The futility of demanding purity

In the biblical account of the women accused of adultery, Christ said, “He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her,” thereby invoking a purity test against the powerful. In the contemporary times, however, such purity tests are sometimes misplaced, directed not against the structures of domination, but paradoxically against public intellectuals, writers or artists who seek to give voice to the marginalised. This inversion of the biblical test often shifts the burden from real dominant forces and freezes or burdens those who in essence attempt to resist or critique the powerful. An example of such a misplaced purity test, invoked against Roy, appeared a few days ago in a piece titled “Penguin, Palestine […]