This occasionally involves a tricky kind of doublethink, for example a person who denounces homosexuality when asked directly but who holds nothing against their homosexual friends.
That combination isn’t especially hard to do even without doublethink. But there are plenty of other examples (including other more incoherent combinations of beliefs related to homosexuality) that would demonstrate your point!
I can’t believe both at the same time and I find it hard to imagine how someone could. Maybe this shows childish simplicity in my thoughts more than anything else, but even if I try to be okay with inconsistencies in my belief system, they drive me up the wall.
My point is that this is not an inconsistency at all. It is just something that is surprising to many since on subjects like homosexuality people tend to associate public disapproval of a specific behavior with political aggression to those with the identity and so personal conflict with the individuals who happen to practice it. But that just doesn’t logically follow. To get from “disapprove of behaviour X” to “have a problem with person B who does X” you need to add in a whole other premise… which is not something everybody does.
Bear in mind that the kind of Christians (ie. nice ones) who can denounce homosexuality when asked directly but hold nothing against their homosexual friends are also the kind who take particular delight in the verse “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God”. And the meaning that conveys is uplifting to them. Becomes it comes loaded with the connotation “And it doesn’t matter. Jesus loves us all and we can all be forgiven and we should forgive. How can I hold anything against anyone when God doesn’t hold anything against me despite all my naughty thoughts about Sam naked? Just because we believe in omnipotent imaginary friends doesn’t mean we are obliged to be intolerant dicks. Hallelujah”. Well, they really do think the first bit. The not being intolerant is just a pleasant side effect from my perspective. :)
You know what? That makes a LOT of sense. There are enough things my friends do that I disapprove of, or that at least seem irrational to me, but if they’re not hurting others I don’t hold it against them. I understand this more, thank you.
There are plenty of activities that I don’t approve of, but which friends of mine engage in.
I don’t see any inconsistency there. Being someone’s friend does not require endorsing everything they do. (Hell, I don’t even endorse everything I do.)
Can you say more about the nature of the inconsistency that troubles you?
See my reply above. I guess the inconsistency is that it DOES bother me when my friends do things I don’t endorse. I try not to let it affect the way I treat them, as my friends, but it does rankle.
And sometimes I say to my friends “You know, it really bothers me that you do X.”
And I do things that bother my friends. And sometimes they say to me “You know, Dave, it really bothers me that you do X.”
And we all try not to say that too often, because that’s annoying… but when the right moment arises, we say it.
And that isn’t a contradiction. Quite the contrary, part of what friendship entails is the willingness—I might even say the obligation—to find supportive ways of communicating such things. It’s uncomfortable, sometimes extremely so. But we do it, because that’s part of what friends do. (Some of us are, of course, better at it than others.)
That combination isn’t especially hard to do even without doublethink. But there are plenty of other examples (including other more incoherent combinations of beliefs related to homosexuality) that would demonstrate your point!
I can’t believe both at the same time and I find it hard to imagine how someone could. Maybe this shows childish simplicity in my thoughts more than anything else, but even if I try to be okay with inconsistencies in my belief system, they drive me up the wall.
My point is that this is not an inconsistency at all. It is just something that is surprising to many since on subjects like homosexuality people tend to associate public disapproval of a specific behavior with political aggression to those with the identity and so personal conflict with the individuals who happen to practice it. But that just doesn’t logically follow. To get from “disapprove of behaviour X” to “have a problem with person B who does X” you need to add in a whole other premise… which is not something everybody does.
Bear in mind that the kind of Christians (ie. nice ones) who can denounce homosexuality when asked directly but hold nothing against their homosexual friends are also the kind who take particular delight in the verse “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God”. And the meaning that conveys is uplifting to them. Becomes it comes loaded with the connotation “And it doesn’t matter. Jesus loves us all and we can all be forgiven and we should forgive. How can I hold anything against anyone when God doesn’t hold anything against me despite all my naughty thoughts about Sam naked? Just because we believe in omnipotent imaginary friends doesn’t mean we are obliged to be intolerant dicks. Hallelujah”. Well, they really do think the first bit. The not being intolerant is just a pleasant side effect from my perspective. :)
You know what? That makes a LOT of sense. There are enough things my friends do that I disapprove of, or that at least seem irrational to me, but if they’re not hurting others I don’t hold it against them. I understand this more, thank you.
There are plenty of activities that I don’t approve of, but which friends of mine engage in.
I don’t see any inconsistency there. Being someone’s friend does not require endorsing everything they do. (Hell, I don’t even endorse everything I do.)
Can you say more about the nature of the inconsistency that troubles you?
See my reply above. I guess the inconsistency is that it DOES bother me when my friends do things I don’t endorse. I try not to let it affect the way I treat them, as my friends, but it does rankle.
Well, sure. It bothers me, too.
And sometimes I say to my friends “You know, it really bothers me that you do X.”
And I do things that bother my friends. And sometimes they say to me “You know, Dave, it really bothers me that you do X.”
And we all try not to say that too often, because that’s annoying… but when the right moment arises, we say it.
And that isn’t a contradiction. Quite the contrary, part of what friendship entails is the willingness—I might even say the obligation—to find supportive ways of communicating such things. It’s uncomfortable, sometimes extremely so. But we do it, because that’s part of what friends do. (Some of us are, of course, better at it than others.)