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Sunday, February 10, 2002

Good Judgment

A friend writes:

"I had the christian theory of judging hammered into me from the time I was little[...]... I have always thought of judgement in terms of black and white... of extremes... without really realizing it... which is why the word "judge" always makes me nervous... because it seems so blind and final..."

Having been raised without religion, I forgot to account for this default societal bias in my recent entry on judgment. So I should clarify, or perhaps just more greatly emphasize, that good judgment (which is of course the only kind I advocate :) is rarely black or white and certainly never dogmatic, nor superficial, nor premature, nor with greater confidence than the evidence warrants. (Nor does it eagerly seek to condemn, for condemnation itself often presupposes many ideals which good judgment treats impartially.)

The "non-judgmental" movement has thrown out the baby with the bath water (not being able to judge the difference, apparently) in swinging from one extreme (dogmatic judgment) to the other (no judgment). Clearly the middle ground is preferred. That is all. :)

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