Rod Dreher in the DMN:

Flannery O’Connor, who died 42 years ago this month, was an astute observer of the kind of progressive-minded Southerner who had been educated out of his prejudices, but who in truth traded one form of self-righteousness for a more insidious one. In two of her greatest stories, "Everything That Rises Must Converge" and "The Enduring Chill," O’Connor gave us two very similar characters, Julian and Asbury, both of whom were pseudo-sophisticated layabouts who proved their racial and cultural enlightenment by despising their simple-minded, conventionally prejudiced mothers. Both had harsh epiphanies in which they were forced to see that their self-righteousness, masquerading as moral superiority, not only blinded them to the goodness buried under their bigoted mothers’ messy humanity but also kept them from seeing themselves as they truly were: prideful sinners in need of mercy.

Both Asbury and Julian were right to reject anti-black bigotry, but they were wrong to rebuke their mothers – out of spite, not love. And they came to no good. When my friend J. dispatched his e-mail epistle to me up on my soapbox, he was addressing my inner Asbury. It’s a safe bet that the bloggers and Hollywood celebrities who are whaling away on Mel Gibson have more than a little Julian in them.

Don’t we all?

Who among us can say for sure what bigotry and crookedness lie hidden away in our own hearts, concealed from ourselves by our wealth, position or pride, awaiting a moment of weakness or stupidity to manifest?

Who among us, having been laid low by our own vanity and meanness, wouldn’t beg for mercy, for redemption, for the opportunity to show the world that there is more to us than our sins and failings?

Everything that rises must converge. Though the Holy Ghost might use this Road to Malibu experience to save Mel Gibson’s soul, we should all hope to be spared a humiliating epiphany like that one, in which our secret sins are revealed to the world.

I know, I know, we’re all Melled out. But after we’ve exhausted the topic of anti-Semitism among the rich and famous, Mel Gibson’s public disgrace is an occasion for reflection on our own humanity. It’s a moment to ponder the prescriptive wisdom in W.H. Auden’s line: "You shall love your crooked neighbour with your crooked heart."