What do the Duke Lacrosse scandal and the Natalee Holloway mystery have in common? According to Ann Coulter, there is an obvious ill advised behavior leading up to each crime that the public is afraid to talk about:
Not very long ago, all the precursor behavior in these cases would have been recognized as vulgar — whether or not anyone ended up dead, raped or falsely accused of rape. But in a nation of people in constant terror of being perceived as "judgmental," I'm not sure most people do recognize that anymore.Although I don’t often quote Coulter, I think her column is insightful, especially the identification of the overarching fear of being labeled a hypocrite:
The liberal charge of "hypocrisy" has so permeated the public consciousness that no one is willing to condemn any behavior anymore, no matter how seedy. The unstated rule is: If you've done it, you can't ever criticize it — a standard that would seem to repudiate the good works of the Rev. Franklin Graham, Malcolm X, Whittaker Chambers and St. Paul, among others.In fact, the charge of hypocrisy has become a useful tool of the left for neutralizing their opponents. One of the most common emails received by this site argues that abortion is not murder because pro-lifers have not solved world poverty, child abuse, genocide in Darfur, and every other social crisis under the sun. In other words, we are all hypocrites and cannot make a claim about anything.Every woman who has had an abortion feels compelled to defend abortion for all women; every man who's ever been at a party with strippers thinks he has to defend all men who watch strippers; and every Democrat who voted for Bill Clinton feels the need to defend duplicity, adultery, lying about adultery, sexual harassment, rape, perjury, obstruction of justice, kicking the can of global Islamo-fascism down the road for eight years and so on.
This is crazy. (I can say that because I've never been diagnosed with a psychiatric disorder. Although I did test positive for "Olympic fever" once.)The conclusion of Coulter’s column might surprise a few of her detractors, because she promotes grace (God’s undeserved favor):In no area except morality would a sane person believe he can't criticize something stupid because he's done it. How about: If you've ever forgotten to fill up your car and run out of gas, you must forevermore defend a person's right to ignore the gas gauge. Or if you've ever forgotten to wear a coat in cold weather and caught a cold, henceforth you are obliged to encourage others not to dress appropriately in the winter.
But we're all rotten sinners, incapable of redemption on our own. The liberal answer to sin is to say: I can never pay this back, so my argument will be I didn't do anything wrong.The religion of peace's answer is: I've just beheaded an innocent man — I'm off to meet Allah!
I don't know what the Jewish answer is, but I'm sure it's something other than, "therefore, what I did is no longer bad behavior" — or the Talmud could be a lot shorter.
The Christian answer is: I can never pay this back, but luckily that Christ fellow has already paid my debt.
HT: Hyscience
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