I enjoy listening to CBC’s Ideas. This week, there is a three part show on The Trouble With Tolerance, which seeks to discuss the limits of tolerance in Canada.

Questions associated with this topic include: Should we allow racial, ethnic, and/or religious profiling if, statistically, it is effective? How should Canadians engage cultures and religions that are oppressive to women or hateful to certain groups? Should we tolerate intolerant people? What are the limits to tolerance? To what extent is multiculturalism feasible (especially if a society seeks to hold democratic and liberal values)? Can values be freely chosen and/or should a nation impose values on a people? (I say yes.)

The question of how much we tolerate intolerance interests me greatly. I believe there are limits to tolerance. For example, more legislation is needed regarding how children are educated (we shouldn’t tolerate private schools that teach children to hate) and laws surrounding what expressions of religion are allowable for Canada (eg. religions promoting violent jihad or hatred of homosexuals or Jews). Of course, I have the same concerns of the “slippery slope” into a Big Brother type of government, however a just government can involve itself in the affairs of its citizens without becoming tyrannical. I think a just government is possible.

Returning to the radio program . . .
Sadly, the two out of three of the guests on CBC’s Ideas had little notion of the complexities surrounding the limits of tolerance. Instead, the debate was hijacked and became focused on tolerance in general. This prompted me to write Ideas a strongly worded email—which I seldom do.

Greetings,
As a frequent listener of CBC’s Ideas, I find your show personally and intellectually stimulating. However, the recent show, The Trouble With Tolerance, was below your regular caliber. While Michael Blake provided listeners with lucid argument, your selection of Genevieve Chornenki and Sunny Yi was unfortunate. I believe that this topic warrants much better attention, and I hope you will consider pursuing this discussion in the future. Neither Chorneki nor Yi displayed an ability to listen or respond to Blake’s arguments; the show tumbled into ad hominem arguments and anecdotes.
I hope you will more evenly weigh your debates in the future. I believe this format would be successful with other guests.
Many thanks,
Leif

Are there limits to tolerance? What are your thoughts?

The Values of Leif and Laura: Our Marriage Covenant

We, Leif and Laura, work to be people of deepest love, living our values and striving to take the actions of love in every situation. We express these values as vows; this action reminds us of who we are, and who we wish to be. These vows both identify us and guide us away from our shortcomings. These values define our partnership.
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I experienced Bringing Out the Dead, directed by Martin Scorsese, again last night. I strongly recommend that you watch this patient and poetic movie about mad New York nights.
This Easter weekend I have read from Richard Kearney’s The God Who May Be: A Hermeneutics of Religion, which posits God a potential rather than actual—a powerful Easter meditation.

Nel mezzo del cammin di nostra vita
mi ritrovai per una selva oscura
ché la diritta via era smarrita. . . .

The end is always a beginning.