Dear IVCC Community:
Three recent tragic events have prompted this letter. First, the murder of Brian Thompson, the CEO of UnitedHealthcare by Luigi Mangione, second, the murder of Ukrainian immigrant Iryna Zarutska by Decarlos Brown Jr., and third, the assassination of Charlie Kirk by Tyler Robinson, although there are many more, and they are not all perpetrated by one political side.
During the past 50 years, the value of tolerance has replaced forgiveness in American culture. This is partly because we’ve been told to be tolerant and partly because tolerance and forgiveness often feel the same, even though they come from different human impulses. Today, we are no longer expected to forgive grievances, love our enemies, do good to those who hate us, bless those who curse us, pray for those who mistreat us, or to forgive those who trespass against us. Instead, we are expected to be tolerant of others and their behavior, even when it violates our deepest values. As in the aforementioned murders, we as Americans have been expected to tolerate the intolerable. News people, social-media influencers and teachers often preach tolerance rather than forgiveness. Although this may seem laudable at first, it is actually misplaced compassion, because not every action should be tolerated nor rationalized nor explained away in the name of tolerance or social justice or creating a civil society. Tolerance is not civility; often it is tolerating incivility. So, we should not be a tolerant society. Instead, we should be a good society, because goodness is an end unto itself, while tolerance is a matter of personal endurance. And, although human beings can tolerate a lot, eventually they reach a point where they can tolerate no more, and then they break. Their inability to tolerate intolerable acts upon themselves or their society turns to resentment, then to hatred, and then to killing. Sometimes they kill discriminately, sometimes indiscriminately, but they kill, nevertheless. An Emerson College poll of Gen Z recently revealed that nearly half of 14-28 year-olds believe that political violence is acceptable as a means of achieving political ends. Turning this around is a matter of survival for our nation, as well as ensuring that there is a good and prosperous future for young people.
The remedy is forgiveness, which the Christian bible reinforces again and again. Whether you are a believer or not, the need for forgiveness is essential, because we cannot have a civil society without it. And although Christian values are often mocked today, the Christian ethic mandating forgiveness must outweigh our current societal ethic mandating tolerance, because given the former, we live as a civil society, and given the latter, we die the death that we are experiencing today. So, vote for whomever you wish, but remember, government and economics are not enough to save us. We needn’t all be Christians in order to forgive, but we must have that all-important Christian value of forgiveness at our core. If Luigi Mangione had it, then Brian Thompson would still be alive. If Decarlos Brown Jr. had it, then Iryna Zarutska would still be alive. And if Tyler Robinson had it, then Charlie Kirk would still be alive and traveling to college campuses and engaging with young people in civil debate. Isn’t that what we want anyway, civil debate? Of course it is, but we can’t have that if we won’t forgive each other. It’s not good enough to simply tolerate meanness, violence and acts of evil from ourselves and others; we need to learn to forgive instead of committing those evil acts in the first place. When we begin to do that, then we will become a civil and virtuous society. So, let us walk away from blind tolerance, it’s been tried, it’s failed, it is not the solution. Only forgiveness will save us.

Luke 6:27-38, Colossians 3:12-17

Respectfully,

Michael Pecherek
IVCC Faculty