Quote from Countdown
2009-Jun-30, Tuesday 06:49 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ssurgulI find it imminently disturbing when I hold views that are mirrored in a high profile religious leader from the west. There are some extra things in here that were removed because they pertain more specifically to the Marc Sanford debacle but the overall tone and message here are far more important to me right now.
"...there are two tracks on which you have to travel when making a decision here. One is a justice track, a consequences track, one is a religious track that has to do with forgiveness. When one does wrong, in an instance like this, you first of all have to ask what are the consequences of this, ... Can they be forgiven? Of course. But forgiveness is not about wiping away consequences. Forgiveness is about creating possibilities."
--Reverend Welton Gaddy, Interfaith Alliance and Air America Radio
All too often in our society today, and particularly in one subset of that society (let's call it Furry), the assumption is that if someone is 'forgiven' for having fucked up, then everything that grew as a result of that fuckup somehow just doesn't matter any more. Wrong. Somehow in that same subset, there is a growing trend of assumption that people are allowed to make whatever statements they want to without any consequence of impact on anyone around them. After all, it's just 'who they are'. And worse still that people aren't actually allowed to speak up about it, and make mention of why it was 'bad' to have said those things at all. After all, if you do such a thing, then you're stifling someone's freedom of expression, or trying to repress them in some other way. The total freedom of being a total douche without consequence and denying even the option of consequence. Gotta love it.
"...there are two tracks on which you have to travel when making a decision here. One is a justice track, a consequences track, one is a religious track that has to do with forgiveness. When one does wrong, in an instance like this, you first of all have to ask what are the consequences of this, ... Can they be forgiven? Of course. But forgiveness is not about wiping away consequences. Forgiveness is about creating possibilities."
--Reverend Welton Gaddy, Interfaith Alliance and Air America Radio
All too often in our society today, and particularly in one subset of that society (let's call it Furry), the assumption is that if someone is 'forgiven' for having fucked up, then everything that grew as a result of that fuckup somehow just doesn't matter any more. Wrong. Somehow in that same subset, there is a growing trend of assumption that people are allowed to make whatever statements they want to without any consequence of impact on anyone around them. After all, it's just 'who they are'. And worse still that people aren't actually allowed to speak up about it, and make mention of why it was 'bad' to have said those things at all. After all, if you do such a thing, then you're stifling someone's freedom of expression, or trying to repress them in some other way. The total freedom of being a total douche without consequence and denying even the option of consequence. Gotta love it.
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on 2009-Jun-30, Tuesday 02:28 pm (UTC)It lasted a couple of months before people realized that there are very good reasons for filters and reticence.
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on 2009-Jun-30, Tuesday 02:49 pm (UTC)But I'm NOT in favor of thinking that anyone is entitled to doing just that without the expectation that people are allowed to have and hold reactions to those words.
I'm also NOT in favor of saying things without social filtering in place. There are almost always ways to say things to get your point across without being a douche. Freedom doesn't necessarily entail the freedom to turn off your brain when communicating, though. At least not to me.
Hey. What's going on with that book you mentioned before your trip? Never heard back; has it already been sold and gone away?