Who hijacked tolerance?

Someone has hijacked "tolerance," beaten it over the head, stuffed it into the trunk, taken it to a remote location and tried to change its meaning.

Suddenly, instead of a perfectly nonpolitical word meaning sympathy or indulgence for beliefs and practices differing from and conflicting with one's own, it is now a politically charged word that means acceptance of radical beliefs and principles established by liberals who espouse them.

A new Pew Research survey bears that out.

People who express consistently conservative political attitudes, the survey reports, are least likely to rate teaching tolerance to their children as especially important.

Not so long ago, you were tolerant if you were always neighborly to the same-sex couple next door but didn't choose that lifestyle for yourself and didn't believe that relationship lived up to the term of marriage.

Today, if you do not fully endorse that same couple's lifestyle, ability to marry and worthiness to lead your church, you are not tolerant.

Only yesterday, you were tolerant if you were fully supportive of legal immigration, of giving people who saw the United States as a land of opportunity a shot at earning the right to be here.

Today, if you do not believe all immigrants who broke the law to come to the United States should be made citizens immediately and given all the rights therein, you are not tolerant.

Not very far back, you were tolerant if you thought Muslims had every right to practice their faith in their homes and their mosques just as those of other faiths do.

Today, if you don't believe the religious laws of Muslims should trump those of the wider community, you are not tolerant.

So it's hardly surprising if tolerant American parents are afraid of teaching tolerance.

The survey also finds "being responsible" the most important value of 12 qualities to teach children. That is followed by "hard work," "religious faith," "helping others" and "being well-mannered."

Of the 12 traits, consistent conservatives place highest values, in descending order, on being responsible, religious faith, hard work, being well-mannered and obedience, while consistent liberals prefer being responsible, empathy for others, helping others, hard work and curiosity.

"Helping others" scores highly -- 75 percent or more -- across every ideological group, but "empathy for others" may have become another code word. Only 55 percent of consistent conservatives believe it's an important quality, but 86 percent of consistent liberals think it's a top quality.

In other words, consistent liberals need to feel the need when they help others, while consistent conservatives don't need to feel the need in order to help.

Oddly, according to the survey, "creativity" and "curiosity" also divide survey respondents along ideological lines, though neither word seems particularly politically charged. Consistent liberals (85 percent) see creativity as more important than consistent conservatives (63 percent), while consistent liberals (82 percent) see curiosity as more important than consistent conservatives (57 percent).

The largest difference across the ideological spectrum among characteristics to be taught children is religious faith. As the spectrum runs from left to right, according to the survey, religious faith becomes more important. Among consistent conservatives, 81 percent believe it's especially important; among those with mixed views, the rate falls to 54 percent; and among those with consistent liberal views, it falls to 26 percent.

Among genders, men and women (55 percent) agree being responsible is the most important trait of the 12 given. The least most important to women are curiosity and persistence; the least most important to men are tolerance and curiosity.

Responsibility being most important also extends to all adult age groups (18-29, 30-64 and 65-over), with curiosity being the least most important to two groups (18-29 and 30-64) and creativity being least most important for one (65-over).

The responsibility trait's importance also extends to educational attainment and racial and ethnic differences, with obedience and curiosity being the least most important to various education levels and curiosity and persistence being the least most important among groups with racial and ethnic differences.

A positive, albeit underlying, takeaway from the survey is that, with responsibility being paramount among all the various groups, a majority of parents will make sure their children have a dose of all the good qualities, including what used to be tolerance, as well as curiosity and creativity.

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