Evangelism and Pluralism: True Tolerance Opens the Door for All to Share Their Beliefs, Including Christians, Part 2

In part one, I talked about some of the headwinds hindering evangelism— things slowing or making sharing the faith more difficult.

Now, we’re going to focus on the good news; specifically, we’re going to examine the tailwinds accelerating people’s openness towards sharing (and in some cases receiving) the gospel.

Ironically, I think one of the great tailwinds, if engaged properly, is tolerance. The beauty of tolerance is that, extended properly, it’s meant for everybody—and that includes Christians.

The truth now is that biblical convictions about the uniqueness of Christ, sexuality, human sinfulness, and other things are now minority views.

The decline of nominal Christianity has opened up the door for the ‘nones’—those who aren’t committed to one faith or another—to grow. Increasingly, nominals are becoming nones.

This trend has brought about a shift in cultural consensus on many matters related to faith, and if current trends continue—which is what trends tend to do—evangelical ideals and morals will only be given less and less representation.

But, tolerance (functioning properly) can help people to hear different views. 

Of course, that’s not how tolerance is applied right now— it is often used to shut down speech one might find offensive. However, we can (and must) explain that in a truly tolerant world, people can believe things that don’t align perfectly with commonly held, widely accepted values and still have the right to practice their faith freely. Read More