Tolerance, the failure of identity politics: ruminations of a retired priest
If we truly want to live in peace we must shout the good news that the many may be one from every rooftop, pulpit and social media platform in order to drown out the contemptuous voices of exclusionary fundamentalists who disdain difference and scorn sympathy.
Unlike pasteurized milk, we are not meant to be homogenized into carbon copies of a human prototype.
What is tolerance? In the best sense of the word tolerance means to be sensitive, charitable, kind and open-minded. It also bears a darker twist; to endure, be lenient or give license. Of more concern is a fundamental assumption of tolerance. Tolerance presumes we humans are not one, therefore we must tolerate those “other humans” from whom we are set apart. The implications are grave.
Accepting the premise that we humans are not one, rather than expecting integrity, connection and solidarity with my neighbors I anticipate partiality, incongruity and division. With this as the lens through which I see my neighbor I approach her cautiously, engaging my fine-tuned discriminating mind to detect every difference while relying on my intellect to defend my separate self.
I hate to admit it but, too often this is my default position. I tolerate my noisy neighbor or those annoying people who do not see things as I do. I force myself to tolerate “those people” whose political lawn signs and behavior I judge as beyond bearing. No wonder harmony among people is so elusive. No wonder Jesus did not pray for tolerance.
Apparently, Jesus did not read The Charter of the United Nations where it instructs, “…practice tolerance and live together in peace with one another as good neighbors” because no where do we hear Jesus teach tolerance.
In the course of a single sublime prayer Jesus catapults us beyond our human inclination to see things dualistically; black or white, in or out, good or bad, us or them, me or you. How is Jesus able to resist the divide and conquer tendency of our bicameral mind? I believe Jesus begins by affirming the world rattling paradox, many may be completely one. Although reason insists this is senseless and illogical, Jesus prays “As you Father are in me and I am in you…” then he stretches the tent to be all inclusive, “so that they may be one, as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become completely one…” (see text below)
The many are one and the one is many. This is a fundamental principle of the Christian faith. (At the risk of getting too theological, consider the community of the Trinity — three are one, one is three.) The proposition, many are one, one is many, invites us to live in a paradox that stretches our imagination beyond the binding boundaries of tolerance as prescribed in the Preamble to the Charter of the United Nations.
The heart of the Christian tradition is expansive, offering a mysterious vision of unity in the infinite diversity of creation. If we truly want to live in peace we must shout the good news that the many may be one from every rooftop, pulpit and social media platform in order to drown out the contemptuous voices of exclusionary fundamentalists who disdain difference and scorn sympathy.
Tolerance insists we protect the myriad buckets prescribed by identity politics (white or of color; binary or nonbinary; Jew or Gentile; 1% or 99%; privileged or oppressed, my life matters or your life matters, human or divine…). Tolerance is doomed to failure because it fosters disunity, not peace.
Consenting to Jesus’ vision that we “may all be one” means looking beyond the boundaries of our individualizing identity buckets to declare the truth of our shared divine humanity. Therein hides the “peace that surpasses understanding,” the puzzling peace born as “we become completely one.”
Let me be crystal clear. Experiencing the unity of our shared divine humanity does not mean succumbing to uniformity. Unlike pasteurized milk, we are not meant to be homogenized into carbon copies of a human prototype. No. The distinct singularity of each of the many is indispensable to the integrity of the one. The many are one and the one is many. Nothing is lost and everything is gained.
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John 17:20–26 Jesus prayed for his disciples, and then he said. “I ask not only on behalf of these, but also on behalf of those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one. As you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. The glory that you have given me I have given them, so that they may be one, as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become completely one, so that the world may know that you have sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me. Father, I desire that those also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory, which you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world.
“Righteous Father, the world does not know you, but I know you; and these know that you have sent me. I made your name known to them, and I will make it known, so that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.”
