The years of apartheid have been highly successful in separating people and creating deep and abiding levels of intolerance. And behind the years of apartheid were the years of colonisation. Thus it is not surprising that even after apartheid's collapse, people struggle to learn a new ethic of tolerance. All in all, the journey towards tolerance will be a long one. Sadly, however, religious organisations seem ill-equipped at bringing together theories of love and acceptance together with the practise of tolerance and human rights.
Religion has a legacy of bowing to social pressures borne by conservative forces.
Difference, for Ackermann, is the critical problem. These are among the central problems of our era, and have been engaged continually in our century by philosophers and theologians. Our inability to live with difference speaks to our lack of understanding of relationship and how to live in justice and peace. Due to our inability to live with difference we are a world that lives with pain. Indeed, it may be said that we have come of age and that age is one of lost innocence and suffering.