Tolerance in Texas

Texas ranks #29 on tolerance rating.

Religious Tolerance Then and Now

Here's a link to a story that points to controversy in 1879 regarding the construction of a Catholic Church in an unfavorable location.

Is the current controversy regarding Islam simply the latest in a series of similar controversies going back centuries?

- Anti-Catholicism in the United States.
- Anti-Semitism in the United States.
- Guy Fawkes.
- Anti-Mormonism.
- Anti- Jehovah's Witnesses.

oops...

I nelected to mention in my previous post about the problem created when society tolerantes the intolerant.

This problem has been especially difficult for countries like The Neatherlands which, due to high levels of tolerance, now find themselves populated by groups that do not share that value. The muder of Theo Van Gogh was a case in point--as are others.

The Tyranny of Tolerance

I've just now come across this phrase "the tyranny of tolerance" and was hoping to get some feedback about it.

It's the title of a recent book by a Missouri judge upset by the liberalizing trends he not only notices in the greater society, but feels are being unduly imposed on conservative individuals such as him. I've yet to read it (and to be honest there are several dozen books on my to read this before his), but the premise that tolerance can be tyrannous is compelling. In Federalist #10 Madison did suggest that pure democracies can be agents of tyranny--"tyrannies of the majority" we call them.

A significant level of tolerance is argued to be a key determinant in the degree to which a country can become a democracy. Perhaps a lack of tolerance is what is keeping Iraq from becoming a democracy. So what might the judge be complaining about?