“Let us beset the just one, because he is obnoxious to us.” Tearing someone down from their pedestal is not a modern phenomenon but goes back to Biblical times. It comes as no surprise that the media has found fault with political figures like John F. Kennedy, religious figures like Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., even saintly figures like Mother Teresa and Pope John Paul II. Cutting people down to size must be a way of making us feel better. This can be a dangerous thing when such disparagement becomes the excuse to ignore the important message that the prominent figure promoted. But the leveling principle can also be positive when it reminds us that these people who promoted a more just society or who proclaimed the presence of God were human, with faults and failings like the rest of us. If they, with their human limitations, could be working to make this world a better place, perhaps I can too.
