Judging Without Your Eyes
What makes a Porsche a Porsche? Or a muscle car a muscle car? It’s a matter of strict judgments, usually, but none as strict as the ones governing Morgans. Here’s a clue: if you’re standing 50 yards away and can tell what decade a Morgan hails from, it’s not a Morgan.
Probably 90 percent of all Morgans produced since 1955 are indistinguishable to most car folks. The Plus 4, 4/4, and Plus 8 all have old-timey styling, ash-wood framing, and sliding-pillar coil spring independent front suspension (not sure what that is? Ask someone older than 100 and they’ll tell you about the first car their parents owned). That’s a real Morgan, or a Moggie.
Ah, but what about the outliers? The fiberglass Plus Four Plus from the 1960s, the Aero 8 from 1999, or the reborn 3-wheeler and Plus Four from the past decade? Some of those look vaguely Morgan, some distinctly Morgan. So how do you judge?
Judgment is essential for human survival, as humans typically make thousands of decisions every day. Poor judgment is bound to happen, which is why the Bible contains this prophecy about the perfect judgment Jesus would demonstrate:
“The Spirit of the Lord will rest on him – the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding, the Spirit of counsel and of power, the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord – and he will delight in the fear of the Lord. He will not judge by what he sees with his eyes, or decide by what he hears with his ears; but with righteousness he will judge the needy, with justice he will give decisions for the poor of the earth.” (Isaiah 11:2-4)
Passages like these reveal the radical nature of God’s judgment, and how far it is from the collective Western understanding of it. Thanks to courtroom dramas, true crime podcasts, and even the Western ideals of individualism and personal success, judgment is usually something to be avoided.
Nothing could be farther from the truth. In its originally language, judgment is recorded as “mispat,” which also means rightness or righteousness. “Zedakah” literally means “righteousness” or “justice” but is typically translated as “charity.” So in this prophecy, delivering justice to “the needy” and “the poor of the earth” aren’t acts of pity, blind altruism, or doing someone a favor. Instead, it’s something the needy and poor have rights to. It’s accurate, correct, deserved, and, well, just.
It’s far beyond the justice humans tend to demonstrate. This was especially true in Jesus’ time, and in fact he fulfilled his prophecy when he addressed the holier-than-thou religious judges of the day: “Stop judging by mere appearances, and make a right judgment” (John 7:24).
When God invites his people to participate in “seeking justice,” (Micah 6:8) he is motivating his people by his love to take action and build up people who need that love and justice. Appearances have nothing to do with it. God is after redemption, and he isn’t motivated by external factors.
Cars, of course, are a different story. External factors have played a big role in Morgans for the past 100 years, and that’s not about to change.
Morgans follow a nomenclature of numbers and symbols, but you don’t have to be a Moggie initiate to understand what they mean. A 4/4 means a Ford Cortina engine. A Plus 4 uses a Triumph 1800cc or 2000cc engine. Plus 8 is the Rover 3.5-liter V8. A Plus 4 can be a roadster, cabriolet, or four-passenger roadster. A 4/4 could also be a two-passenger or four-passenger roadster. The Plus 8 came only as a 2-person roadster. And while all Morgans are built with wood, “Moss gearbox” refers to the supplier, not the material used to build it.
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