Judging Others

The Associated Press via the Boston Globe: Lutherans move toward key vote on gays

Delegates to a national meeting of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America voted Friday to remain unified despite their differences over homosexuality, and prepared to take up contentious proposals on the role of partnered gays in their denomination.

The unity resolution was approved by an 851-127 vote following a short debate and was the first of three measures before the churchwide assembly Friday.

"Our job is not to judge one another, our job is to love one another," said Patrick Monroe of the Central/Southern Illinois Synod, speaking in favor of unity.

© Copyright 2005 Associated Press. All rights reserved.

I really detest the sentiment in the first part of Mr. Monroe's statement. Anyone who lurks around discussions will eventually encounter this idea. It is ridiculously prevalent. It is also total nonsense.

From the Biblical perspective (and I am not a "faith-based" person!), even though the argument starts from false premises, there are good rationalizations for Christian judgment of others' actions. The question of the soul is supposedly left to gawd.

This seems even clearer to me when you consider the function of priests, clergy, preachers, and the like. What do they do? They help people with problems with faith and morality. They attempt to provide a truthful answer to those asking questions. In other words, they evaluate a given situation and attempt to decide if it violates what gawd says ought to be done. Spiritual faculty are supposed to and do judge others and their actions. When the laity ask for facts (ignoring the trouble one can encounter when using faith to find fact), the clergy are supposed to, at the least, act as a proxy for gawd's word. And gawd does a lot of judging.

So I find it simply astounding that a profession widely recognized to be a source of judgment can have people who renounce it on principle. But that isn't the most annoying part of Mr. Monroe's announcement. Here it is again:

Our job is not to judge one another, our job is to love one another.

What does it mean to love someone? What differentiates the thoughts I have for someone I love, someone I hate, and someone I'm indifferent towards? What separates those whom I think positively of and those of whom I think negatively?

My judgment! I compare the hierarchy of values of that person to the hierarchy of values I hold, I discriminate amongst good and bad choices and motivations. I think.

Furthermore, the very act of loving someone is itself a judgment. Even if you accept the "unconditional love" stuff and think everyone deserves the emotion (or will obey gawd's command that they do), you still have to summon the emotion, make choices, and act as if you love the person. Love is not the emotion of default. It requires judgment as well, for when you see a child-raping serial killer, you have to overcome your revulsion at the deed in order to love him. It is not an instantaneous process; there are steps involved.

By renouncing judgement, you renounce the process and purpose of judging others. Since both of those are tied intimately with the human mind, I consider calls to forego judging to be calls to stop thinking.

Posted by Drizzten at August 12, 2005 12:45 PM