Is Judgement Always a Bad Thing?

Slate recently published an interesting opinion piece by William Saletan, "Judgement Day."  Although critical of San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore Joseph Cordileone's decree that teachers in Catholic schools should not "visibly contradict, undermine, or deny" church teachings on morality, Saletan also  finds fault with the "empty-headed liberalism" expressed by many of the Archbishop's critics.

Saletan's point is that much of the opposition to the Archbishop's act seems to be rooted in the belief that any sort of judgement is wrong.  "A morality clause has no place in our schools," says the Facebook page of Support SF Teachers.  "We want teachers to be able to be themselves."  "Be who you are and don't care who says what," comments another critic.

I seriously doubt that these people literally mean what their words suggest, that teachers guilty of, say, advocating or practicing incest should "be free to be themselves."  Most of us believe that freedom must be curbed when it inflicts harm on others.  But the point at which that happens is far from clear cut, and it also evades the question of whether religious groups have the right to demand that members live out and defend certain beliefs.

Please do not misunderstand me.  I am not defending any particular judgement or act of discrimination, Catholic or otherwise.  But it is concerning that the very idea of making judgements, of discretion, has become off limits to many of us.