By J. Daryl Charles, First Things - Removed from its religio-political context and understanding, however, tolerance ceases to be a virtue. Indeed, it becomes a vice if and where it ceases to care for truth, ignores what is good, and disdains the values that uphold a community. The culture in which we Americans presently find ourselves is one in which almost everything is tolerated. It is a culture in which people believe nothing, possess no clear concept of right and wrong and, ultimately, are indifferent to this precarious state of affairs.