Hey what’s going on with the “you’re judging me,” “you’re being intolerant” and “your truth is your truth” culture I thought we were marching toward. As a society we just applauded the NBA for voting to ban LA Clippers owner, Donald Sterling from any involvement with basketball because of his racist rants. Brendan Eich was forced to resign as the CEO of Mozilla after it was discovered that back in 2008 he made a $1000 donation to California’s Proposition 8 campaign, which would have kept Gay marriage illegal. Careers and reputations are going up in smoke all around us over Tweets, Facebook post and Blogs. I seriously stress every time I post because I know that misspeaking or offending is no longer a forgivable offense by that vague entity called “society.”
All of you reading this right now are wondering where I am going with this thought, right? Will pastor Phil’s ministry go up in flames because of something he is about to pontificate on? Isn’t that crazy? I mean that I could, with the right/wrong combination of letters find myself lucky to get a job as a Walmart Greeter. No offense Walmart Greeters, you are truly amazing and I would be honored to be one.
Well, I am not going to give my opinion on Donald Sterling or Brendan Eich’s dismissal from their perspective positions. I think the best use of my blog space right now is to point out to all of us that “judging” behavior is an instinct and a skill that our creator equipped the human soul with. The notion “we mustn’t judge” has been wrong headed to start with and humans at the core of their being know that it is impossible to have civility and order if we don’t judge.
Think about it. Your body is filled with white blood cells or what people way smarter than me call, “leukocytes.” In a normal healthy body there a 4,ooo to 7,000 of these white blood cells. These biological do-gooders in your body identify bacteria and infection, label and kill the invaders. This “judging” action keeps you alive. Plain and simple, if our white blood cells stop judging then you start dying. Basically we need to stop saying with that plaintive whiny tone, “you’re judging me.” It would be more appropriate to complain, “you’re judging me wrongly.” Now that’s different than trying to say carte blanche that “judging is wrong.” Judging is a necessary action for bodies, societies, churches, businesses, communities and individuals.
Add this scripture verse to your repertoire of fav’s. 1 Cor. 2:15: “The person with the Spirit makes judgments about all things, but such a person is not subject to merely human judgments.” In Matthew 7 where Jesus makes that famous statement “Judge not lest ye be judged,” he also says, “don’t cast your pearls before swine.” So some of us have obviously misjudged judging. So instead of trying to have a world where there is no “judging” let’s work on a world where the judging is good, fair, live saving and keeps the evil from destroying the holy.
