| 3-30-98
By Luke Ford
On AM 790, KABC, Dennis Prager delivered his daily show from noon
to three PM. DP said that we should not be shocked by children doing
evil, such as the shootings in Arkansas last week. Humans start
out selfish and lousy and generally, society makes us better. If
you saw a building with smashed windows and spray painted graffiti,
you would think that kids did it, not senior citizens.
Prager noted how most people think that their kids are good kids.
We need to judge their actions, and listen to how their teachers
describe them.
Graffiti announces that you are entering a crime zone. Profanity
is a form of graffiti says DP. Spewing profanity publicly is a sign
of bad character.
Another warning sign about your child's character is torturing
animals.
A couple of kids phoned up annoyed that Prager would judge profanity
and profanity users. Others phoned up to say how they used to use
profanity and torture animals, but faith in Jesus Christ turned
them around.
Prager pointed out the verse in John 8:44, where Jesus tells Jews
that they have the devil for a father. This verse has long been
used to persecute Jews. All Jews are Pharisees. No other form of
Judaism survived.
Anyone who believes in Jesus as Messiah and God is a Christian,
and no longer an adherent of Judaism. There are no Jews for Jesus.
Prager quoted with approval this article from today's Wall Street
Journal:
For Young Guns,
One Strike Ought
To Be Enough
By PETER REINHARZ
The New York Times headline asks "Who Are
These Boys?" It refers, of course, to the 11- and 13-year-old accused
killers from Jonesboro, Ark. The story talks of a community deep
in grief, trying to come to grips with how boys so young could have
opened fire on a group of students exiting a middle school.
The media have called upon the usual array
of experts to talk about the extent of juvenile crime in America.
They offer conflicting statistics to show that juvenile crime is
growing, is shrinking, is remaining the same; they also offer remedies
as diverse as their data. But most of the people asked to comment
express shock at the gravity of the crimes and the tender years
of those who have been charged.
It is time that we stopped being shocked
and started coming up with appropriate responses to violent juvenile
crime. When students are shot in the schools of Paducah, Ky., or
in Pearl, Miss., it is the responsibility of those in the criminal
justice system to respond responsibly and effectively--not to express
surprise and disbelief. The reactions of the "experts" make clear
that our juvenile and criminal justice systems are not prepared
for these types of events--which, despite our disbelief, have happened
before and will happen again.
It is long past time to recognize that violent
offenders--no matter if they are 18 or 11 years of age--must be
removed from our community for a very long period of time. History
teaches us that violence among young males increases through the
teenage years and into the early 20s. It is not until about age
23 that crime levels off, and then begins to drop. The drop in violent
crime accelerates with age so that at age 30, and then at age 40,
the decline is almost vertical. This is confirmed by studies that
show lower rates of return to prison as offenders' age at time of
release rises.
3-27-98
About twenty years ago, Rabbi Harold Kushner published a bestseller
When Bad Things Happen to Good People. As Rabbi Joseph Telushkin
points out, people often refer to Kushner's book as WHY Bad Things…
The problem of suffering among good people took up today's Dennis
Prager show. DP says there is bad luck. If you get hit by a drunk
driver, you probably did not cause it. Numerous callers argued that
you are responsible for everything that happens to you, including
if you are born of alcoholic parents.
Prager received one prominent call from Stacy, an assistant at
The Prager Perspective, DP's office.
Gil wrote on the Prager-List:
Between 1:30 & 2PM, and then repeated for good measure just
after the 2PM
break, Dennis had a young caller who said Dennis was worse for
passing judgment on the performance of a specific act than were
the people who performed it.
Dennis thought that the statement alone "says it all." He failed
completely to be prepared to respond to a charge he gets frequently
with the eloquence that he has so capably demonstrated at other
times . "It says it all," is the statement of someone who has been
non-plussed ("Wow, after all my efforts, still I get calls like
this! Why do I bother?")
Okay fans, it is time to pony up and give Dennis our support in
his despair. Now, admit it. We all get low points, and it just seems
like too much to pick onesself up and charge, anew, into the fray.
Dennis should have been better prepared, but he wasn't. Maybe next
time; but what if there is no next time -- or worse, what if he
still is unprepared? He was leaving judgment up to his listeners,
"see, this is the problem, doncha see?" and in so doing missed a
better opportunity to drive home one of his favorite themes -->
People just do not want to think badly of themselves.
Aside from the obvious ad hominom tactic that the young man was
parrotting for his own purposes (whether he knew it or not), there
is so much more here that Dennis could spend a week on the phenomenon
and only scratch the surface.
And you all feel squeamish about the topic too.. Have any of you
NOT felt resentment for having your actions singled out for condemnation
by one authority or another -- or worse, by a REAL hypocrite? "Why
me when there are so many others who've done the same and worse?"
So because of such past feelings -- or near misses to such feelings
when you witnessed friends being condemned for what you yourself
didn't get caught at -- you are afraid to come forward at times
when yours is the only judgment that will turn the tide of an injustice
about to happen. At such times YOU were afraid to be called judgmental.
Your childish fear of being called names kept you from standing
witness to the truth. YOU WERE A COWARD.
Dennis is no coward. He takes on issues in a public forum that
most of us would suddenly become mute when confronted in close quarters
(a variation on "Peter, you will denounce me thrice before the cock
crows"). Yet, at that moment, circa 2PM Monday, he needed the same
help you did when your fear overtook your judgment.
Use your head. You can do it. You have done it. To keep your cool
under fire, be prepard for the next time....
WHAT ARE THE ARGUMENTS THAT WHITHER CHARGES OF JUDGMENTALISM?
The Boy Scout motto is "Be Prepard." Well? If you are really a
Prager fan, get prepared already. <G>
Gil from Echo Park
It is narcissism to fear disapproval for making sound judgments.
Don't wait for Part 2. We should be pretty disgusted with the
lot of us for getting side-tracked on petty issues instead of taking
on the bigger issues.
LUKE: The primary question that should be asked before declaring
moral judgements is:
Will what I am about to do, do good?
I am assuming no self interest in declaring moral judgements.
My motto is:
When it is not clear that what you are about to do will do more
good than harm, or more harm than good, and it is overwhelmingly
in your self interest to act, then I generally act (in my self interest).
For instance, some of the things I have written about Prager are
not obviously good. But in the interest of my writing his biography
and putting up a good web site about him, I write.
With very few exceptions, moral judgements should only be passed
about specific actions and not persons. Persons are complex. The
morality of acts is frequently clear. It may be very clear that
things I have written on here are wrong, but that does not declare
me bad or sick necessarily, as my writings on the Prager-List are
only a tiny part of my total behavior and totality.
Moral judgements should also usually be pronounced in private
to the person who has sinned. And they should only be done by someone
who has some pull.
There is no point in my reprimanding certain members of this list
for instance, if I want to change their behavior, for I have no
moral clout with them.
Most of us on this list feel an obligation to imitate God. God
judges. God particularly judges actions, frequently in the Torah.
In the final analysis, that is why many of us declare moral judgements.
We believe in God, and in the Bible and in upholding religious morality
aka ethical monotheism, and that requires varying degrees of opposition
to other values.
The trick is in how you do it. My heroes in this regard, whom
I value for their sensitivity to others' feelings are:
Dennis Prager, Leibel Lou Rudolph, Errol Gerson, Rabbis Nahum
B--verman, Mord--ai Finley, Moshe Cohen, Y--zhock Adl--stein...
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