The limits of tolerance

I hear a lot of talk about tolerance around campus. “Everyone should be tolerant.” “Yeah, but we have to be tolerant.” And there’s even more talk about intolerance. “Those people are so intolerant.” “I can’t believe how intolerant he is.” Intolerance is always portrayed as a bad thing. In fact, do we have any stronger insult than “intolerant?”\nWe’ve grown so accustomed to thinking of tolerance as a virtue that we’ve stopped thinking critically about it. If we stop and think, we’ll realize that tolerance has limits. In fact, there are many times when we should be downright intolerant.\nThink about the following case: Your roommate decides to “borrow” your secret, rainy day stash of Girl Scout cookies. He helps himself to a box of Thin Mints, scarfing down the whole thing. You return to your room that night, see that the box is missing, and confront him about it. “Did you take my box of Thin Mints?” \n“Yeah, I did,” he replies. “They were tasty, thanks.” \n“But those were mine; you had no right to take them!” \n“Hey, don’t be angry and oppressive toward me – you should tolerate my lifestyle choice.”\nI think few of us would be convinced by our roommate’s invocation of tolerance. But why aren’t we? He’s right, you know – we are being incredibly intolerant of his life decisions. I think the reason is that we all tacitly recognize that tolerance has limits. Some things should be tolerated, but other things should not. We don’t have to tolerate stealing. What things do we have to tolerate? Cultural differences? Yet even this tolerance has its limits, for some cultures can be terrible and barbaric.\nFor example, there are some cultures where it is an accepted practice to mutilate the genitals of young females. There are different cultural and social reasons given for the practice, but the bottom line is that the young girl is massively harmed and will feel lifelong effects. This is a terrible practice, and we should not show it tolerance. We don’t even need an exotic culture to show us that tolerance has limits; we can just look at our own. I think most of us can point to things in our own culture which are bad and should not be tolerated – we certainly shouldn’t tolerate them just because they are part of our cultural heritage!\nWe cannot just reflexively assume that everything should be tolerated, even in “core areas” of tolerance like cultural differences. We must examine it, think about it and form a conclusion about whether something is harmless enough to allow. What are the limits? Should atheists tolerate having the word “God” on their public currency? Should Christians tolerate sending their children to public school where God cannot be talked about? Should we tolerate a no-fault divorce when a couple has small children? Could we tolerate brutal oppression in a neighboring country? Could we tolerate Muslim men receiving a welfare check for each of their several wives (as they now can in England)?\nWhat are the limits of tolerance?