{"id":5163,"date":"2017-03-17T11:16:28","date_gmt":"2017-03-17T16:16:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thenonsequitur.com\/?p=5163"},"modified":"2017-03-17T11:16:28","modified_gmt":"2017-03-17T16:16:28","slug":"the-real-hypocrites","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thenonsequitur.com\/?p=5163","title":{"rendered":"The real hypocrites"},"content":{"rendered":"

It’s Saint Patrick’s day. Where I come from, Michigan, it means corned beef and cabbage. \u00c2\u00a0Thank goodness those days are over. Should you suffer a dearth of Irish today, you can watch this video<\/a>. It will sustain you for a year.<\/p>\n

Twitter brings us today’s topic–tu quoque. You can’t get enough of this stuff.<\/p>\n

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That’s Erick Erickson, a true Christian<\/a>. Consider the second tweet.\u00c2\u00a0It could be one of two thoughts.<\/p>\n

First, the (in this case non-Christian) people who allege hypocrisy are not qualified to determine whether Christians are hypocrites are not. They’re not Christians, so they don’t know anything about what Christian dogma entails.<\/p>\n

This is clearly false. They could be ex-Christians. Or they could just know what Christian morality requires. You can get this from books nowadays, or even the internet.<\/p>\n

A second is that people who are not Christians are so sin-filled that they are morally unqualified to criticize anyone. This also seems wrong, because I can be a sin-filled monster but still recognize inconsistencies.<\/p>\n

I suppose in the end there is a confusion about the status of outsiders who criticize you. In one sense, their input isn’t directed at improving your overall view (which they think is generally false). This fact, however, does not disqualify them from having any view about your claims.<\/p>\n

Since it’s St.Patrick’s day, let’s close with a tweet-quoque by an Irishman:<\/p>\n

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If “Mulvaney wears Shamrock, denies famine funding” isn’t enough, he also has a Book of Kells tie. That’s literally the Gospel on his tie. pic.twitter.com\/p7Bkz0XESY<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u201d Kieran Healy (@kjhealy) March 16, 2017<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n