Tip #60 Remember Imperfection
May. 1st, 2016 11:07 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
wingedbeastIn the previous tip, I referenced a defense of biblical slavery. The love-based defense operated on the notion that a slave owner that loved his slave as himself could do all that the law of the time allowed, including the beatings and commanding sex from a slave woman, and not have wronged any slave in any way, because said slave owner would not have acted to harm the slave.
A single word to cover that and similar arguments is "intent."
Intent is invoked, if not named, in other arguments. Spanking children or eschewing medicine in favor of faith-based treatment are both claimed to be not abusive if done in love, not meaning to abuse. "Complementarian" is the self-adopted name of a cultural movement that believes that husbands and wives have natural positions within a marriage, in which the man is decision maker, yet both are equals. They, too, will say that a good, Christian husband would never abuse this position or do wrong to his wife, because, in keeping with Jesus's most important law, he would love her as himself.
Again, the key, but often unstated, word is "intent". Depending on the social circles with which you interact, you may have heard about intent's lack of magical properties. It's far more likely that you will have heard that intent, even while good, pave the road to Hell.
Part of the reason you might have heard either of those is that human beings are imperfect. We have a lot of ways to say that, down to and including the blatant "nobody's perfect". We even have faiths that include a recognition of that fact as an important element.
Whether a husband that acts as the decider, a parent, or a slave owner, humans, even those with the best of intents, are imperfect. They have imperfect education, understanding, awareness, resource, and motivation... all of it at the best of times.
Ignoring that in order to defend or present something as good doesn't show goodness. It shows a willingness to ignore harm done to real people in the name of the ideologically convenient.
As you consider ways of life, ways of relating, ways of handling marriage, just about any plan for how people relate to each other, keep the basic imperfection of humanity in mind. Ask yourself how a failure of each member will be addressed within the system, culture, etc. For instance, it's easy to see how a slave wronging a master is addressed. But, short of a beating that looses an eye or a tooth, how will an owner wronging a slave be addressed?
A single word to cover that and similar arguments is "intent."
Intent is invoked, if not named, in other arguments. Spanking children or eschewing medicine in favor of faith-based treatment are both claimed to be not abusive if done in love, not meaning to abuse. "Complementarian" is the self-adopted name of a cultural movement that believes that husbands and wives have natural positions within a marriage, in which the man is decision maker, yet both are equals. They, too, will say that a good, Christian husband would never abuse this position or do wrong to his wife, because, in keeping with Jesus's most important law, he would love her as himself.
Again, the key, but often unstated, word is "intent". Depending on the social circles with which you interact, you may have heard about intent's lack of magical properties. It's far more likely that you will have heard that intent, even while good, pave the road to Hell.
Part of the reason you might have heard either of those is that human beings are imperfect. We have a lot of ways to say that, down to and including the blatant "nobody's perfect". We even have faiths that include a recognition of that fact as an important element.
Whether a husband that acts as the decider, a parent, or a slave owner, humans, even those with the best of intents, are imperfect. They have imperfect education, understanding, awareness, resource, and motivation... all of it at the best of times.
Ignoring that in order to defend or present something as good doesn't show goodness. It shows a willingness to ignore harm done to real people in the name of the ideologically convenient.
As you consider ways of life, ways of relating, ways of handling marriage, just about any plan for how people relate to each other, keep the basic imperfection of humanity in mind. Ask yourself how a failure of each member will be addressed within the system, culture, etc. For instance, it's easy to see how a slave wronging a master is addressed. But, short of a beating that looses an eye or a tooth, how will an owner wronging a slave be addressed?
