We don’t need tolerance; we need respect.
Earlier this year, I delivered a lecture to a group of human resource professionals who work in law enforcement. The lecture was about diversity–specifically about how communities across Canada are changing as new immigrant groups from Africa, Asia, and Latin America make up the bulk of new Canadians coming to Canada.
I must have done something right because after the lecture I was invited to speak at a conference organized by community groups in a mid-sized Ontario city to "celebrate" diversity. As the conference date approached, organizers contacted me to confirm my participation.
Shortly thereafter, I received an e-mail from an apologetic young man who was part of the organizing committee. Apparently some members of the committee had Googled me and come across my ChristianWeek columns. One individual from a non-Christian religious group on the committee objected to inviting someone known to advocate (horrors!) respect for all faith groups, including Christians.
In short order, I was dumped as keynote speaker.
My experience says a lot about the "intolerance of the tolerant"–those oh-so-politically-correct types who don't hide their disdain for anyone who does not share their view of a Canada free from Christian views and ethics.
In Canada we have a thriving industry of so-called "special interest" groups. Many such groups do wonderful work helping new Canadians settle into their new land. Others speak for those most vulnerable: the poor, the elderly, single parents, workers earning minimum wage, women and our First Nations. They deserve our collective admiration. Still others help nurture and promote different cultures, traditions and beliefs.
But there are other special groups, like the ones whose shrill voices effectively shut me up even before I got to the "diversity" conference, who can not stand the idea of "tolerance" actually meaning "respect" for everyone regardless of their politics, faith or lifestyle.
Luckily, a new generation is rising that will hopefully be much more open to respecting everyone–Christians included–than their parents' generation was. My kids, who love their Latino and Korean mix, are part of this new generation and know the difference between mere tolerance for those different from them and genuine respect for such differences.
This new generation includes youth that are taking part in a terrific project in the Toronto suburb of Ajax called the "Heart of Ajax Project."
Fifty-five languages are spoken in Ajax schools and an estimated 25 per cent of residents come from visible minority groups. This is Canada's future: multi-cultural, multi-language, multi-racial, multi-faith.
Educators at 23 Ajax schools started the "Heart of Ajax Project" and encouraged students to make "diversity dolls" that reflected their own cultural backgrounds. Students made dolls–some simple, some elaborate–and wrote about their own backgrounds.
Some dolls held multiple flags to show a student's varied background. Some were dressed as hockey players, others in Indian saris or in Spanish flamenco costumes. There were no "right" or "wrong" dolls, no grumpy politically-correctness Commissar was allowed to frown at the colour or costume of any doll.
Everyone's background and culture was equally valued and respected. The students didn't need adults to tell them that everyone is cool, no matter what they believe or where they came from.
It's ironic, then, that at about the time the Ajax project was taking off, two lesbian mothers living in nearby Oshawa were physically attacked by a male parent at their son's school–an altercation that quickly brought out the gay and lesbian community in the Greater Toronto Area demanding that hate crime charges be laid against the man. The women and their backers decried the lack of "tolerance" in society for gays and lesbians.
These people failed to realize that what they should demand is respect, not just tolerance.
We can tolerate anything: politicians, crab grass, a 40-year Stanley Cup drought for the Toronto Maple Leafs–you name it. What people can't fake is respect. That's what the lesbian moms really need: simple human dignity and respect.
Too bad cranky "diversity" groups are too busy Googling intrepid newspaper columnists and keeping them away from their little conferences. They should realize columnists always get the last word.
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