My favorite thought here is "To put the blessing in the mouth of the one who curses is to make a statement that criticism of the people is only valuable if it comes from a place of love". That is a powerful framing of how much context matters to the things we choose to criticize, and perhaps more importantly the motivation we hold when criticizing. The end of that paragraph, "The malice of my enemies doesn’t exempt me from introspection and divine accountability", reminds me of a term I heard recently in a similar context. Ian Leslie introduced me to the phrase "culture of toxic positivity", wherein a group placed a false emphasis on cooperation, agreeableness, or avoiding introspection in order to head off ugly criticism from outside the group. In your terms here, to refuse to consider Balaam's criticism just because he makes them with the wrong intentions is to reinforce something potentially blameworthy among the people.
My favorite thought here is "To put the blessing in the mouth of the one who curses is to make a statement that criticism of the people is only valuable if it comes from a place of love". That is a powerful framing of how much context matters to the things we choose to criticize, and perhaps more importantly the motivation we hold when criticizing. The end of that paragraph, "The malice of my enemies doesn’t exempt me from introspection and divine accountability", reminds me of a term I heard recently in a similar context. Ian Leslie introduced me to the phrase "culture of toxic positivity", wherein a group placed a false emphasis on cooperation, agreeableness, or avoiding introspection in order to head off ugly criticism from outside the group. In your terms here, to refuse to consider Balaam's criticism just because he makes them with the wrong intentions is to reinforce something potentially blameworthy among the people.