Elias in El Monte, California listening
on Immaculate Heart Radio, you are on with
Dr. Sri, what's your question? Well first
I wanted to say, reading your book that
you co-wrote with Curtis Martin, "The Real
Story," I just want to say--I'm not done
with it yet--but I want to say it's
really really good and I appreciate that.
Also I had a question as far as the
title of your book that you're
speaking about, "Who Am I to Judge?"
Obviously our Holy Father has been
referenced about that for a long time, and
I think unfairly taken out of context,
was the title of your book, in a way, to...
kind of maybe in a way bring attention
to that or is it completely unrelated? No, I would say I love the title because
it gets right to the heart of the matter
of morality, right? Can I make a judgement?
Just like we were just just discussing
here. Now am I happy that, you know, I
can kind of, you know, take it--I don't
know if your experience is--but I find the
media often doesn't get Pope Francis
right, and they really took what he
said really out of context in a really
bad way, and I want to take that
statement back, and make that
distinction that we just talked about.
That, yes we are not supposed to make
judgments about people's souls, as
Jesus says in the Sermon on the Mount. But we
should always be able to make judgments
about what is right and wrong, and we
need to have confidence in moral truth;
confidence that we can talk about
moral truth without being a mean,
judgmental, intolerant person. I can make
a judgment about moral action, "This is
right, this is wrong, one should never do
this," without having to judge a person's
soul. And if I disagree with your
lifestyle, I disagree with the choices
you're making, I could still respect you. We
might even be able to still be friends,
but "I disagree" doesn't mean "I hate
you," and please don't force me
into this box that is saying, "Oh, just
because I have a certain conviction, that
I'm a judgmental person." And we need to
push back on that, and I think Pope
Francis--er I'm sorry, Pope Benedict especially was
really calling us to do is to push back
on that relativism that's trying to make us, like, all
cower and never say what is right or
wrong anymore. Thanks, Elias.
