Jesus Freaks are Intolerant Bigots

Meet the Intolerista

As I read more than 400 pages of focus group transcripts over and over for insight into what people think and feel and why, I was struck by their constant efforts to sound gray even as they speak in black and white. It seems that the key to speaking out against intolerance is to find a way to do it without seeming intolerant.

Like poker players with a tell, the focus group participants signaled their true intent with language like “I think,” “I feel,” “for me,” “to me,” “I personally believe,” “not to judge,” “in my opinion,” “personally,” “from my perspective,” “in my experience,” “I believe,” “my belief system,” “not to be stereotypical,” “not to be judgmental,” “from my understanding,” “in my mind,” “in my life,” “in my case,” and “I try not to be judgmental, but….”

Those verbal qualifiers do nothing to alter the black and white statements that followed. To say “In my experience, Christians are bigots” is no less black and white than “Christians are bigots. It does not change the basic assertion to say, “Not to be stereotypical, but Christians are greedy,” rather than, “Christians are greedy.” It seems like everyone, including you, is an intolerant hypocrite which is the subject of the next blog.