Should there be tolerance and the avoidance of dogmatic truth claims, or fanaticism in which one's position is absolutely right?

Proverbs 28:5

Evildoers do not understand what is right,
    but those who seek the Lord understand it fully.

Proverbs 29:27

The righteous detest the dishonest;
    the wicked detest the upright.

Such sayings portray a world apparently without a middle ground, a world with a fundamental conflict between good and evil


Depiction of the Devil as seen in the Codex Gigas,
the largest extant medieval manuscript in the world

Proverbs 28:5 and 29:27 portray the mutual intolerance of the righteous and the wicked. The assumption is that righteous folk understand and align themselves with the divine perspective on good and evil (28:5; 29:7). Wicked folk and wickedness are abhorrent to God (6:16-19; 8:7; 21:27), and in this the righteous imitate God. God's enemies are their enemies, because God's enemies do evil. This thought comes to strong expression in Psalm 139:19-22 (from the divine side, confer Genesis 12:3; Numbers 24:9). Such sayings portray a world apparently without a middle ground, a world with a fundamental conflict between good and evil. In our tolerant, pluralistic society, such thinking seems troublesome, especially when we see the violence done by groups seeking to impose their understanding of good and evil on others. Should we not rather "live and let live"?
Yet Jesus also spoke in terms of conflict. "Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters" (Matthew 12:130). How are we to understand such biblical language today?

One the one hand there is a strong insistence on tolerance and avoiding dogmatic truth claims. On the other hand, there is a fanaticism in which divergent views should be destroyed


A suicide bombing at the moment of detonation
in Akuressa, Sri Lanka on March 10, 2009.

Two extreme currents compete in the contemporary culture, and yet they seem to feed on one another in a strange symbiosis. One the one hand there is a strong insistence -- itself often dogmatic -- on tolerance and avoiding dogmatic truth claims. No one person or group may presume to have the truth because such claims are actually covert bids for power and self-aggrendisement. A moral collary, especially in the media, seems to be that "anything goes." On the other hand there is a fanaticism in which one's position or the position of one's group is absolutely right; nothing is ambiguous, and divergent views should be destroyed. To the extent that such thinking is theologically aware, human thought is identified with God's thought, ignoring that even divine revelation must be interpreted by fallible humans. In such thinking "the end justifies the means," including violence. All balance is lost; public discourse is destroyed.

Tolerance is not an adequate response to evil

The punishing of John Hooper during the Marian Persecutions
on February 9, 1555 as depicted in Foxe's Book of Martyrs.

Proverbs 29:27 offers a reproof to the first current rather than the second. An yet, unless this proverb is taken seriously, the second, fanatic current will be given free play. Proverbs reminds us that we may not elevate moral ambiguity and religious mystery to the point of relativism, where the lines between right and wrong, good and evil, true and false, are erased (Isaiah 5:18-23). At that point tolerance is no longer a virtue, but moral indifference in the face of evil. It is an abandonment of the social responsibility to which the God of the Bible continually calls us. Christians cannot, for example, remain silent and inactive in the face of oppression or racial hate -- whether in Nazi Europe or in America with its burning of black churches. Tolerance is not an adequate response to evil.

The Scriptures insist that in and through creation God has shown all humans enough of God's own self and of good and evil that we are "without excuse" (Romans 1:18-20; 2:14-15). No one may say, "we did not know" (Proverbs 24:12 and 8:1-36). God has shown what is good, and what God requires is especially open to those who have the Scriptures (Micah 6:8, Proverbs 29:18).

Source: Van Leeuwen, Raymond. “Proverbs.” In The New Interpreter’s Bible, Volume 5:17-264. (Nashville: Abingdon, 1997), page 246-247.

According to the Book of Proverbs, "The rich rule over the poor, and the borrower is slave to the lender." As it was three thousand years ago, so it is today.

Proverbs 22:2, 7, 9 and 16:

Rich and poor have this in common:
   The Lord is the Maker of them all.
The rich rule over the poor,
   and the borrower is slave to the lender.
The generous will themselves be blessed,
   for they share their food with the poor.
One who oppresses the poor to increase his wealth
   and one who gives gifts to the rich—both come to poverty.

1. Proverbs 22:7 speaks of the profound effect debtor and creditor status has on personal relations.

The New York Stock Exchange on Wall Street

Even in the United States -- which is deeply committed to the myth of individual freedom and equality -- economic status greatly determines one's freedom and class and the degree to which equality under law is actually available. The proverb makes no moral pronouncements; it simply observes a fact of life. Yet, Israel's law consistently forbade lenders from taking interest from the poor.  By implication, 22:7 in its biblical context sharply condemns one of today's common banking practices. When banks charge usurious interest rates on their freely offered credit cards -- while knowing that generally the financially vulnerable are driven to amass credit-card debt -- they offend the God who cares for the poor.


The National Debt Clock

Perhaps this proverb applies also to international relations, a possibility that time will answer for America. In the 1980s, the United States went from being the world's largest creditor nation to being the largest debtor nation. Wealthy America may become a "servant" to its international creditors, its freedom to act in international affairs compromised by its financial obligations. This issue is of even greater moment for poor, developing nations with large foreign debts. Often cash crops for export (coffee, cocoa, opium poppies, and the coca leaf used to make cocaine) are grown instead of foodstuffs desperately needed by the native population. The Lord of the nations also judges nations that exploit those weaker than themselves.

2. Wealth gained by wronging, oppressing, or taking advantage of the poor stands under God's condemnation.

The 2013 Savar building collapse in Bangladesh resulted in a death toll of 1,129.
The building housed garment factories that manufactured apparel for Western stores.

In ancient Israel, this happened when the wealthy bought up -- and kept -- the land of the destitute, so depriving them of their heritage in the land of promise.   But Proverbs also condemns giving to the rich (22:16). On planet Earth, where resources are limited, the excessive increase of goods for some means loss for many others, both domestically and internationally. This happens when damage to human beings and to the environment results from the manufacture and use of earth-destructive technological products. It happens when executives are paid exorbitant sums as their companies downsize, merge through debt-increasing buyouts, and overwork their remaining employees. It happens when jobs are hipped to sweatshops hidden in inner cities or overseas. It happens when a country's tax code and other laws promote a massive shift of wealth from ordinary people to the nation's richest inhabitants. We expand our little kingdoms at the expense of our neighbors and at the expense of the natural kingdoms -- plant, animal, and mineral. Thus we disrupt the righteous order of God's kingdom's coming on earth (Matt 6:10). This we do to our own peril. In the long run, such activities lead to the opposite of what they are intended to do, to loss instead of to gain.

Source: Van Leeuwen, Raymond.  “Proverbs.” In The New Interpreter’s Bible, Volume 5:17-264.  (Nashville: Abingdon, 1997), pages 199-200.