This review of a biography on Richard John Neuhaus has a particular insight that I find true generally of our inability to have decent public discussion anymore.
An ethicist friend once told me he had a hard time reading Neuhaus. “I know there is stuff to learn from him,” he said, “but given the things that I find so irritating, I have decided not to make the effort.”
This is the summation of our problem. It is that we may LIKE people, but we don’t like some of their “positions.” So, rather than make the effort to walk through all the “irritations” we just give up on what we may actually LEARN from someone.
Smacking. My. Head.
Apprentice 2 Jesus 