'Respect' + 'Tolerance': One-Way Street?

Michael Eisenscher meisenscher at igc.apc.org
Wed Jun 3 09:13:03 PDT 1998


Yoshie,

I want to respond to your other comments later, but ask you to note that here you refer to "fundamentalists," with the implication that they all have the same point of view on these issues, whereas in a response to a previous comment I posted you specifically took note of the fact that all religious folks do not think alike on these matters.

Among those I know, Pentacostals and Evangelicals by and large distinguish themselves from Fundamentalists, yet it is my experience that most on the Left who do not come out of that end of the religious traditions tend to lump these all together under the rubric of Christian converatives or Christian Coalition types. In doing so, they forfeit the opportunity for dialog with a large number of these believers who do not automatically see Jerry Falwell as their spiritual leader.

Michael E.

At 10:54 AM 6/3/98 -0500, Yoshie Furuhashi wrote:
>Do fundamentalists have 'tolerance,' not to mention 'respect,' for
>abortionists, queers, women who are sexually active 'outside of marriage,'
>non-believers, believers of different denominations + religions, and so on?
>
>I really doubt that they do.
>
>Aren't their intolerance and disrespect for the rest of us one of the major
>problems?
>
>Are criticisms of religion to be forbidden for American Leftists because we
>must 'respect' and 'tolerate' the religious thoughts of all believers,
>including those of the believers who say abortion is murder?
>
>Yoshie
>
>
>



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