D. A. Carson could
easily be my favorite author. I've talked to one of his former students, and
it seems that his intelligence so far surpasses that of everyone around him
that it frustrates him. However, you can tell from his writings and his
lectures that he deliberately simplifies the ideas that are easy for us him to
understand, but difficult for others. There are rumors that at times he reads three books a day, and has
memoried the entire Greek New Testament. John Piper admires him for his ability
to "read just about everything there is" on a topic.
The thesis of this
book is not complex or hard to understand. It is rather obvious from the title
that it exposes the hypocrisy of tolerance. That is to say, the evolving
definition of "tolerance" is intolerant towards those who have higher
standards of morals and truth than others. For example, it is becoming
increasingly "intolerant" to express the belief that homosexuality is
morally wrong.
From everyday
experience, or at least from the media, this is not a novel concept. Most
Westerners have experienced this. The idea is not novel, but value of this book
comes from its rich source of cited examples of intolerant tolerance. They
include cases from homosexuality to a man jailed for mailing pictures of
aborted fetuses to a hospital that performs them. This source of citable cases
of intolerant tolerance make it well worth the read.
Carson concludes
with these words, "If something more than sneering condescension should be imposed on
Christians in Western countries.... It is likely to come incrementally in the
name of preserving tolerance.... And if this were to happen we would gladly bear it,
and learn a little better how to do evangelism in our prisons."
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