In a culture of increasing moral, religious, and political disagreement, it’s imperative that we protect people’s right to be wrong. I can’t say it any better than Os Guinness:
Respect for freedom of conscience means that, while we respect people’s right to believe what their conscience dictates that they believe, even if we think they are dead wrong, we have a right and sometimes a duty to disagree with them, though their right to believe has to be countered by our responsibility to disagree with the civilly and persuasively.
He goes on further to say in The Case for Civility:
Tolerance is infinitely better than its opposite: intolerance. But tolerance that is blase about error and evil, and tolerance that flip-flops into intolerance, are two sides of the same bad coin. Equally, it is bad to be silenced and not allowed to speak, but it is no better to be seduced by polite words and a politically correct atmosphere. Far better to have a tough-minded view of tolerance that simultaneously knows what it believes and respects the right of others to their beliefs, and knows how to debate forcefully but civilly when there is disagreement.
As Christians we need to be thoughtful, courageous, winsome, and tolerant (in the aforementioned sense). Everyone loses if truth is removed from the public square. Because if this happens, all that will remain is the struggle for power.
