The Reverence Gregory Gird, preacher at a thriving megachurch with 5,000 devoted members, caused quite a stir and lost 1,000 adherents when he gave a sermon in which he came right out and defended tolerance.
There were early warning signs that he might advocate the now intolerable virtue. When asked repeatedly by members to announce that he was against all the things right-thinking people are supposed to abhor, such as gay divorce, abortion for recreational purposes, and Democrats in general, he repeatedly demurred.
Apparently, he finally could no longer restrain himself from divulging his true thoughts. He preached, not only one, but six sermons in which he actually advocated the separation of church and state, cautioned members against the superimposition of their own guidelines on sexual inclinations, advised them to stop referring to America as a Christian nation, and encouraged them to make a place in their hearts for that radical document, The Bill Of Rights.
Most calamitously of all, he dared to advise them that having Christ in their hearts meant they should love everybody, even people who don't agree with them. While he himself is a conservative with much the same beliefs as his attendees, he still felt that the role of religious people is to conduct themselves with reliably religious principles, such as the controversial triumvirate of