I have been
distressed this past week by the efforts of the governing party in Quebec to
pass its Charter of Quebec Values, essentially banning all expressions of
religious expression from public life.
For those of you who have not followed this story – if passed, employees
of public institutions will be forbidden from wearing anything but the smallest
of religious symbols to work. In other
words, hijabs, turbans, kippas – all will be banned. From the government’s perspective, they are
protecting Quebec’s cultural values of secularism. From the perspective of those opposed, at
best, the government is promoting intolerance; at worst such legislated action
can lay the foundation for increased hatred, bullying and other acts of violence.
What does it mean
to be a tolerant society? Intolerance
and conflict after all are so very closely linked. It is true that some of the conflicts we
encounter are over real and tangible issues.
One could even argue that the debate in Quebec is over a real and
tangible issue: What does it mean to be
identified as Quebecois? Under such a
real and tangible issue, however, often lies a more hidden and potentially
sinister root. We just don’t like or tolerate those who differ from us. Or even worse, we gain unity by mutually excluding another. I am reminded that the holocaust was made
possible in part because of years and years of sanctioned exclusion and
intolerance.
Lest we feel
comforted that we are not Quebec, let us consider how this underlying intolerance
might find expression in our own lives. Perhaps
we cannot accept this other person because their personality is too odd or too
strange or too loud or too quiet. Or we
cannot accept this other person because they belong to a group of which we are
suspicious. Or we cannot accept this
other because in some way, we are threatened by their very existence. When we are intolerant of differences we run
the very serious risk of not only dehumanizing the other, we ourselves are
dehumanized.
As I write this,
I am hearing echoes in my mind of people I know who have struggled with abusive
or unkind colleagues yet they have been told that they must tolerate these very
colleagues because the issue is simply that their personalities differ from one
another. In other words, the people have
been accused of intolerance. Acceptance
of differences does not mean acceptance of abuse. In contexts of abuse or dysfunction, we may
need to enhance our boundaries absolutely.
Acceptance of differences, however, does mean being open to crossing the
divide that separates all of us, to seeing all people of all walks of life as
being on this journey together.
Acceptance of differences asks us to curiously, respectfully and even
lovingly grant one another unconditional positive regard.