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The Soul/Body Connection
Issue: Summer 2000
Ellie Pierce If you ask Bruce Robinson why he built www.religioustolerance.org , a hugely popular website that now includes 950 essays covering 64 faith groups, religions, and ethical systems "from Asatru to Zoroastrianism,"he'll give many reasons: He wanted an activity to keep him busy after he retired; he was dismayed by the coverage of the atrocities in Bosnia-Herzegovina, in which a religious struggle was treated as an ethnic conflict; he was inspired by his Unitarian faith. But if you ask him why he doesn't want his picture included with this profile, there is only one reason: intolerance. "The idea of tolerance is a threat," reports Robinson, a former electrical engineer. Internet filters such as Cyber-Patrol have blocked access to his site: hackers have corrupted files; death threats have been made to the staff. Robinson recalls one message in particular:"You and your children will burn in hell." Robinson readily offers site statistics ranging from the number of hits per week (1.5 million), to the increase in usage per year since 1995 (350%), to the average amount of data transferred per day (1.3 gigabytes). But he also reports that the site is in a precarious position. Paradoxically, because of its success (measured in "hits"), excess traffic charges on the server have left religioustolerance.org in the red.The four-person team behind the site are volunteers. Robinson says that there are still another two thousand essays to be written. Yet, he and his colleagues with the Ontario Consultants for Religious Tolerance will continue undaunted by criticism or hate mail. Indeed, if this website is any gauge of how tolerance is faring against intolerance, Bruce Robinson has the reading: there are 3.5 positive emails for every negative one. And that, like the notion of tolerance itself, is an important first step. | |
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