{"id":2482,"date":"2014-12-12T22:15:42","date_gmt":"2014-12-13T03:15:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/jenniferfitz\/?p=2482"},"modified":"2014-12-26T13:48:23","modified_gmt":"2014-12-26T18:48:23","slug":"more-bad-arguments-the-good-man-defense","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jenniferfitz\/2014\/12\/more-bad-arguments-the-good-man-defense\/","title":{"rendered":"More Bad Arguments: The Good Man Defense"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Moving beyond any particular example of terrible writing, I want to address a non-argument I\u2019ve seen circulating among Catholics of good will lately. \u00a0If you\u2019re going to be Catholic, set yourself firmly in favor of the truth. \u00a0If you\u2019re going to set yourself in favor of the truth, you need to know a non-argument when you see it.<\/p>\n

Again, I\u2019m writing here not to philosophers, but to ordinary internet people like myself.<\/p>\n

Good Guys Do Bad Things<\/h2>\n

Here\u2019s an example of a typical round. \u00a0Sam Rocha writes a piece asserting that his alma mater, Steubenville, needs to make amends for its past act of honoring someone who approves of torture<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Now there are any number of arguments one could bring to this discussion, and I\u2019ve seen a few that made good sense. \u00a0But here\u2019s one that doesn\u2019t work, and I paraphrase:<\/p>\n

Steubenville is a great school! \u00a0It was faithfully Catholic when everyone else was eating felt banners at their Reiki brunches. Quit picking on your friends. \u00a0You don\u2019t know how lucky you are to have such a place.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The error here is not in asserting that Steubenville, or the governor, or the\u00a0neighbor\u00a0whose dog ate your bocce\u00a0ball when you left the shed open for just a moment, is actually good people. \u00a0No doubt they are all good people, and you have the evidence to prove it.<\/p>\n

The error is in thinking that being good people will somehow cause all mishaps to disappear.<\/p>\n

Good schools sometimes commit grave errors.<\/p>\n

Good politicians sometimes make bad decisions.<\/p>\n

Good neighbors sometimes owe you a new bocce ball.<\/p>\n

This happens. \u00a0Being a good guy doesn\u2019t cause the ball to leap out of the dog\u2019s stomach, whole and shiny, and back into its spot in your shed.<\/p>\n

You can argue that someone else\u2019s dog ate the ball, that someone threw the ball into the dog\u2019s yard, that perhaps the ball rolled under the shed, and here\u2019s an old golf club to fish it out with \u2014 or you could simply say, if none of those are true, \u201cYeah, he\u2019s a good neighbor, but his dog ate the ball.\u201d<\/p>\n

Good Guys Make Amends<\/h2>\n

There is, though, a time and place for the good man defense. \u00a0It isn\u2019t in answering the question of what happened, or who is in the right. \u00a0It is, however, useful information in trying to determine how to proceed.<\/p>\n

If the school really does want to do the right thing, it will correct its errors. \u00a0If the politician really does want to make good decisions, she will take into account new information and change course. If the neighbor really does want to maintain friendly relations, he\u2019ll see about replacing the bocce ball.<\/p>\n

Good men don\u2019t want to do wrong things. \u00a0They may, for a moment, respond defensively; but in the end, they will come around and be grateful for correction.<\/p>\n

The good man defense is not an argument against error, but it\u00a0is an indicator that reconciliation is a reasonable hope.<\/p>\n

\"Bocce<\/a>
\nImage by Xaven (Own work) [CC BY-SA 2.5<\/a>], via Wikimedia Commons<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Moving beyond any particular example of terrible writing, I want to address a non-argument I\u2019ve seen circulating among Catholics of good will lately. \u00a0If you\u2019re going to be Catholic, set yourself firmly in favor of the truth. \u00a0If you\u2019re going to set yourself in favor of the truth, you need to know a non-argument when […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1209,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51,216,248],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2482","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-forgiveness","category-its-all-catholic","category-writing-stuff"],"yoast_head":"\nMore Bad Arguments: The Good Man Defense<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Moving beyond any particular example of terrible writing, I want to address a non-argument I've seen circulating among Catholics of good will lately. \u00a0If\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jenniferfitz\/2014\/12\/more-bad-arguments-the-good-man-defense\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"More Bad Arguments: The Good Man Defense\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Moving beyond any particular example of terrible writing, I want to address a non-argument I've seen circulating among Catholics of good will lately. \u00a0If\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jenniferfitz\/2014\/12\/more-bad-arguments-the-good-man-defense\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Sticking the Corners\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/JenFitz.Writes\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-12-13T03:15:42+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2014-12-26T18:48:23+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/upload.wikimedia.org\/wikipedia\/commons\/thumb\/1\/1a\/Bocce_players_scoring.jpg\/250px-Bocce_players_scoring.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Jennifer Fitz\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@Jennifer_Fitz\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Jennifer Fitz\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jenniferfitz\/2014\/12\/more-bad-arguments-the-good-man-defense\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jenniferfitz\/2014\/12\/more-bad-arguments-the-good-man-defense\/\",\"name\":\"More Bad Arguments: The Good Man Defense\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jenniferfitz\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2014-12-13T03:15:42+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2014-12-26T18:48:23+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jenniferfitz\/#\/schema\/person\/a1a80a6198996fd8f065088c38a255c3\"},\"description\":\"Moving beyond any particular example of terrible writing, I want to address a non-argument I've seen circulating among Catholics of good will lately. \u00a0If\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jenniferfitz\/2014\/12\/more-bad-arguments-the-good-man-defense\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jenniferfitz\/2014\/12\/more-bad-arguments-the-good-man-defense\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jenniferfitz\/2014\/12\/more-bad-arguments-the-good-man-defense\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jenniferfitz\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"More Bad Arguments: The Good Man Defense\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jenniferfitz\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jenniferfitz\/\",\"name\":\"Sticking the Corners\",\"description\":\"Live it like you mean it.\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jenniferfitz\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jenniferfitz\/#\/schema\/person\/a1a80a6198996fd8f065088c38a255c3\",\"name\":\"Jennifer Fitz\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jenniferfitz\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/3aa95bdcebf0f9f0962d1a672129e152?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/3aa95bdcebf0f9f0962d1a672129e152?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Jennifer Fitz\"},\"description\":\"Jennifer Fitz is the mother of four fantabulous children, and author of Classroom Management for Catechists. She writes online for Patheos and for the Catholic Conspiracy. When she isn't blogging, teaching, or complaining about something, she likes to play outside.\",\"sameAs\":[\"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jenniferfitz\/\",\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/JenFitz.Writes\/\",\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Jennifer_Fitz\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jenniferfitz\/author\/jenniferfitz\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"More Bad Arguments: The Good Man Defense","description":"Moving beyond any particular example of terrible writing, I want to address a non-argument I've seen circulating among Catholics of good will lately. \u00a0If","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jenniferfitz\/2014\/12\/more-bad-arguments-the-good-man-defense\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"More Bad Arguments: The Good Man Defense","og_description":"Moving beyond any particular example of terrible writing, I want to address a non-argument I've seen circulating among Catholics of good will lately. \u00a0If","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jenniferfitz\/2014\/12\/more-bad-arguments-the-good-man-defense\/","og_site_name":"Sticking the Corners","article_author":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/JenFitz.Writes\/","article_published_time":"2014-12-13T03:15:42+00:00","article_modified_time":"2014-12-26T18:48:23+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/upload.wikimedia.org\/wikipedia\/commons\/thumb\/1\/1a\/Bocce_players_scoring.jpg\/250px-Bocce_players_scoring.jpg"}],"author":"Jennifer Fitz","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@Jennifer_Fitz","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Jennifer Fitz","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jenniferfitz\/2014\/12\/more-bad-arguments-the-good-man-defense\/","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jenniferfitz\/2014\/12\/more-bad-arguments-the-good-man-defense\/","name":"More Bad Arguments: The Good Man Defense","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jenniferfitz\/#website"},"datePublished":"2014-12-13T03:15:42+00:00","dateModified":"2014-12-26T18:48:23+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jenniferfitz\/#\/schema\/person\/a1a80a6198996fd8f065088c38a255c3"},"description":"Moving beyond any particular example of terrible writing, I want to address a non-argument I've seen circulating among Catholics of good will lately. \u00a0If","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jenniferfitz\/2014\/12\/more-bad-arguments-the-good-man-defense\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jenniferfitz\/2014\/12\/more-bad-arguments-the-good-man-defense\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jenniferfitz\/2014\/12\/more-bad-arguments-the-good-man-defense\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jenniferfitz\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"More Bad Arguments: The Good Man Defense"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jenniferfitz\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jenniferfitz\/","name":"Sticking the Corners","description":"Live it like you mean it.","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jenniferfitz\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jenniferfitz\/#\/schema\/person\/a1a80a6198996fd8f065088c38a255c3","name":"Jennifer Fitz","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jenniferfitz\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/3aa95bdcebf0f9f0962d1a672129e152?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/3aa95bdcebf0f9f0962d1a672129e152?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Jennifer Fitz"},"description":"Jennifer Fitz is the mother of four fantabulous children, and author of Classroom Management for Catechists. She writes online for Patheos and for the Catholic Conspiracy. When she isn't blogging, teaching, or complaining about something, she likes to play outside.","sameAs":["http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jenniferfitz\/","https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/JenFitz.Writes\/","https:\/\/twitter.com\/Jennifer_Fitz"],"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jenniferfitz\/author\/jenniferfitz\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jenniferfitz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2482","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jenniferfitz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jenniferfitz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jenniferfitz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1209"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jenniferfitz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2482"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jenniferfitz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2482\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jenniferfitz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2482"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jenniferfitz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2482"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jenniferfitz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2482"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}