Getting personal - 28 October 2010 |
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This post on Luther’s polemic, together with this follow-up post, have drawn a number of thought-provoking email comments.
One friend pointed out that our modern inability to distinguish a critique of a person’s views from an attack on them as a person is a problem not just in the church, but also in the world. Just think, for example, about the shape of recent public discussions of sexual ethics, child-rearing practices and welfare policy.
At the same time, this observation raises another issue. There comes a point where what we think of a person’s views ought to entail forming a judgment about them as a person. To take an obvious example, we could not coherently say that we respect Jesus as a person while resisting his self-identification as Lord. When he returns in glory to judge the living and the dead, it won’t wash to say, “Yeah, Jesus, I really respect you; I just have a different Christology.”
What we think is, in one sense, a part of who we are. Thus there comes a point where rejecting a person’s views necessarily entails censuring them as a person.
The important practical question, therefore, is this: How do we work out when this line has been crossed? What criteria should be applied to determine when a critique should become personal, and when on the other hand we can disagree and yet remain friends?
Tough one. For myself, I think it is a line best crossed slowly.
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Posted by Steve Jeffery · Topics: Minister's Blog