Today relativism is a widespread tendency practically in all spheres of life, be it ethics, culture, knowledge, human relationship or values. Relativism denies anything absolute or certain. In relativism the subject or the person decides what is true or false, good or bad. Thus he becomes the ultimate authority in all matters!Relativism has serious negative consequences for the individual, society at large and the world.

Take, for example, someone makes a statement, " Any judgment is violence". Apparently this appears to be very true and attractive. And this itself is a judgment! In real life all of us are making judgments about things, events, persons, etc. all the time. Does it mean that one is indulging in violence? Absolutely not. For example, a teacher in a school says to a parent, "your child is not behaving well in class". Does it mean that the teacher has committed violence against the child? Not at all. Or again, a doctor makes a judgment regarding a sick person. He tells the patient, "you are not taking the medicine as prescribed". Has the doctor indulged in violence? Any right thinking person would agree that these are not instances of violence! They are only a help given to improve a given situation.

You may object, "but Jesus said, 'do not judge' [Mt 7:1]!" Here we should remember, that Jesus himself on several occasions made judgments about persons and events. So what matters is not "making judgment", but "the purpose for which a judgment is made".

"Every judgment is violence" is a relative statement. It is only a private opinion of someone. It could even be his/her personal conviction. But he/she has no right to impose it on others as an absolute value to be followed by all.Therefore, we need to be critical and reflective about what we hear people teach on T.V. programmes, or we read in books or hear people say.


Dr. J. Kuruvachira & Dr. J. Puthenpurakalv