Human beings have an amazing capacity for inconsistent thinking. We are capable of enormous outrage over something wrong, but not its equivalent in another setting.
Here's a nice example, by Tony Woodlief:
"In an emotion-laden account, NPR's Terry Gross exposed the brutality of partial-birth abortion today. She interviewed photojournalist Brent Stirton, who "took a photograph that shocked the world," as NPR explains, the victims "murdered, execution-style...simply slaughtered."
Just kidding. They're up in arms about some gorillas that got killed in the Congo. Not to belittle the atrocity. I mean, they're sentient beings, and in many ways they resemble humans. The gorillas, I mean. Not those fetus thingys."
You can find the same kind of problem among any group of people, on many subjects. (Everyone except me, of course, since I'm perfectly consistent in every way :-)
Because it is common, it's an excellent debating tool, and a constructive tool for dialogue. For example, I was recently challenged to think consistently about my views on government support for an in-prison program by Christians. We can help one another think more clearly, more carefully, more humbly. No worries, I got the guy back on his demands for windfall profit taxes on Big Oil profits but not on his relatives' corn and soybean profits.
At the core we overestimate our wisdom and maturity. We ooze pride and hubris. Let us marvel at our Lord Jesus, looking to His examples for perfectly balancing grace and truth, toughness and tenderness.
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