem?”

Sarah said, “Sometimes people listen, and we have a give and take. But other times, the second we open our mouths someone says we’re intolerant.”

“For instance?”

“Last week some friends and I were talking about abortion. When I said it’s wrong, they called me intolerant because I ‘didn’t respect a woman’s choice.’”

Mark chimed in. “Same with my Comparative Religion professor. I didn’t agree that there are many roads to God, and he called me intolerant for that.”

I took a sip of my coffee. “So are you?” I asked.

“Am I what?”

“Intolerant.”

Mark stared at me. “No!” he said.

“I don’t think I am either,” said Sarah. “But I have to confess that I don’t know what tolerance is anymore.”

“So what’s your question?” I asked.

“What is tolerance?” she asked.

“With me it’s different,” Mark said. “I want to know what to do when someone says I’m intolerant. But you can begin with Sarah.” She smiled.

“Beginning with Sarah is not only more gentlemanly but also more logical,” I explained. “To know what to make of an accusation that you aren’t practicing tolerance, you first have to know what it is.”

“So what is it?” asked Mark.

“Tell me the word’s root.”

“The root? I guess tolerate.”

“Right. What does it mean to tolerate?”

“To put up with something bad.”

“Right again.”

“So tolerance is . . . putting up with bad things?”

“Depends,” I said. “We call tolerance a virtue. Would you call it virtuous to put up with any bad thing—even murder and rape?”

Sarah said, “No, I’d call it stupid and cruel.”

“But tolerance couldn’t be about putting up with good things,” said Mark. “So it must be about putting up with bad things.”

“Sure,” I replied. “But not every bad thing. Tolerance is the wisdom to know which bad things to put up with and when, why, and to what degree to put up with them—and the settled disposition of acting on that wisdom.”

As I took another sip of coffee, Sarah spoke again.

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