It is my hope to be humble, to be as Jesus told us to be. He said “Judge not” but we are constantly in need of discretion, and our choices lead to distinction or detestation.
You left out the rest of the quote. A part which is vital. The full quote is: "Judge not,
that ye be not judged." So if you don’t want to be judged, do not judge. Doesn’t say that you cannot judge, not in that sentence/verse anyway.
For me personally, I have no fear of being judged as long as it is done right/reasonably.
Question: When you point out that someone is say a liar or a murderer or a pedophile, etc. and someone else responds with “…don’t judge?” Have they not just “judged” you as having “judged” someone else? {The famous Lyric by a band called RUSH comes to mind: “If you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice.”} Think of the Incredible and obvious Irony…
Furthermore, when someone says …“don’t judge”, have they not in some capacity acted in defense of someone and their wrongdoing that you may be trying to expose? Wrongdoing that may need to be exposed. A serious glaring, immoral, and criminal example would be the pedophilia that was covered up not for years but for generations in the Church. I know that if I had found out about it or witnessed it, I would have been doing everything I could to point out what was happening - to see that it stopped and that the perpetrators went to jail where they belonged. Couldn’t have done that though if I wasn’t allowed to form a judgment about someone and their actions.
On a related note: Recently I pointed out that someone was committing numerous grave sins which have “gravely” injured (and were still injuring) me and my children (because they were still doing it) - and the priests first and only response to me was “don’t judge”. Never mind how that made me feel at the time, a more important issue, it seems to me is that this attitude not only helps to cover up grave sins, but in some situations it may even enable it. Makes me wonder too how this priest has been advising this person that has harmed me and my children so gravely?
Brother’s & Sisters’ be honest: We judge things, situations, and people all of the time and nowhere in the bible does it say that we cannot judge nor does is say not to judge. The quote “Judge not, that ye be not judged.” is clearly and on it’s face a statement of fairness which means that if you judge others, then you open yourself up to be judged as well.
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Furthermore, does it not direct us in the bible that we have an obligation to correct our brethren when they go astray? Yes, it fact, it does. Thus I ask you, if you are not allowed to judge anyone, then whom are you going to decide to correct?**
I believe this attitude/behavior is fundamental to the modern day creation of
the feel good church. I ask you, do you want a feel good church where everyone (even lifelong members that may spend their entire lives committing “grave” evil can feel good about how they are living? To go through their lives hurting others-wrecking lives along the way and to never be directly told that what they are doing is terrible?
Additionally, to my knowledge none of the people whom I have witnessed to spend lifetimes doing grave EVIL have actually thought that they were doing Evil. And…there is a reason for this lack of awareness of their own crimes/sins.
The sad fact here on which I hope everyone will agree is that some people are so hard-headed that they have to be told directly and in no uncertain terms that what they are doing is wrong.
I have also often wondered did I as a martial arts instructor hold my students to higher standards than the Church did it’s members? And I honestly don’t know fully the answer to that, however, I do know that in some Churches, sadly, the answer is “Yes”.
…Grave sins are just that, “Grave”, and they should always be treated accordingly and given the respect or lack thereof that they merit. When we start doing that as a people, that’s when grave sins like abortion, adultery, and others will no longer be considered to be “no big deal”.
I ask that if anyone judges me to be doing something wrong by saying and/or thinking this - that they withhold the judgment that they would have me to withhold.
If you have read this far, I want to say, Thank you and God Bless You.
) not a cause of worry? I would think that somebody who does not offer the complete Truth that is available to humanity to be a cause of worry because one would not be receiving the Truth. I hope you get what I mean to say. Then, there comes the argument that the Catholic Church cannot be called Christ’s Church since His Church extends beyond the “limits” of the Catholic Church.