Long Response:

Dan:

     It is not entirely clear to me what you mean here: “One should not weigh words against other words” but I’m guessing that I might agree.  The thing with words - be they yours, mine or Jesus's – is that they live and breathe in a context. That context includes the speaker and everything about the speaker, the situation, the layers of reality to which the word gravitates, and to where, whom and what end or purpose, the word is directed.

     Normally, I don't pretend to be a Bible scholar, but I always understood the verse about "Anyone who calls his brother a fool," which  for many years I took to literally. Meaning I can call anyone else a fool except my younger brother - to mean that people who lack self control and are overcome by anger to the point where they are calling other people Fools are in danger of "Hell." Not for the simple act of applying the word "Fool" to someone, but for demonstrating their inability to control their anger: Someone who goes around calling others fools is more apt to commit even more serious acts of anger and violence and, thus, more likely to wind up in Hell. 

     That is my current level of understanding. It is okay for Jesus to call people fools because he really knows what they are and He alone is Righteous. But, as errant, unrighteous, potentially foolish human critters, we need to be more careful.

     Still, to be on the safe side I try to stay away from calling people fools and when all else fails. Rather than calling anyone a fool, I prefer to humbly ask them: "Are you a Fool?" and thus avoid prosecution by letting them decide the matter for themselves.

P.S

     I would most certainly have included your essay in the scholastic (writing competition)and my guess is that your perceptions about why it was rejected are correct - and - anything but foolish.

—RCD