Is Christianity Intolerant?

This is a claim that is thrown at Christianity a great deal. The claim goes somewhere along these lines: we are intolerant of other faiths because we believe in the Words of our Lord that He is the Way the Truth and the Life. Some how we are expected to be apologetic over our beliefs, that this whole Jesus or nothing stance is intolerant. That Christianity is not accepting of who people are. Here is what the great Bishop Fulton Sheen had to say about the intolerance claim:

Christian love bears evil, but it does not tolerate it.

It does penance for the sins of others, but it is not broadminded about sin.

The cry for tolerance never induces it to quench its hatred of the evil philosophies that have entered into contest with the Truth.

It forgives the sinner, and it hates the sin; it is unmerciful to the error in his mind.

The sinner it will always take back into the bosom of the Mystical Body;
but his lie will never be taken into the treasury of His Wisdom.

Real love involves real hatred:
whoever has lost the power of moral indignation and the urge to drive the buyers and sellers from the temples
has also lost a living, fervent love of Truth.

Charity, then, is not a mild philosophy of "live and let live";
it is not a species of sloppy sentiment.

Charity is the infusion of the Spirit of God,
which makes us love the beautiful and hate the morally ugly.

So in a way Christianity is intolerant. It is a faith that is intolerant of sin because our Lord was. However, one of the great mysteries of Christianity is that while it is indeed intolerant of sin it is the only religion that is truly tolerant of the sinner. It is the only faith that really accepts people for who they really are, sinners. It does not sugar coat or place false masks on who people are. Because"...all have sinned and fall short of the Glory of God..."

God bless