Is Intolerance Our National Problem?

In a recent piece, pundit Bill O’Reilly asserted "... our new collective hobby is despising those who hold different points of view."

In my view, O'Reilly misses the point rather dramatically - as if the simple fact that people having "different points of view" explains the rising divisiveness and hostility among us - utterly without reference to the substance of what is being disagreed upon.  As if our refusal to be tolerant of our neighbors' opinions explains our potential descent into tribalism. He implies that everyone is responsible because everyone is intolerant of those who take a different view - as if all opinions were equally valid and legitimate, as if there were no objective, independent, intellectual, moral or spiritual standards available to enable us to pass judgment on such disagreements - as if "tolerance" and live-and-let-live were the ultimate priority and answer - again without any reference to the substance of the issues that are dividing us. 

Should we be tolerant of those who trample under their feet our hard-won rule of law and the Constitution from which it proceeds? Should we agree to live-and-let-live with those who conspire to overthrow our free and democratic Republic, steal our elections, commandeer our resources to their own ends and generally seek to bring us down under the jackboot and iron fist of their arrogant tyranny?  Should we be tolerant of those who believe they have an unlimited right to our property and the right to tell us how we must live our lives? 

This nation was built upon the Judeo/Christian idea that there are absolute, nonnegotiable principles of right and wrong that have their source in the Supreme Being. These are principles worth fighting for - principles that must be fought for when they are under threat. One of those - perhaps the core and foundational principle - is the free agency of man - human liberty. For those who understand what America is and how it came to be, there can be no tolerance for, no live-and-let-live with those who seek the overthrow of the principle of individual human freedom.

If God himself does not tolerate sin - "For I the Lord cannot look upon sin with the least degree of allowance." - Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Doctrine & Covenants 1:31 - should we?  When we witness many of those around us working seditiously and lawlessly to overthrow our freedoms, should we not consider that sin? An assault against the absolute, God-given principle of human liberty? A sin against God himself who has ordained that men should be free? Should we not then be prepared, as were our illustrious forebears, to fight for our God-given liberty against those who conspire to take it from us? 

Here's what it all really boils down to:

Right vs. wrong, truth vs. lies, reality vs. fantasy, law vs. lawlessness, justice vs. injustice, liberty vs. tyranny, patriotism vs. treason, light vs. darkness, good vs. evil, God vs. the Godless.

There is profound and absolute substance in these ideas, interwoven with the fabric of reality. They draw for us clear lines along which our society is being divided and by which each of us individually will be sorted out - intellectually, morally and spiritually.

You can run, but you can't hide. 

Time to pick a side.  You will, one way or another.

If you can be fooled, you will be.

These are the times that try men's souls...

Torquemada