Tolerance vs. pluralism

It's the difference between civility and mushy-headedness | Joel Belz

No one these days can take a thoughtful look at another religion like Islam, as we seek to do in this issue, without also revisiting the issue of pluralism. It's a concept applauded not just by the politically correct, but by many who see it as an essential thread in the fabric of America.

That's why more than a few readers took exception when in our Sept. 22 issue I wrote that we Americans had made pluralism a false god. One woman noted the American Heritage Dictionary's second definition of pluralism ("A condition of society in which numerous distinct ethnic, religious, or cultural groups coexist within one nation") and hoped that I was thinking of a different definition of the word, since "the U.S.A. is a country where the sort of 'pluralism' defined above rightly flourishes and is not a 'false deity,' as Mr. Belz opines. Indeed, it is not a deity of any sort."