> 1) "Don't judge people. There is really no way to say "group X is bad..."
> "Judge not" is a Biblical statement, and I believe it. But it properly means, "don't place an ultimate condemnation on people," because that right of ultimate judgment belongs to God alone. Americans today misunderstand the command to mean "don't suppose you can understand whether a person's action is right or wrong." But that's *not* a Biblical interpretation, since Scripture definitely expects the believer to discern right and wrong both in her own life and in the lives of others. Discerning good and bad is different from passing judgment on a person.

Well, yes. That's rather what I meant. I didn't mean to say that one should never discern whether something is good or bad; what I was saying was that one should not condemn others for their actions.

> 2) "as Issachar explained earlier, bad is subjective. And, just as bad is subjective, extreme is subjective as well. So to say extremism is bad says, as we've discovered in this thread, something completely different to Issachar than it means to you."
> I can see how my post might have given the impression that I think that "bad is subjective." However, it would be better said that "bad is relative" -- and it is specifically relative to God's person and will. That, in effect, makes "bad" a pretty rigidly defined standard, and about as close to being "objective" as you can get. Good and bad may mean something particular to me, but that's not because I have the prerogative to define them myself. I have only the prerogative to accept them on God's terms or reject them on same, and at peril of my life.

Aagin, that's kinda what I meant (teach me to post while I'm half-asleep). Admittedly, I used the word "subjective" improperly (I would be the first person to argue against moral relativism). My point was merely that, even if someone does something wrong, no one else is in any position to declare himself a better person. Only God ca n do that.

> If you met me, you wouldn't think of me as a hard-nosed, rigid, Bible-pounding moralist.

Oddly enough, a lot of people *do* think of me that way, and I cannot for the life of me figure out why. I am a definite believer in morality and in an absolute good and evil, and I make so secret of the fact that certain things are good or evil. But I never condemn other people because of behaviours that they engage in; I live my life by these standards, but it is not my place to hold others to them, and I do not do so. Hmm.