When the Homily is about Immunology

Judging Society

Have you been following my discussion with Felix over at his blog?

We've been kinda going round in circles about individual sin and societal sin and where to start looking at blame and solutions and what not. You'll need to go and read all of our comments to get a feel for where I am going with this. I felt as though Felix was overemphasizing societal sin at the expense of personal sin...no doubt he would say I was doing the opposite. In the end, I don't think that we are really disagreeing all that much...but rather are seeing different emphases.

We are all quick to judge the sins of society, aren't we? It's certainly easier to look at us all and see where our culture or our corporate doings are ridden with sin. For one, it is harder to offend soceity than it is an individual! But, if we are commanded to not judge our "brother" why do we safely assume that it is perfectly fine to judge our brothers corporately?

At Felix's I mention this passage:

Judge not, that you be not judged. For with what judgment you judge, you will be judged; and with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you. And why do you look at the speck in your brother's eye, but do not consider the plank in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, "Let me remove the speck from your eye'; and look, a plank is in your own eye? Hypocrite! First remove the plank from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye.

Now, certainly this implies that we need to set things aright in our own lives before we start trying to "fix" our brothers...but does it say the same in regards to our attempts to fix society? Can we fix society without first fixing ourselves and our brothers? What do you all think?