An expository essay written on the topic of religious tolerance. Account is based on fact and not author's opinion. Simply entitled as "Religious Tolerance: the Facts"
Teens today are bombarded with multiple types of external and internal conflicts. AIDS and other STD's impact the way they live externally; depression and suicide can govern their internal lives. However, religious tolerance grabs at both their internal and external lives. The biased media always attempts to push teens' beliefs one way or another, yet it is the choice of the individual to which counts in the end. ApologeticsIndex.org defines religious tolerance as "Acknowledging and supporting that individuals have the right and freedom to their own beliefs and related legitimate practices, without necessarily validating those beliefs or practices." It also defines religious intolerance as "a) Refusing to acknowledge and support the right of individuals to have their own beliefs and related legitimate practices. b) Also, the unwillingness to have one's own beliefs and related practices critically evaluated." Religious intolerance can have drastic effects on the person the teen grows to be. In the Columbine massacre (1999), two young boys went around their school shooting multiple people (fatally wounding twelve), one of the boys asked a girl if she believed in God and shot her dead for her affirmative response. This is a problem specifically for the teen population because at this point in a person's life, his or her core values are established as evidenced in the previous example. ReligiousTolerance.org, largely the most objective and fair site about religious intolerance on the Internet, says, "It seems that the media often treats clergy and other religious leaders differently from other people. Some surveys show that perhaps 40% of men commit adultery. However, when a religious leader does it, his/her moral lapse is given great exposure - even to being reviewed on international TV. This is unfair and unbalanced treatment." Teen's views are being molded by false ideas thrown from the media. Teens that grow up into highly opinionated adults from their experiences