DG:
What's your advice for dealing with intolerant people?
Gut response: A baseball bat
Seriously: I try to remember not to be a bad example that builds on their misjudgement. And, if I am knowledgeable about the topic I might try to find out why they came to the conclusions they did--not to debate but to understand what influences and information affected their views.
Sometimes I walk away knowing that an argument solves nothing. Other times, if someone is about to be hurt, I will speak up so that they know not everyone shares their offensive view (silence means acceptance.)
As a missionary going door-to-door in Northern California I had quite a few opportunities to experience a lack of tolerance for my faith. Slammed doors, derogatory remarks, obscenity-laced proclamations of God's Will (!?),--even confronted at gunpoint once! The most we could do is be polite and go our way hoping that we had not purposefully given them more fodder for their snit. Lots of things might run through my mind but I had to remember that if I spoke I couldn't take it back. You can't un-ring a bell.
I'm not always able to help myself. I remember hearing one elderly southern woman make an extremely loud anti-semetic remark about a lovely lady sitting near me and my mom. The speaker was very proud of her wit (tho', to their credit, her associates looked very dismayed). I asked my mother who the woman was and the reply was that she was a stalwart member of a local church group. So as we walked by her, I said very loudly... "Gee, I wonder if she realizes that Jesus, himself, was Jewish." Not witty...but I couldn't resist--and her glare was worth it!
Anyone still awake?
Where are we going, and why am I in this handbasket?
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Updated On: 2/6/06 at 06:49 PM
