Letters to the Editor
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The speck and the plank
Matthew 7:4&5 "Or how can you say to your brother, Let me take the speck out of your eye, when all the time there is a plank in your own? You hypocrite! First take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's." The New English Bible, Cambridge University Press 1971
This quote, taken from the Sermon on the Mount, is surely one of the most important teachings of Jesus. For Christians of all persuasions, this section of the New Testament is the basis for mature, loving and responsible behavior. For someone not steeped in psychology, Jesus's comments were remarkably prescient. What is truly ironic is that this administration prides itself on being God-fearing religious Christians. Well, hypocrisy begins at home.
Another example of this teaching is the sense of outrage one might feel when seeing a parent verbally abuse a child. It took me a long time to realize that I, myself, have occasionally done this to my own children, and that it is virtually impossible to impose your will on someone else. Parents, and countries do good and bad things. For the most part we have to keep hands off. This applies to every country on the planet.
One of the realities of our world is that each person, and each country, has free will. That does not, of course, mean that all decisions will be mature, loving or responsible. We need to see that bad behavior does not give us permission to intercede. When examining our war policies since WW2 we need to recognize the limits of our own power, and allow the world to make its way without the U.S. dictating the rules. Even as parents,we soon realize just how little control we have over our own children.
Ultimately the best one can do is to take personal responsibility for our own behavior, and correct our mistakes as we go along. Every major religion has some way of expiating our sins. These processes exist because we all make mistakes and we all need to atone for our mistakes as best we can.
United States foreign policy fails to see the plank in our own eye before we start talking - or taking action- about the speck in the other guy's eye. Failure to have this basic understanding of human nature has gotten us into so much trouble that we're going to have to work overtime to atone for all of our sins.
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Clark's points are well taken and even better presented
I don't think anyone on earth would accuse him of lying or distorting. He is straight up and honest. That this regime has been in power for 7 years and we aren't fighting a 7 front war is both a testiment to their inability to get past square 2 and the utter stupidity of those who came up with the magic 7.