Can Religious People be Tolerant?

Can a truly religious person really be tolerant of a heretic? Or to rephrase the question, can someone who is convinced that what they believe in is the God given truth not only for themselves but for others as well, tolerate another who has rejected that perceived truth? To the secular person this question sounds absurd: however this is something the religious person must really struggle with.

Religion as a framework has the goal of perfecting the world and making it into a tranquil place for all of humanity. This is the noble Messianic dream found in all major religions. Each religion, however, gives a different method by which this ideal can be achieved. All religions claim that utopia will be reached by following its specific rules, rituals and beliefs. In the eyes of the believer the person who rejects the traditions of their religion misses the opportunity of reaching utopia for all of humanity. How then can the heretic be tolerated?

Judaism lays down a workable structure for this maintaining that it is the role of the Jew, and not of all of humanity to bring about the Messianic epoch. Other people have different purposes in life. Thus, Judaism does not try and convert non-Jews. However, within Judaism itself how are religious Jews supposed to look at Jewish nonbelievers? Are they to be tolerated?

From a cursory reading of the classical texts such as the Torah and Prophets one may conclude that nonbelievers are not to be tolerated at all. However, tradition understands these seemingly uncompromising texts in a different light. Traditional Judaism sees non-observant Jews as students who are still at the beginning of their career in religious learning. The fact that they are not yet following the religion is only because they do not yet understand it fully and do not thus far know how to.

In other words, despite the fiery rhetoric found is some classical Judaic texts about the non-believer, tradition adopts a compassionate stance. Tradition focuses on verses that talk about loving one’s neighbor and treating the stranger with respect and dignity and explains why the more belligerent verses are rarely applicable.

Other religions have similar issues. There is violence in the Hebrew Bible, The New Testament and the Quran. Degradation and promises of severe punishment for the unbeliever are also found in each of the abovementioned books. However, the practitioners of these religions are not all violent people. The reason for this is clear: people who have a tendency towards peace and love will focus on those aspects of their holy books and explain how the violent and intolerant passages hardly apply in reality.

Unfortunately, those bigots and fascists who want to perpetrate violence and killings against others can find ample support in all of the major religious texts. Clearly therefore, just as one cannot blame democracy for wars and killings carried out in its name, it is equally unhelpful to blame a religion for violence that has been perpetrated in its cause.

One must realize that it is people, not religions which are violent, and sadistic people will use religion for their cruel and evil aims. People who are tolerant and peaceful by nature will find these values within their religion. So can religious people be truly tolerant and peace loving? Well it depends on the nature of the person, not of the religion.