The furore surrounding remarks made by the Australian Rugby player, Israel Folau, and given some support by England's Billy Vunipola, suggests that tolerance is now in pretty short supply.
Folau and Vunipola are people who have strong religious faith; both have strong beliefs derived from their faith, though neither promotes hatred or violence against anyone. What they have done is to state their beliefs that certain actions are inconsistent with their faith and that perpetrators of an assortment of things they believe to be offences will ultimately suffer in what might be termed 'the afterlife'. As a consequence of stating his beliefs, Folau has been kicked out of the Australian national squad and Vunipola is to face some sort of RFU investigation.
The 'crime' committed by these 2 men is that they do not agree with the current and 'acceptable' view of the world as imposed on society by those in authority in response to noisy pressure groups. Their treatment effectively means that the expression of religious views is now disallowed, unless those views are of the 'turn the other cheek' variety and are in accordance with current liberal thinking. To all intents and purposes, it is censorship of individuals' right to have and to express views which are counter to what is deemed to be 'acceptable' by those who have power over us.
Neither Folau nor Vunipola has suggested that those they see as behaving unacceptably should be mistreated in this life, what they have done is to state a view about their fate in 'the next life'. Why is this unacceptable ? It is my belief that there is no 'next life', but if someone wants to tell me I'll be sent to hell for having such a belief, so what ? If Folau and Vunipola believe what they have read in the Christian Bible and that, after death, homosexuals will find themselves in Hell, who cares ? Having such a belief harms no one, nor does expressing it. If anything, it makes them look foolish.
There was a time when people were allowed to express all manner of views, right or wrong, good or bad, but no more. The tolerance that once existed has been superceded by the imposition of standardised views to which we must all accede or face the consequences. This is indoctrination; it is dictatorship of our thoughts and beliefs and it's shocking.
However, Joseph Goebbels would be proud of it.
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