I'm not saying they're right, or even that their good intentions are enough to excuse them. I understand and respect your anger. Wilful stupidity is one of the hardest kinds to get rid of, especially in oneself as I know only too well.
But if they merely disapproved, if that were all or even most of what their morality were about, they would happily stand by and let all the sinners go to hell, figuring that that would leave more heaven for them. Their morality does not allow them that lazy comfort. Unlike, say, Calvinists, they have to believe that everyone can be saved, and that it is their job to save them.
They are, to develop Kierkegaard's analogy, like schoolkids who see other kids getting the answers wrong, and give them the answers from the back of their book. The fact that the other kids are working from a different book, or no book at all, is not something for which they should be blamed, or at least not if that blame gets in the way of understanding and reasonable dialogue. That, at least, is what I think.
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branchandroot
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Date: 2008-12-22 10:21 am (UTC)But if they merely disapproved, if that were all or even most of what their morality were about, they would happily stand by and let all the sinners go to hell, figuring that that would leave more heaven for them. Their morality does not allow them that lazy comfort. Unlike, say, Calvinists, they have to believe that everyone can be saved, and that it is their job to save them.
They are, to develop Kierkegaard's analogy, like schoolkids who see other kids getting the answers wrong, and give them the answers from the back of their book. The fact that the other kids are working from a different book, or no book at all, is not something for which they should be blamed, or at least not if that blame gets in the way of understanding and reasonable dialogue. That, at least, is what I think.