- Feb 5, 2002
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Judgments convey standards. Perhaps one reason our culture has lost its Christian moral framework is our fear of rendering judgment according to the Christian code.
Remember when we heard about “tolerance” constantly? A few decades ago, tolerance was “in”—we were told to tolerate others’ opinions and actions, regardless of what they may be. Some even called tolerance a virtue.
In fact, it was a ruse that allowed “multiculturalism” (remember that one, now replaced by “diversity, equity, and inclusion”?) and moral relativism to reign. In hindsight, the tolerance campaign appears as one of the final blows to the hegemony of the Christian moral vision that formerly shaped life in the West.
We don’t hear much about tolerance today because it’s no longer needed—the laissez-faire vision of morality it protected has been established as the cultural norm. Now we have the inverse situation: Christians are the ones calling for tolerance of their morality, which seeks protection under the aegis of religious liberty.
Simultaneously, a prohibition against judgment has embedded itself deep into the psyches of Americans. We are not supposed to judge—that is, declare good or evil—the “lifestyle choices” of others in any arena: sexuality and gender, tattoos and piercings, jobs and schools. Each choice is as good as another, we are told; no one ought to assert his preferences as the “right way.”
The “no judgment” school received a huge boost from Pope Francis in the first months of his pontificate: “If a person is gay and seeks out the Lord and is willing, who am I to judge that person?” Two years later, Francis clarified in an interview that “I was paraphrasing by heart the Catechism of the Catholic Church where it says that these people should be treated with delicacy and not be marginalized.”
Continued below.
www.catholicworldreport.com
Remember when we heard about “tolerance” constantly? A few decades ago, tolerance was “in”—we were told to tolerate others’ opinions and actions, regardless of what they may be. Some even called tolerance a virtue.
In fact, it was a ruse that allowed “multiculturalism” (remember that one, now replaced by “diversity, equity, and inclusion”?) and moral relativism to reign. In hindsight, the tolerance campaign appears as one of the final blows to the hegemony of the Christian moral vision that formerly shaped life in the West.
We don’t hear much about tolerance today because it’s no longer needed—the laissez-faire vision of morality it protected has been established as the cultural norm. Now we have the inverse situation: Christians are the ones calling for tolerance of their morality, which seeks protection under the aegis of religious liberty.
Simultaneously, a prohibition against judgment has embedded itself deep into the psyches of Americans. We are not supposed to judge—that is, declare good or evil—the “lifestyle choices” of others in any arena: sexuality and gender, tattoos and piercings, jobs and schools. Each choice is as good as another, we are told; no one ought to assert his preferences as the “right way.”
The “no judgment” school received a huge boost from Pope Francis in the first months of his pontificate: “If a person is gay and seeks out the Lord and is willing, who am I to judge that person?” Two years later, Francis clarified in an interview that “I was paraphrasing by heart the Catechism of the Catholic Church where it says that these people should be treated with delicacy and not be marginalized.”
Continued below.
In Praise of Judgment
www.catholicworldreport.com
