Tolerance and Authority

Although we associate authority with intolerance (with good reason), it seems that there's a sense in which authority may encourage tolerance.  Specifically, where an authority sets clear boundaries, tolerance *within* those boundaries *may* be more robust than if these boundaries clarify the limits of freedom .... unless one of the authority's boundaries is that the individual is "owned" by the authority.

When the authority recognizes no other authority as legitimate, then oppressive intolerance appears inevitable.  The trend toward autonomous intolerance seems to be growing worldwide, in China, in the Arab world, and in the West ... here are just a few recent items that illustrate the point:

• Four recent columns by Al Mohler:
  (1) Nero in Beijing - as Mohler notes, "One of the hallmarks of democratic societies is the existence of 'mediating institutions' between the individual and the brute power of the state."  If the state is all-powerful, it cannot tolerate these institutions, the primary ones being the church and the family.  Christians in China now outnumber the Communist Party; I suspect the Chinese leadership understands all to well what happened to Rome when Christianity hit critical mass.  See, also, STRATFOR's China and the End of the Deng Dynasty.
  (2) Why Conservative Churches Are Growing - it seems that humans don't thrive outside of a group that constrains our tendency towards individual autonomy.  While this can be unhealthy if the group is based on false beliefs, living under God's authority clearly results in growth.
  (3) "God's True Vision ... - A church with roots in the Restoration Movement announces that it will no longer perform weddings ... as a protest against Kentucky's refusal to recognize same-sex marriage.
  (3) A Warning of Intimidations to Come - the law firm hired by the House to defend DOMA is attacked by homosexual activists, and the firm drops the case.  For those who think that proponents of sexual liberation are interested in "live and let live", think again.  The evidence grows daily that *any* public expression (workplace, school, city council, etc) that is neutral or skeptical of such liberation will be greeted with the sort of intense hostility last seen in the 1960's protest movements.  If you are involved in a profession that is publicly funded (eg, school teacher) or is certified by a national or state organization (eg, medical doctor), be prepared for persecution if you hold to the traditional Christian understanding of "all truth is God's truth."
• Three lectures by Hunter Baker (author of The End of Secularism) - Freedom, Democracy, and Secularism; Decline, Fall, and the Options; and Secularism, Church, and Society are all interesting lectures.  I found the last two had more depth, but anyone who thinks a secular society will be tolerant of Christianity and Christians is willfully ignorant of the past century.

Note that Christianity and the secular institutions it shaped (public and private) are careful to (a) disperse authority, (b) recognize that there are multiple legitimate and complementary loci of authority, and (c) recognize (explicitly or implicitly) that all authority is ultimately delegated by God.  These (and other) reasons are why Christian cultures are the most tolerant the world has ever seen.