Ladyinred,
I agree that intolerance is a bad thing...and I don't promote it. But tolerance means understanding another without condemning them... and Christianity, as popularly believed, is a faith that tends to promote a singular path to heaven. It's hard to adhere to Christianity that believes that Christ is the only road to salvation, aka Heaven, and not believe that Christians have the truth... It's so "exclusive" in its very wording and its historical understanding....
This is where it is most difficult I think for Christians to practice the kind of "ecumenical-ness" that Scott was defining in the original post... It's like believing that the doctor who went to medical school knows what he's talking about when referring to your friend's life-threatening illness, and also believing an alternative medicine doctor.... When it comes to your own life or the life of someone you care about, you want to get it right... and if I'm wrong, i want to change. that's why I'm open to discussion.
Christianity tends to dwell on the afterlife, instead of the life here. That's a flaw we can still correct. other faiths--pagan, buddhist--reflect an understanding of the life here and that's what I think would be good to understand from them....a way to make my own faith better, expand my own understanding.... but not leave my faith, not nullify the concepts that I've grown to believe.... just expand the everyday faith i have. I don't see it as intolerance if I'm open to listening and expanding on the Truth that I see present in another faith...but for me tolerance is not negating what you believe in order to believe what each new person believes... and that is a danger too. No one likes the teacher who tells every student they are correct.... or respects a person who has nothing they believe.... (in my experience even agnostics believe something....). I think buddhists, pagans, etc. enjoy having the dialogue with someone who has a christian faith--and believes it-- as much as I enjoy them talking about and believing theirs. Heck I hope they do---maybe they just like my coffee...
