VIRTUES: THE TOOLS FOR TOLERANCE
Linda Kavelin Popov and Dan Popov, Ph.D.

There is nothing new about love, nothing original about justice. Yet as the hole in the moral ozone grows larger, as more and more of our children are lost to violence, the world is yearning for the simple virtues of integrity, peace, and tolerance.

In our work with The Virtues Project ™ , a global initiative to inspire the practice of virtues in everyday life, we have worked with people of many countries and cultures. We were originally inspired to do this work by the rising violence by youth. In North America the three leading causes of death are murder, suicide and auto accident.
A study was conducted at Harvard to discover the motivation for random acts of violence, such as drive by shootings. They discovered that in 98% of the cases, one word was used by the incarcerated youth: "Boredom".

That degree of pathological boredom is the loss of meaning - the disease of meaninglessness. It is a failure of hope, at a time in life when the emerging developmental virtue is idealism - the ability to dream, to make one's mark, to know one's place in this world. The Australian aboriginals have a saying "Those who lose dreaming are lost."

About 12 years ago, we researched the world's sacred traditions and holy books and discovered a wonderful thing. Connecting them all, like a silver thread of unity were the virtues, described as the qualities of the Creator, the qualities of the human soul and the content of character. Our work is based on these simple virtues and five strategies for awakening and strengthening the practice of virtues in our individual lives, family life, schools and communities.

The U.S. Secret Service conducted a study in 2000, of school shootings. Two thirds of the shooters had felt persecuted, bullied, threatened, attacked or injured by others. According to character education specialist Dr Thomas Lickona, "The best way to prevent this kind of peer cruelty is to build community." This can be done through the five strategies:
1. Use of virtues language to empower students,
2. Recognizing difficulties as Teachable Moments for the cultivation of virtues - replacing shaming with naming virtues.
3. Setting clear boundaries based on restorative justice and the opportunity to make amends
4. Honoring the spirit through treating each person with dignity, creating routines of reverence, and shared vision.
5. Spiritual companioning, which is to listen, help others to define the teachable moment, and solve moral dilemmas with virtues.

Only through building a community of caring, a culture of tolerance and peace, can we hope to transform bullies into leaders, cruelty into compassion. I remember well a time I entered a Seattle youth prison and met with the young women there, most of whom were violent offenders. One 12 year old, who had committed murder at age 10, as her initiation to join a gang, said "I knew I would need a new lifestyle when I get out of here. Now I know what it is. The virtues! You said they belong to me, right Linda?"

Dan will now speak more about the nature of virtues as the
"fruits of the spirit."

Virtues: The Finest Fruits of the Human Spirit

Virtues are the qualities that reflect the highest aspirations of the human spirit in this world. They are presented in all cultures by the stories told around the hearth. Within all religious traditions they are talked of as the fruits of Faith. Not a substitute for Faith but rather the reflection of Faith in the conduct of those that truly understand the sacred teachings.

Virtues are more basic and fundamental than values. You can value anything - from fame to wealth to the virtues themselves. The virtues are universally valued by people of all faiths and cultures. They may be practiced differently from one religion to another, from one culture to another, but at heart of the practice is the the same virtue -- justice, kindness, respect, courtesy, etc. At the level of the virtues, all religions, all cultures, come together.

The virtues are spiritual qualities, manifested in the Divine and potentially by every human being. We were created with the virtues present in potential. Each person has a different mix of the virtues in potential. These innate, but undeveloped qualities can be awakened and strengthened in this world. When we develop them, the virtues become states of being and ways of being in the world. They enable us to reflect the Divine into the world. Acting on the virtues is always a matter of choice. When we choose to act on the virtues we reflect the best of humanity. Tolerance is such a virtue. Tolerance permits the independent investigation of truth (another virtue) in a climate of respect (yet another virtue).