Being pastoral

I've encountered too many people who think that being pastoral in effect means emptying a hard truth to make it more palatable.

It does not.

Being pastoral means communicating what is a hard truth in a language which offers the best chance of the truth being accepted by an interlocutor. God certainly knows that I personally too often fail to do this, and I seek His wisdom to prevent such occurrences in the future.

But my failings aside, the reality is that watering down hard truths is in fact detrimental to the well-being of our interlocutor. Why? See the post below for my explanation.