Imagine this sign hanging on a wall in a hospital.
What a beautiful sentiment!
A safe place where the vilest, deadliest injuries and diseases are ignored.
The doctors come into your room, look at your chart, and exit without uttering a word.
They refuse to hurt your feelings with a troubling diagnosis.
They care too much.
Besides, they have issues of their own.
A doctor shouldn’t talk about your obesity when he takes anti-depressants.
That’s hypocritical!
Nobody is perfect.
This hospital is a place where everybody belongs.
You’re welcome here.
Even if you’re contagious.
Sound good?
No?
Imagine this sign on a church website:
Actually…you don’t need to imagine it.
You can find lots and lots and LOTS of churches proudly proclaiming their lack of judgement.
Maybe you go to one of these churches.
I’m not going to ask, “Why?”
I know why.
You believe that nobody is judging you because they aren’t saying anything out-loud, to your face.
You believe silence is the same as approval.
You believe it’s possible to “love” you without telling you the truth.
You’re wrong.
But I shouldn’t judge.
So dismiss me as “hateful” and scurry back to your zone.
Back to the safety of your cowardly Christian coven.
Everybody will smile at you as you bleed-out.
The worship band is awesome!
The wages of sin is death.
Your judgement-free “friends” might tell you that.
But they won’t tell you that you’re a sinner.
12 Responses
you are so confused. Christianity is about not be judgmental, helping people be non-judgmental and combining it with advocating for people that have been downtrodden, judged, abused, and hurt. Do that and you won’t have to pretend that you have to judge people in order to keep Christianity pure.
Did you know that calling a person “downtrodden”, “abused”, or “hurt” is a judgment? If we don’t judge, we can’t know who to help.
Church today was about judging each other (Luke 6) . Basically, who are we to judge those who are outside(the CHURCH; those who do not have Christ’s life in exchange for their own) but judgement begins at the house of God. If we’re not truly living God’s good life, how can we expect others to do the same? And how can a brother or sister be held accountable to such a narrow path? By using our God given gift of discernment and telling them the truth. Which, let’s face it, the truth is becoming harder to argue for as reality. Therefore, we come across as “judge mental” to knock out the sin disease in the body of Christ, hopefully, as our main goal. God tells us to “be holy, for I am holy” 1pet 1:16. When we stop doing that, bad stuff happens *cough* Catholic priests
Also, there is now no condemnation for those who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit!!! Thank you Jesus
The only difference between judgement and condemnation is Jesus Christ.
The problem being, there are often people in the churchian world who act just like other people, competing for power, trying to boost themselves up by shaming others, playing games, acting like bullies, causing strife, looking for drama. Judgment free churches are really an attempt to create safety and refuge, so people can actually worship. If I as a Christian actually needed other people to constantly inform me I’m a sinner, I wouldn’t be much of a Christian in the first place, would I?
“judgment free churches are really an attempt to create safety and refuge so people can actually worship…”
What are they worshipping, though?
@IB
Won’t repeat what I said to KIA above.
Publicly shaming or even privately shaming others is not necessarily helpful, but it is the only option when people sin shamelessly. Otherwise, we are suppose to treat others with expectation that they are better than we are. We are all sinners. We all need help to stop sinning. To stop sinning, we must admit we have sinned.
That said, the object is to become a saint. We turn from evil by turning to good. We need to preoccupy ourselves with the beautiful, not the ugly, Philippians 4:8.
Ha! Well, obviously I must believe in some form of judgment since I am judging this post to be not quite on target. 🙂
Condemnation is hurtful because I bruise your ego.
Judgement is hurtful because I quietly don’t.
I agree to a point. Most people can’t tell the difference between the words judgement and condemnation. We definitely need condemnation free zones. Judgement and discernment is a daily necessity.
What is the difference between judgment and condemnation?
@KIA
There actually is not any difference between judgement and condemnation in this context, but I think I know what you are trying to say. The distinction is between condemning (or judging) behavior and condemning (or judging) a soul. We should condemn (or judge) bad behavior. Only God has the authority to judge souls.
That said, if you don’t believe in God, why do you care about this distinction?
Brace yourself.
Pastor Mike will be offended by the assertion that he doesn’t believe in God.
He will ignore your answer to his question.