As a result, there is no true deliverance from the past. A Samuel Terry can get ahead in the twentieth century only by concealing his past. At the same time, certain sins gain toleration because the people at large refuse to take them seriously. Homosexuals in Congress have not suffered as have other congressional sinners, past and present. But toleration is not absolution. People tolerate all kinds of things, but this toleration cleanses nothing. The loss of absolution in the modern world has gone