AlanFromWichita:
Yes there is. You responded something about letters of St. Paul, which are in the books following the gospels and Acts.
The books following the Gospels are no less a sure source of proper Christian conduct. That’s why they’re in there.
The fact that your behavior does not come across as being in line with His teachings – in my interpretation of course – does not make me right, but it gives me the obligation to try to correct you the same way you think it’s that girl’s job to correct the customer.
The problem is that your interpretation is void of logical proof, Scripture, or the 2000 year Tradition of the Church. Your interpretation is based on feeling and that is the *very *problem with this whole dilemma. Feelings trump Truth and reasoned discourse apparently. You have not demonstrated how what the girl did was judgement, but throw around the “j” word like there’s no tomorrow and consistently refer to a Scripture passage that has no relevance to the present situation. You just *feel *that I’m wrong in my assesment.
Yes, I do believe that you have an incorrect interpretation of the Christian way of life, such that it is likely to lead you – and others who think likewise – through a great deal more pain than is necessary than someone who just surrenders.
“Running the good race” is not surrendering. “Perservering until the end” is not surrendering. Yes, we surrender to God but we strive for perfection. We yearn to be “perfect” as badly as we would gasp for air while drowning. While this “perfection” cannot be attained - only God is perfect - it is our union with Him that makes us so and this is *not *achieved by being silent while the world goes to Hell in a handbasket. Moral pacificism has only made things worse over the past 40 years and it is lunacy to think it still deserves a chance.
This discussion, everything, it’s all good – all things work for the betterment of Christ. Who “wins” a verbal debate is not as important as that we are each touched by each others’ flavors of love, so that we may come to better appreciate God’s myriad ways of loving us beyond our very grasp.
God “loves” people by telling them they’re sinners. If there is anyone who looks at the cross and doesn’t feel “bad” or “ashamed” or “embarassed” about their sins, they fail to grasp the reality of the crucifixion. Pride makes us think we’re better than we are and shun any attempt at correction. That’s why humility is a virtue. When St. Francis of Assisi sold his father’s goods, renounced his inheretance and stripped himself of all his clothes in public before his father and the Bishop…what do you think his father felt? Embarassed? Ashamed? When the US Bishops come out with a statement every year declaring the evils of abortion, how do you think abortion doctors or women who have had abortions feel? Embarassed? Ashamed?
The Church exists to wake people up from their sinfulness and, because of the very nature of sin, *no one *is going to enjoy hearing it.
No, she presumed that a customer was going to buy a product from a store where she supposedly worked to sell that product, and then go use it for sinful reasons. If that presumption were not there, which is a form of judgment, she would not have intervened.
She did not in any way forbid this woman from buying a condom. If she yelled at the woman to leave the store and never comeback because she was a wretched sinner, that would be judgement. If the cashier declared that the woman was evil, that would be judgement. But, the mere fact that she, personally, did not feel right about selling someone a condom but left it to another cashier is not, by any stretch of the imagination, judgement.
Christ came to tell us that we have to let go of judgment and anger NOT ONLY physically, but in our very hearts. All we have to do is harbor lust against a woman or harbor anger against a brother to spiritually commit adultery and murder. That’s what Christ came to teach us – that these sins are to be avoided just as the physical ones.
THIS HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH JUDGEMENT!!!
Let’s begin with the basics…again. If my daughter thinks that the Indian Ocean is by France, and I correct her, I have not judged her. If I call her “evil” or “stupid” and make an assesment of the state of her being, then I have judged her. Personally refusing to sell someone a condom, but allowing another cashier to do so, isn’t “judgement.” She did not condemn this person to death. She did not say this person was going to hell. She did not say this person was evil and needed to be stoned for their sins. There was ***no ***judgement.
People are *far *too sensitive and its so juvenile that whenever there is an attempt to correct someone, the “judgement” card is thrown because it is more important to respect people’s feelings.
