Step Ten

Seek tolerance and, when possible accept all religious faiths without judgment.

Tolerance is not an easy virtue. A friend of mine has a “coexist” bumper sticker on his car and he told me that people at his work criticize him for it. Our enemies are our greatest teachers of tolerance. We choose people to be our friends based a lot on how well we get along with them. Why would we select narrow-minded, bigoted people for friends unless we believed the same way they did?

I used to work with a Buddhist. Many of the letter carriers made fun of him and mistreated him. It seemed odd to me that those who were the most vocal opposing his way of believing were also people who I never viewed as being particularly religious. They certainly didn’t seem to be spiritual individuals although I suppose that’s a bit of a judgment on my part, and I’m trying not to be judgmental.

I also have to remind myself that not too many years ago I would have joined in on the criticism. To be tolerant means to put ourselves in their shoes and try to see life from their perspective. We believe we are right, but so do they. If we were alone in their culture we would appreciate people who tolerated our beliefs, so shouldn’t we extend them the same courtesy? Tolerance happens one individual at a time.