Learning True Tolerance

As a child, the commentator went door to door with his mother to share the tenets of the Jehovah's Witnesses. The experience led to his belief that tolerance is the foundation of freedom and liberty

Welcome to This I Believe, an NPR series presenting the personal philosophies of remarkable men and women from all walks of life.

From NPR News, this is Weekend Edition. I'm Liane Hansen.

I believe in mystery.

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I believe in being who I am.

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And I believe normal life is extraordinary.

This I Believe.

Our This I Believe essay this week was sent here by _ of San Francisco. _ is a writer and filmmaker who currently works as a program strategies for the American civil liberty's union. Here's our series curator, independent producer Jay Allison.

Many of our essays write of belief's form in childhood. _ ended up breaking away from the belief he was raised with. But that process led him to a value that underlies freedom to believe whatever he chooses. Here's _ with his essay for This I Believe.

I was raised as Jehovah's Witnesses. If I ever knock on your door when you were _ alone or taking a nap, please excuse me. I understan. A kid with a watchtower magzine on your front _ isn't a girl's skull with cookies. But hey, you didn't have to sit your dog on me. I believe how we treat the people we dislike the most and understand the least, Jehovah's Witnesses for example, says a lot about the freedoms we value in America. Religion, speech, personal liberty and all these freedoms rely on one thing, tolerance. I learnt this as a kid when I went door knocking with my mom. We were pitching that Jehovah's kingdom was coming soon and solve the world's problems. I prayed no one from school was behind those doors. Dogs I could run from. It was hard enough being single adult as a kid who didn't celebrate Christmas or say the _ of religions. It was little tolerance for my explanation that we only works of god and that god was not American. There was no tolerance when I announced to my third grade class that Santa Clause was _ in a lie.

Still, I did have a bad childhood. Our Saturday morning ministry meant sacrificing my Saturday morning cartoons. But our ten o'clock coffee break was blessing. That's when we gather at Donkey _, trying not to get powder sugar on our shoes and dresses while we told stories and laughed. We always knew when you were home but hiding. As a teenager, I decided fitting in at school and in life was worth sacrificing some principles. So I never became Jehovah's Witnesses. That was the first time I broke my mom's heart. The second time was when I told her I am gay. Obviously, I don't agree with my mom's belief that same sex relationships are wrong. But I tolerate her religion because she has a right to her belieives. And I like it that my mom doesn't _ her believes. She's never voted for a love that discriminate against gay people or anyone who isn't a Jehovah's Witnesses. Her Bible tells her to love above all.

My belief in tolerance led to a documentary film I made of Jahovah's Witnesses. And my mom actually likes it. The message is about being opened to leding people have views we don't like. So that sense you could also be about Muslims, gay people or _ race fans. The point is the people we don't understand become less scary what we get to know them is real people. We don't have to be each other's cup of tea. But tolerance leds us a variety of cattles peacefully share the stove. I believe our capacity to tolerate both religious and personal difference. It's what ultimately gives us true liberty. Even if it means putting up with an occasional knock on the door.

_ with his essay for This I Believe. And _ told us that not surprisingly his work with the ACLU is directly related to his belife in tolerance. He also noted that his mother knew something about tests of tolerance being the only member of a large Itanlian _ family to become a Jahovah's Witnesses. We hope your consider are open invitation to write for this series as _ did. Find out more at NPR.org/thisIbelieve or you can also find the link to our podcast. For this I believe, I'm jay Allison.

Jay Allison is co-editor with Dan Gediman, John Gregory and Viki Merrick of the book This I Believe. The personal philosophies of remarkable men and wemen.

Next week on NPR.org an essay from listener Bob _, _ north Carolina on his belief in _. A belief that for him has been painful tested.

Support for This I Believe comes from Prudential Retirement.

This I Believe is produced for NPR by This I Believe, an cooperated Antlantic public media. For more essays in this series, please visit npr.org/thisIbelieve.

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