I can think of many words to describe my father, but tolerant is not one of them.

Students in the Latin classes he taught at Northwestern College would agree. From the first day of class, his students recognized that this serious-faced professor would tolerate nothing less than their total attention and their best effort. He would not be tolerant of careless mistakes. He was even more intolerant of students who were lazy or who gave less than their best in their preparation for class.

No one knew better of his intolerance than his children. He was a father who would not tolerate even a hint of disrespect or misbehavior from his children. He was intolerant of anything less than his children's best effort in school or in their work. He was intolerant when his children acted without thinking or when they spent money foolishly.

I thank God for my father's intolerance. Through his intolerance, he showed genuine love.

It was that intolerance that instilled in his children the values that they still hold today: the importance of regular worship, a clear sense of right and wrong, a respect for authority, the virtue of hard work, the importance of honesty, the commitment to family, and the need for careful stewardship of God's material blessings.

In today's politically correct view, one of the greatest sins is that of intolerance. For freedom-loving Americans, the argument for tolerance seems irresistibly attractive and compelling. After all, America is a land of freedom, born from a desire of our founders to be free from tyranny and oppression and founded on principles championing the rights of the individual. It is often said that people should be free to believe and live as they please as long as no one else is harmed.

But this culture of tolerance has gone far beyond the defense of the right to think and live in freedom. In the name of toleration of all views and actions, the idea has caught on that it's no longer legitimate to distinguish between right and wrong, moral and immoral, truth and falsehood. Anything and everything should be tolerated. This thinking has had a devastating effect on nearly every area of society. In a society drunk with the wine of tolerance—where there is no longer any right or wrong—moral standards disappear, families disintegrate, schools decay, and self-interest rules.

Not surprisingly, the toleration agenda has invaded vast stretches of the Christian church in America. We saw clear evidence of this last August. The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) voted to allow homosexual men and women to serve as pastors in ELCA congregations. It did this in the name of "love" and in a spirit of toleration. Our synod issued a public statement critical of this action since it marked another clear departure from the truth of God's Word.