Tolerance does not require celebration or acceptance

There has been an emphasis on ”cultural inclusion”. It has been suggested that in order to be a “tolerant person”, an individual must accept and celebrate different (Non-traditional lifestyles and households) lifestyles. If you are not celebrating and encouraging different lifestyles, then you are labeled an intolerant individual and un-American. let’s set the record straight. The Oxford Dictionary defines tolerate as: ”allow the existence, occurrence, or practice of (something that one does not necessarily like or agree with.- author’s addition -) without interference”. Please take note of the definition. It does not require one to celebrate the tolerated culture or lifestyle. Tolerance requires one to allow the culture or lifestyle to exist without interference. One need not promote or celebrate the differences. One need not allow special legal exceptions to promote or subsidize the culture or practice.

An individual is not a ”hater” because he does not believe in or wish to pRomote a practice or alternative lifestyle. An individual is allowed to believe these life choices are wrong or even sinful. Tolerance does not require acceptance or adoption of a lifestyle. I am tired of being told that we must celebrate single parenthood. This is simply not required to be tolerant.

Studies have shown that a two parent (father and mother) household is the best way to raise children. Yet we have insisted on denying the optimal way to raise children and chosen to promote and even subsidize single parent households as well as alternative lifestyle households. This celebration of cultural alternatives has become so prevalent that we now brand those, who choose not to believe in these alternative families as ”haters”. We have also silenced our clergy. We seek to use the power of government to compel acceptance. We have gone so far as to attempt to promote some alternative lifestyles as civil rights, which if denied are actionable through use of governmental force. Does anyone believe this is what our founders intended? Does anyone believe that a governmental entity should have to be involved to get a child supported? Do we need to have formulas and tax like guidelines in order to determine how to financially support our own offspring?

Obviously,those who choose to promote these choices have never had to listen to both minority and non minority men (now single fathers themselves. lament the fact that they had no father figure in their life. They have never had to hear the hurt in their voice as they spoke of life in a single family home. Don’t get me wrong.. They unanimously express love for their mother, but all express a profound sense of loss because they did not have the benefit of a loving father in their home. They all said they did not know how to be a fathers. Further they acknowledge that they have now put their offspring and the person they claimed to have loved in the same circumstance they suffered through by their absence. So the cycle continues and our self proclaimed “tolerant” society continues to celebrate single motherhood and maternal led families as if it is a new cultural norm. It is a “Women’s Issue”. They contend it is the only way women can be truly free. Meanwhile the pulpits of both the minority and non minority community remain silent. All the while society crumbles. Individuals, who could have made it financially together now flounder apart and the children continue to suffer. The politicians continue to promote programs now decades old, which purport to make government responsible for parenting. Does anyone believe these programs work? Does anyone really believe that government can replace a two parent home?

No one denies that some bad and even abusive relationships occur as do bad personal choices, but for society to continue to accept and now celebrate single parenting because some bad or abusive situations occur continues the curse that is passed down from one generation to the next. Monogamy and two parent homes must be promoted by our society. There must still be a place in society for selflessness. Life is not just about an individual’s quest for eternal bliss on earth. Life is sometimes very “real and hard” and actions do have consequences for both yourself and others. If you don’t believe that, sit in on a mandatory Court ordered parenting class.

So, I say parents tell your children, if they make children, they must find a way to live as a family and they have a duty to build a home and be a role model “for their children”. Government programs and support agencies can’t replace parents.

Actions still have consequences. SOS people, the act of sexual relations causes children. Let’s at least teach this much biology in our failing schools. Children still need two parents. If you are old enough to do the act, then you have to be old enough to take responsibility for the life you create as well as responsibility to assist the other parent in raising and nurturing “your” child/children. Pulpits can no longer be silent! The answer to procreation is not the extermination of our young, while in the womb or promotion of single parent unsustainable households,so the irresponsible pro-creators can continue in their quest for elusive happiness.

Yes, I have heard the stories of the young abandoned youth, now young men. Each would tell you of their sense of loss and many will do so, while condemning their own Offspring to the same fate by their absence.. Only we can solve this problem and it starts by understanding the real definition of tolerance. Yes, sometimes situations dictate that two individuals live apart for the safety of all, but that exceptional circumstance must not be allowed to dictate a cultural norm. Tolerance does not require celebration or even acceptance and certainly should never dictate creation of a new societal norm.

I want to hear your comments and experiences. Please share!

Author: Walter graff

former Ohio Public service executive. Conservative for life. Life long Ohio resident