I, the Jury

For some reason, when people get in arguments in my comboxes, somebody usually gets the idea that I should weigh in and give my opinion. Then, when I do, I often find myself told things like “You and I are on the same page, good buddy!” or “I’m really disappointed in you. It’s not that I’m angry. I’m just… just sad.” by people I do not know from Adam.

So that’s fun.

In this case, I’m being asked to adjudicate a discussion between Zippy and M, who wants to know what I think about “the potential hypocrisy of those who ignored Bush’s record on capital punishment in 2001 (or unjust war, capital punishment, and torture in 2007), but are absolutely distraught (bear in mind I am not opposed to a protest of Obama – only to a selective protest of Democrats and a pass being given to Republicans) at Obama’s speech in 2009.”

Um, since there are so many variables at work here regarding so many hypothetical people with so many conceivable states of knowledge about so many things about which I myself am ignorant, it’s rather hard for me to answer a question like that.

For instance, did ND give Bush an honorary doctorate in law or just have him speak? If the latter, I see no hypocrisy. Is a Protestant who knows nothing about Catholic teaching on the death penalty (which is not intrinsically and gravely immoral) the moral equivalent of a Protestant who is openly defiant of the clear teaching of the Churcn and natural law on abortion, which *is* gravely and intrinsically immoral. I’m inclined to doubt it. Are Catholics who know their faith well enough to know “abortion is bad. Don’t honor people who strive to promote it” necessarily hypocrites if they labor under the impression that “prudential judgement” means “nobody gets to tell me I’m wrong” (since that is the common notion current in American Catholic culture everywhere)? I’m not convinced of that since I have no idea what the state of knowledge and culpability of my extremely hypothetical person is.

And on and on. I would have no problem with either Bush or Obama merely being asked to speak. I would have a problem with giving either an honorary degree in law. But I’m in no position to pass judgment on the alleged hypocrisy of remote hypothetical people. To quote somebody famous, that’s above my pay grade.

Please address all brickbats/kudo to my combox.