Confronting The Culture and Cult of “Don’t Judge” – It’s a Challenge!
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RELAX! “JUDGING” IS WHAT HUMANS DO!
If you’re a fan of reading big, fascinating, life-altering books, read Bernard Lonergan’s “Insight”.
For the purposes of this article, I want to cite a short section of that chapter found on pages 19-20:
A couple of paragraphs further on I wrote:
“Lonergan situates his reflections on the two modes of knowing within his general theory of knowledge comprised of three distinct and successively-ordered cognitive actions which operate in every truly human act of knowing: attending, understanding, and judgment. The judgment of truth or falsehood is founded upon an interpretation, an interpretation is founded on an experience, and an experience is largely determined by the
operation of directing our attention. We all need to discern right and wrong in our daily lives, but moral judgment is not legitimate without the dialectical interplay between the two modes of knowing, for it is only in attending to, interpreting, and making judgments, that knowledge (information) becomes understanding and practical insight. The end of understanding is always some form of action and transformation; this requires moral judgment, and a decision to act. This also means that two kinds of knowing are required. The two modes of knowing only work together as a mental dynamic when individuals engage themselves in some form of praxis set on personal and social improvement.”
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TESTIFY TO THE TRUTH – LET THE TRUTH JUDGE
The cult of ‘do not judge’ is so pervasive – coupled with the equally pervasive ‘anything goes and everyone has their own truth’ moral relativism in society has created a culture of general acceptance of corruption, where people feel uncomfortable challenging a person who exposes crimes that rob from others and hurt people unnecessarily for two reasons: (1) they don’t believe they have the right to judge; and (2) they don’t want to be impolite to a prominent fellow Islander, making them, their family and friends, and all Islanders feel uncomfortable or embarrassed, which makes the “go to” moto of our religious leaders on matters relating to prominent Islanders one of “Way to go…” not a “Woe to you…”
Article Comments
Mike Ghiz
January 11, 2022 8:19 pmWell written article Kevin and needed to be said. BTW. In this world of not judging, things have changed with Covid 19. The pro vaccine people have become judgmental of the unvaccined, even canceling and condemning them. Like Trudeau, who used hate speech “which is illegal” calling them racist and misogynist and even asking if we should tolerate them? He has become the judge and condemner of the unvaccined Canadian citizens!!!!