2/16/2021
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| Rubens, "Judgment of Solomon" |
Defending what is right.
Imagine:
They’re saying it’s okay to kill a baby. They’re saying this to your own people. They’re saying it to your own people in your house right in front of you. What is the effect of your remaining silent? Is it not that the heresy will spread, grow stronger and become more brazen?
Knee-capping a teacher for teaching well looks bad. The very one who is supposed to advocate for the teacher is turned against him. The very one who is supposed to advocate for the good of the students is turned against the students. This looks bad all around.
Meanwhile the teacher is forced to consider that he did something wrong. He did everything exactly right. In the teaching moment, he taught. Clearly. And all the more strongly in proportion to the gravity of the matter.
Why the antipathy towards the teacher? He is strong and they are weak. They cannot abide someone with greater authority, shining the ray of truth. Does it expose what they’ve concealed so long in the darkness—that outwardly they’re meant to care for teachers and children, but inwardly they’d sooner see them dead than defend what is right, true and just?
Getting carried away by a little cowardice. Softness, lack of perseverance, lack of magnanimity. “Be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.” How easily we forget it. “Blessed are you when they utter every kind of evil against you falsely because of me.” How easily we forget it.
