My friend, the truth hurts: Intolerance has become a standard "Christian" teaching in conservative circles and is now a badge of honor. When Antonio Scalia exhorted conservative Christians to "Be a fool for Christ!", he was speaking in the longstanding tradition of sacrificing one's pride and risking ridicule with gra ude for Christ's ultimate sacrifice for us (even semi-atheistic Mark Twain once wrote, "I'm God's fool"). But Scalia was also alluding to the proud-to-be-intolerant theme.
Scalia was urging his listeners to hold onto their intolerance even when others (liberal Christians included) accused them of being persecutory, hostile, or bigoted. They must remain intolerant because intolerance has been given a makeover: It's now the most readily observable hallmark of the virtuous and courageous conservative Christian. While intolerance was considered a grave sin back when America was marching towards civil rights instead of away from them, today that vice has become-presto!-a virtue. This means that conservative Christians must become increasingly intolerant in order to demonstrate their faith, and the more in-your-face the intolerance is, the better.