Egalitarian People, Elitist Ideas

Are you a post-modernist? Do you believe all ideas and religions should be tolerated? Do you believe that Christianity and Christians are closed-minded and intolerant of other people's beliefs? Do you believe that all ideas are OK because people's beliefs are valid for them but don't need to be valid for you?

Greg Koukl shakes the foundation of your world view.

Be egalitarian regarding persons.
Be elitist regarding ideas.

To a class full of budding thinkers and future leaders, Koukl explains what these phrases mean.

"Egalitarian" was a new word for them. Think "equal," I said. Treat others as having equal standing in value or worth. They knew what an elitist was, though, someone who thought he was better than others. "Right," I said. "When you are elitist regarding ideas, you are acknowledging that some ideas are better than others. And they are. We don't treat all ideas as if they have the same merit, lest we run into contradiction. Some ideas are good, some are bad. Some are true, some are false. Some are brilliant, others are just plain foolish."

The first principle, what might be called "civility," is at the heart of the classical view of tolerance. It can be loosely equated with the word "respect." Tolerance applies to how we treat people we disagree with, not how we treat ideas we think false.

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