Thursday, October 14, 2010

Jason Linkins on Washington Post's "Two Sides" to Gay Teen Suicide Story: Hearing the Lion's Side as He Devours the Lambs


You see: this is precisely why I keep chipping away at the argument of centrists that all in the world they're about is holding a big ole love fest at which everyone is welcome at the table.  And that there are two sides to every argument.  With centrists in the elite power seat of deciding the flaws of both sides.
And what you're really doing when you keep talking about two sides and the need to bring everyone together around the table is facilitating the work of the lions in devouring the lambs.  And so please don't tell me Jesus stands with you and the rapacious lions, as you do the lions' work for them.

I know better, when I read the gospels and see what happened to him for siding with the lambs of his own society.  The image of lions sitting with lambs is a fine eschatological vision.  But it requires us to do something before the feast to assure that the lions behave like lambs at the table.

It requires us to do what centrists never want to do: to make critical judgments about where justice lies, to take sides, and to commit ourselves and stop pretending that our self-protective cozying up to the powerful right is all about objectivity.  When it's really about assuring that we have our own nice place at the table, even if the lambs we've invited to our centrist table are the main menu item.

But, of course, who are we to make the judgment that the Nazis were inhumane?

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