Another Gold for Progressives in the Intolerance Olympics

Written by Peter Heck

Much has been said about the Harrison Butker situation over the course of the last few days, but I wonder if anyone has paused to consider how violative the secular progressive left is right now of their own rules of inclusion and open-mindedness.

A few years ago, I watched a commencement address at a moderately sized public university. The speaker spent nothing short of 25 minutes warning the graduates about the perils of homophobia, transphobia, climate change, and more than a few other buzzwords associated with our state religion.

To be clear, what I heard were purely religious views. They were privately held, publicly promoted, moral declarations about right and wrong, righteousness and wickedness. Good people, to hear the speaker tell it, embrace “alternative sexualities,” endorse the expanding catalog of pronouns, and participate in demanding divestment from any corporation not fully committed to “green” technologies.

I, and undoubtedly a fair contingent of the audience that day, vehemently disagree with the religious views that were preached from the public-school dais. In fact, I remember more than a couple incredulous chuckles, annoyed eye rolls, frustrated grunts, and exasperated watch glances throughout the speech.

What I don’t remember, however, was being invited by other dissidents to sign a Change.org petition to have the speaker fired from his job because he believes things we don’t believe. Interesting concept, no? We didn’t like what he said, we didn’t agree with what he said – in fact, many of us recognized that what he said represents an eternal threat to the thousands of souls exposed to his words. Yet no one, to my recollection, lost all control of their bodily functions, shouted him down, or demanded his life be ruined as recompense for his sins.

If you’re not familiar with what that behavior we all exhibited is called, it’s commonly referred to as “tolerance.” That is, the ability to accept that not everyone in this world will believe like you, but that doesn’t mean they are to be mistreated, discriminated against, or punished as a consequence.

So imagine my surprise when I see the collective meltdown being experienced by secular progressives because a Christian spoke at a Christian school graduation ceremony and expressed Christian beliefs.

Want to see how tolerant the left is of those who disagree with them? Here you go:

A https://t.co/ncqnFwPAMH petition is calling on the Chiefs to dismiss kicker Harrison Butker for making several dehumanizing remarks during his commencement speech at Benedictine College on May 11th. Here’s what the three-time Super Bowl champion said about women, Pride Month,… pic.twitter.com/8iYltWDVLB

— Change.org (@Change) May 14, 2024

How does this not qualify as hate speech under the left’s own rules? They are intentionally and overtly seeking to inflict psychological, financial, and emotional pain on another individual because of his religious beliefs. There’s a word for that too. It’s called bigotry.

This is all very instructive to any objective observer paying attention. The secular progressive left has long tagged Christians with the label of narrow-mindedness. They’ve used it as a pejorative to intellectually dismiss and culturally demonize people they disagree with philosophically. It’s always been a stupid premise to a thinking person. What makes us Christians narrow-minded? That we believe our presuppositions are sound and our opinions are right?

Pray tell, who doesn’t believe the same thing about their own?

If the argument is that Christians have an inability to coexist with those who see the world differently, I’d like to take a moment to introduce those making such an argument to something called Western Civilization. There’s a reason you don’t see nutty progressives driving their Subarus down the streets of Riyadh or Beijing with a “Coexist” bumper sticker.

Survey history, or simply take notice of current events. You’ll quickly notice Christians are rarely the ones trafficking in intolerance. But as a certain kicker from Kansas City can attest to, we’re the ones who often receive it.

This article was originally published by NotTheBee.com.

Peter Heck is a writer, speaker, and teacher from Indiana. He is married to Jenny, and is the father of three kids. Peter holds to the infallibility and inerrancy of Scripture in his teaching and writing, and has a passion for biblical literacy and for demonstrating the Bible’s applicability to all of life. 

Peter is the lead opinion writer for “Not the Bee.” His opinions have also been published in the Washington Times, Washington Post, USA Today, and on CNN, MSNBC, and Fox News. A former radio host, Peter produces a daily podcast and has authored a number of books on Christians and the culture.