Judgmentalism is the brother of slander.
“Team Pointing Finger At Colleague”
Image courtesy of Ambro at FreeDigitalPhotos.net
41 For whosoever shall give you a cup of water to drink in my name, because ye belong to Christ, verily I say unto you, he shall not lose his reward.
~ Mk 9:41
I’m amazed at how people can engage in slander against a brother or sister in light of the above passage. I’m amazed at how people can engage in gossip in spite of both OT and NT condemnations of such.
Jesus made it clear that how we treat one another matters. The Golden Rule is one way of saying it, but also some of His parables put forth this important principle.
40 And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.
~ Mt 25:40
Yet, the arrogance of some who would condemn others for not following their unbiblical ideas is nothing less than satanic. It reflects the ways of this world, the works of the flesh, rather than the attitude of Christ.
You know, I cannot say I couldn’t care less about the Super Bowl. In fact, every year I find another reason to care less. Sports, and especially the NFL, is filled with prima donnas who in reality don’t deserve the enormous salaries they bring in. It really is time to stop feeding the greedy and arrogant as much as is practical.
Case in point, Commissioner Roger Goodell today gave a “State of the NFL”, and even the title of the address gives away the self-importance they attach to themselves. However, that did not prepare me for one portion of his speech, as quoted by ESPN:
Speaking at his annual state of the league news conference prior to Super Bowl XLIX, Goodell faced a series of questions about his job performance and the league’s controversial year. He said he has not considered resigning, even as the league has faced intense scrutiny for its handling of the Ray Rice domestic abuse case among other issues, and does not think he will be fired.
“It has been a tough year,” Goodell said. “It’s been a tough year on me personally. It’s been a year of what I would say is humility and learning. We obviously as an organization have gone through adversity, but more importantly, adversity for me….
~ Roger Goodell, op cit “Roger Goodell: No judgments yet“
Say what? “Humility” is making his own personal adversity “more important”?????
And yet, when we judge unfairly and gossip against one another, how is our arrogance any less? It is especially so, for Jesus makes it clear that how we treat one another is how He feels we treat Him!
28 A contrary man spreads conflict,
and a gossip separates close friends.
Yet, the judgmentalism doesn’t stop there, does it? I’m often reluctant to mention to someone if I don’t feel well, particularly to certain people. I cannot take the endorsements for colloidal silver in particular. The human body was not meant to ingest silver. It is, in a word, poison. Think about it. It does not “cleanse” the colon because it is body friendly!
I’ve written before about Job’s three friends and how some people are a lot like them. It broke my heart to recently read “When Christians Treat Other Christians the Way Job’s Friends Treated Him“, but it is not a new story by any means.
I know someone who has had some serious health issues, and as a result she has had to miss a lot of services. Doctors have prodded and poked and speculated. It’s been dreadful.
However, this same woman turns around on a holy day and says to another who also is experiencing severe health trials, “Well, I didn’t expect you here!” And again, the first woman will almost weekly ask the son of the second woman, “Where’s your mom?” when she knows full well that rare is the case when she can attend.
Is it thoughtlessness or is judgmentalism? You would think that her own experience would have taught her a little compassion and more especially a lot more tact.
Simply put, we cannot be true Christians without empathy! It is impossible otherwise to keep the Golden Rule!
31 Just as you want others to do for you, do the same for them.
Before we can do this, we must be humble enough to have empathy! We must be able and willing to ask, “If I were in that situation, how would I want to be treated?”, and then we must get up and do it!
My question is: How hard are we really trying?