What the Pope Got Right, and What Wrong

TigetHawk is Mad and He’s Not Going to Take it Any More. The Pope condemned religious violence. Angry Muslims took to the street. “Never,” says TigerHawk, his temples throbbing – “Never in the history of Christianity has a pope been proven correct so quickly and demonstrably.” He continues:

For my part, I am sick of "Muslim rage." …. [T]here is simply no defense for the behavior of these imams and their followers. It is barbaric, and everybody who is not barbaric or an unreconstructed apologist for barbarians knows it. The Muslims who commit arson and mayhem in response to some Westerner speaking his opinion -- and the pope, as leader of the Roman church, is exactly that -- have chosen to act as enemies of reason, peace, and everything that is good in the world.

The Pope, in short, has nothing to apologize for. I’m mostly with TigerHawk on this one. But I’m not quite ready to let the Pope off the hook. Not that he shouldn’t have said it. And not just “he’s got a right to his opinion.” It is an important issue, and it is refreshing to see an important voice on moral issues willing to take it on. If he feels he can make a contribution, well God (as it were) bless him.

But Jeeze Louise, Papa, you should have seen this one coming. You should have known you were going to create a rumpus and that ten gazillion Muslims (plus the Times and the Guardian) would be on your neck. This does not mean you should have kept quiet. It does mean you should have been ready for the uproar. You should have the second-day story in the can and ready to go. You should have bean ready to use all your formidable powers to try to turn this into a useful dialogue.

Instead, we’re told that the Pope is “extremely upset” at the response and “only meant to say” blah blah blah. This is not constructive. It conveys that he hasn’t thought it out; that he doesn’t understand the implications of his own words; that he doesn’t (in the strict sense) know what he is talking about.

Well, he does and he doesn’t. He was (mostly) right the first day. He’s a little bit right today. But if he is really going to let himself get rolled this easily, then there’s a good case to be made for the notion that he should have kept silent altogether.

In short, the Pope has to do more than just pontificate.

Fn: TigerHawk is also pretty ticked at the New York Times. He's mostly right on that one, too, but it's a separate issue and deserves, if anything, a separate comment.