[E-rundbrief] Info 263 - Leonardo Boff: Limits of Tolerance

[Matthias Reichl]

E-Rundbrief - Info 263 -  Leonardo Boff: Limits of Tolerance.

Bad Ischl, 11.8.2005

Begegnungszentrum für aktive Gewaltlosigkeit

www.begegnungszentrum.at

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Limits of Tolerance

Leonardo Boff

Everything has limits, even tolerance, because not everything in this
world is worthwhile. The prophets of yesterday and today sacrificed
their lives because they raised their voices and had the courage to say:
«You are not allowed to do what you are doing.» There are times when
tolerance means complicity with crime, guilty omission, ethical
insensitivity or simply, accomodation.


We should not be tolerant of those who have the power to erradicate
life from the Planet and to destroy a great part of the biosphere. We
have to keep them under strict control.

We should not be tolerant of those who kill innocent people, sexually
abuse children, traffic with human organs. We must apply the law to its
fullest extent to them.

We should not be tolerant with those who enslave children, making
them work to produce goods at lower prices to reap huge profits in the
world market. We must apply to them the world legislation.

We must not tolerate the terrorists who, in the name of their religion or
political agendas, commit crimes and slaughter human beings. We must
stop them and bring them before the tribunals of justice.

We must not tolerate those who falsify medicines that cause death or
who implement corrupt policies that waste public resources. We have
to be especially hard on these people because they squander the good
of the whole community.

We must not tolerate the mafia that trafficks in weapons, drugs and
prostitution, using kidnapping, torture and physical elimination of
human beings. There are clear punishments for them.

We must not tolerate practices that, in the name of culture, cut off the
hands of the thieves and force women to endure genital mutilation.
Human Rights must prevail over those practices.

On all these levels we must never be tolerant, but decisevely firm,
rigorous and severe. This is a virtue of justice, not a vice of intolerance.
If we do not do that, we will have no principles and will be accomplices
of evil.

Unlimited tolerance destroys tolerance, in the same way that liberty
without limits leads to the tyranny of the strongest. Both liberty and
tolerance, then, need the protection of law. If not, we will see the
dictatorship of those whose world vision claims to be the only one,
unique, and denies all others. From this springs anger and the desire
for revenge, the breeding ground of terrorism.

Where are then the limits of tolerance? They are in suffering, in human
rights and in the rights of nature. Tolerance ends whenever a person is
dehumanized. No one has the right to impose unjust suffering on
other.

These rights are stated in the Letter of the Human Rights, of the UN,
signed by all countries. All traditions must follow these precepts.
Practices that imply violations of such pronouncements cannot be
justified. The Letter of the Earth protects the rights of nature. Anyone
who violates them lacks legitimacy.

Finally, do we have to be tolerant with the intolerant? History shows
that to combat intolerance with intolerance leads to an spiral of
intolerance. The pragmatic attitude seeks to establish limits. If
intolerance means crime and the evident abuse of others, the rigor of
the law must prevail and intolerance must be limited. Outside of this
legal restriction, there must be liberty. The intolerant must be
confronted with the reality that all share as lour iving space, engaging
him in constant dialogue to make him think about the contradictions of
his position. The best path is a total democracy that tends to include
everyone without exception, and respects a common social pact.

*Theologian

(Quelle unbekannt)

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    Matthias Reichl, Pressesprecher/ press speaker,
     Begegnungszentrum fuer aktive Gewaltlosigkeit
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