Las Casas and tolerance

Abstract

In this article, the author reveals the experience of tolerance as the Spanish bishop Bartolomé de Las Casas lived it at a time full of intolerance in its worst forms. He is a man who chose to defend human beings and human dignity, no matter what their culture, religion, race or any other considerations were. This stance was against a colonial expansionist narrow vision that uses religion as a tool to achieve political goals that claimed the life of thousands of people. It doesn’t matter to him if the country that he belongs to and that provides him with protection and livelihood present this colonialist eager that wants to expand, because of his belief in that the truth was more worth to spread and to follow. This bold stance was maybe the reason for him to acquire the title of the Messenger of the Indians, due to his efforts in stopping the abuses inflicted upon them following the Spanish invasion.