Judge Right

The Dept of Defense briefed the President this morning. They told Obama that 2 Brazilian soldiers were killed in Iraq. To everyone’s surprise, all the color drained from Obama’s face. Then he collapsed onto his desk, head in his hands, visibly shaken, almost in tears. Finally, he composed himself and asked, ‘Just how many is a Brazilian?’

Hey; but don’t laugh too hard since he obviously has no understanding of billion or trillion either.

Noah Webster, one of our founding fathers knew the Bible better than perhaps any other of the founding fathers and employed it to author the first American dictionary.  Here is how Webster defines judging and since the topic of judgment is so tied to reputation, I included the definition of ‘reputation’ from that Dictionary

• JUDG’ING, ppr. Hearing and determining; forming an opinion; dooming.

In my understanding of judgment’s use according to the scriptures, we are called to be discerning of good and evil, right and wrong, as well as good, better, and best.  Focusing on levels of wrong are not emphasized so far as I have observed.  In fact, we are called to meditate on whatever is good, profitable, nice, beautiful, etc.,  One of the most overexposed and least regarded scriptures outside of the Christian community is Jesus’ command to hate the sin, not the sinner.  Inside the Christian community, this commandment is paramount.  Given the dual use of the term’ judging’ we can see a misrepresentation of the intended use. When a Christian is judged for judging, the term ‘judged’ to the secularist means condemned while the Christian’s practice in judging is hearing and determining, forming an opinion. Given that there are indeed consequences to the opinions formed, the secularist may feel condemned whether they are or not in reality. What is ‘felt’ is not relevant in the sense of intent, but is relevant in the acceptance or rejection of such judgment/opinions. So, while the Christian is exercising their God given responsibility to use their judgment the recipients of those opinions are offended or often experience real consequence through the social structures formed about them. In reality, the Christian opinion is far more often than not the most benevolent of natural opinions formed by the general population in intimate social structure.  A secularist will be far harder on one for whom they have a sense of repulsion.  If a Christian rejects a worldview or behavior or suggestion, they are not directed by the scriptures to condemn the person involved in the behavior or who has made the suggestion or subscribed to the worldview.  Christians are in fact commanded to love that person, even if that person is an actual enemy.  (love does not mean approval)  It is for this reason that our sub-culture has a far more peaceful internal existence than other sub-cultures.  This commandment sets up an ideal to remember our own transgression against our Maker and consider His view of the ’sinner’ rather than comparing and weighing our relative guilt, using experience as the springboard for grace rather than condemnation.  If we rely on the scales, often both sides claim the higher righteousness and competitions ensue creating an environment of hostility.  In comparing ourselves to Jesus, we have no right to a claim of righteousness outside of His grace and so, can extend that grace to others.

From the outside looking in, it is often observed that Christians are the most judgmental of our population.  There are several reasons for this.

• First, Christians aren’t born Christian.  In order to become a Christian, one has to choose to be a Christian along with the requisite commitment to obedience to God’s will.  Often this choice hasn’t taken place until that person has reached their 30’s and some Christians don’t become Christian until they are on their death beds.  So even though they proudly wear the brand and can be well up in years, they haven’t learned the way Christ taught us to behave and since Christians are encouraged to use their judgment by the scriptures, the initiate will begin to act in ways he or she perceives other Christians do while having little to no knowledge of the instructions the Bible actually gives.

• Second, some wear the brand and never study the scriptures to employ them.  If you don’t know what the Bible says, you can’t apply the teachings of Christ no matter how many Sunday meetings you sleep through.  One cute little skit often performed in progressive churches has several people on stage acting like a car, a plane, etc., and stating something to the effect, “I’m in a garage so I must be a car.  No.  Being in a garage does not make one a car.  I’m in a church, I must be a Christian.  No.  Being in church does not make you a Christian.”

• Third, we are called to discern who teaches and applies the scriptures accurately.  Just because you know what the Bible says does not mean you choose to follow what the Bible says.  There are people serving as pastors or ministers who have great knowledge of the scriptures and use that knowledge to excuse their behaviors and desires rather than submit to the will of God.  All of these reflect a bad light on the Christian brand and this is why we are called by Jesus to judge by the content of the character rather than by fine clothing or hairstyle or position or anything else.  So many of those hardest hit by Christian judgment are those taking advantage of the formerly good Christian brand name as we attempt to weed out what we call false Christianity and call into accountability assumptions about the Christian doctrine.
• Our society is very rich in material things historically.  This wealth has spoiled our sense of what’s important and the Christian is no exception.  Very few in our culture understand the immediacy or impending doom that can occur with the collapse of wealthy economies.  Our faith in material wealth is strong though history teaches us that success is a fleeting and unfaithful mistress.  We no longer depend on one another the way our forebears have.  What this means is that we can pretend to be self sufficient and need not be concerned with the opinions others hold for our worth and friendship.  Even the present day Christian can fall into this attitude and take little concern for offensive behavior and hurt feelings even if they are committed to learning and applying the scriptures as best they can.

• Finally, new guys have a lot of zeal for their new found ‘truth.’  I walked this earth for many years before I understood the benefit of living by a standard I often don’t understand, but now know to be freeing rather than constrictive.  That experience of ‘getting it’ after so long trying to live in my best understanding of wisdom apart from Christ, is both exciting and saddening.  Its exciting because you gain all kinds of hope for your existence verified by experience and saddening as you watch others behaving in such obviously self destructive patterns when a simple commitment and practice would save them so much heart ache.  In all that ignorant zeal, the initiate knows very little about Jesus’ will but they also know very little about the prejudices against the Christian.  So they go out to everybody they know or even total strangers and try to inform and convert them with this new found knowledge of all the benefits of constraining their behavior according to the scriptures.  In many cases they come off as offensive.  In many cases they try to insist you accept their message, especially if they are still broken enough to feel the rejection of their faith is rejection of them personally.

We are called to avoid bad behavior and in that endeavor we are supposed to judge others’ character.  We carefully choose our mentors and teachers to find what God really wants of us and for us, and to protect ourselves from false teachers and leaders.  It is very easy to be led up a rosy path that appeals to our base nature and ends in destruction.  It is very difficult to ferret out the way of righteousness in the sight of God so we become incensed by false morality.  Each one of us must be responsible for ourselves, for the choices we make and for the mentors we choose to follow and support.  This includes the secular world in which we dwell.  We carefully choose our friends and politicians and associations.  We carefully consider whom we will grant any authority to.  We carefully consider who our children will be taught by and who they hang out with.  We carefully consider what studies are available and who authored them and what motives and bias they may have.  Anyone with wisdom will do the same whether a believer or not.

“Is this person a Christian?”  Is their Christianity worn for the supposed benefit of the brand name or because they know Christ?  If this person is not a Christian, what moral code are they operating under?  How committed to their own moral code are they?  Is that moral code decent enough to leave my children in their charge?  Would I let my newly converted friend take morality lessons from this person?  These are the kinds of questions a Christian is asking themselves as they evaluate the circumstances of their environment.  It isn’t any different than most parents who have the intent of raising healthy children or in anybody choosing friends and mentors; or it shouldn’t be any different.  This is far from malicious condemnation.  This is the requirement to live in a world where cheats and murderers thrive.  A good reputation can be earned and it can be murdered.  Cheats earn bad reputations and try to cover them by murdering the reputations of their neighbors.  This should be motivation enough to exercise good judgment, but this generation is far more concerned with tolerance than survival.

When we are sound in our faith and understanding of your behavior patterns, our desire is to bring you into the knowledge of the goodness of God.  It is not our desire to force anyone to believe as we do.  That went out with the Inquisition.  Nobody will be dragged to heaven kicking and screaming.  Its unfortunate that some are dragged to church that way.  It breeds contempt for the faith and worse, for God.  God has made his reward by invitation only, meaning “You are cordially invited-”  You are free to disregard the invitation.  Your choice is your choice.  Our only part in the process is to deliver the invitation.  If that’s offensive, it can’t be helped.  Our motivation is immense and due entirely to our knowledge of the consequences of not knowing Him or His ways.  Real experiential knowledge of the consequences in this life and the huge difference He makes in our quality of life in the present as well as the promises He’s made for the future.

The most important part of this message is this;  we are just trying to survive in a dangerous world and we are doing it with a moral standard handed down to us through the scriptures.  That moral standard requires us to use judgment in a self protective way and with the intention of benefitting (as we understand the concept of beneficial) the whole of society including our enemies.  Since we have held the majority in this country from its inception, this means our opinions and judgments have real political clout limiting the desires of many other subcultures built on self destructive behaviors.  Our opinions do have real consequences in the lives of teachers who would be assigned to teach our children, bosses who would be assigned to exercise authority over our time and compensation, co-workers assigned to help us accomplish the tasks of our jobs, neighbors we rub shoulders with in our day to day lives, etc., but we do not set out to destroy anyone, but to bring the blessings we know through experience to a society bent on self destruction at every level.  The Christian mature in their faith, will design their lives around the agenda and goal of providing an example of patient righteousness with peace and benevolence to each and every person they encounter on every occasion.  Again, this does not mean accepting others’ definitions of good, but is limited to the scope of what the Bible declares good.  It is a lofty goal and often goes far from accomplished.  My only question to you is, “Is the failure to attain the perfect goal reason enough to abandon any attempt to reach it, and will you continue to condemn the Christian community as they endeavor to reach that goal?”  When I judge you, ideally my judgment is based on a set unchanging standards which have proven their worth over and over again, most notably in the founding of this nation to provide for a society of liberty and the right to pursue happiness.  That liberty requires accountability and personal responsibility.

It seems to me the funniest situation comedy is a setting where somebody is required socially, to be serious and simply can’t. One of my favorite scenes in movie history is “Porky’s” office scene. All the coaches are in the principal’s office to discuss the serious offense of a student’s invasion of girl’s privacy in the showers. The head female coach is demanding a line up of the students so she can inspect their penises. Seems she got a good look at the perpetrater’s because he had poked it through the hole he was peeping through and she was positive she could identify it. The male principal and coaching staff were struggling to be serious and keep straight faces but all hope was lost when the 1st assistant coach offered an alternative.

My paternal grandmother related a story to me of one of her experiences in school. Seems she and her sister were determined to fake an illness and get out of school. Somebody had suggested they run their finger down their throats to cause the gag reflex and make them toss their cookies. The younger was the first to make the attempt right there in the class room where the discussion was taking place during class. Hearing the young lady gagging and wretching and the surrounding students giggling, the teacher made his way down the aisle to find out what was going on. My grandmother, along with the rest of the giggling students straightened up in their chairs and put their innocent faces on. The only problem was my grandmother was still laughing at her sister in snorts. Long, loud snorts similar to those in the video before he totally broke down.

There’s one sister in misery and the other sister near bursting with mirth, the poor teacher had no clue what to make of the situation. The little sister did get her sick day and my grandmother received dark looks from the teacher for the rest of the day.

Subject: Divorce

Democrats and Republicans

Dear American liberals, leftists, social progressives, socialists,
Marxists, Obama supporters, et al:

We have stuck together since the late 1950’s, but the whole of this
latest election process has made me realize that I want a divorce.
I know we tolerated each other for many years for the sake of future
generations, but sadly, this relationship has run its course. Our two
ideological sides of America cannot and will not ever agree on what is
right, so let’s just end it on friendly terms. We can smile, slate it up to
irreconcilable differences, and go our own way.

Here is a model dissolution agreement:

Our two groups can equitably divide up the country by landmass each
taking a portion. That will be the difficult part, but I am sure our two sides
can come to a friendly agreement. After that it should be relatively easy!
Our respective representatives can effortlessly divide other assets since
both sides have such distinct and disparate tastes. We don’t like
redistributive taxes so you can keep them. You are welcome to the
liberal judges and the ACLU.

Since you hate guns and war, we’ll take our firearms, the cops, the NRA
and the military. You can keep Oprah, Michael Moore, and Rosie O’Donnell
(you are however, responsible for finding a bio-diesel vehicle big enough to
move them).

We’ll keep the capitalism, greedy corporations, pharmaceutical
companies, Wal-Mart, and Wall Street. You can have your beloved homeless, homeboys,
hippies, and illegal aliens. We’ll keep the hot Alaskan hockey moms,
greedy CEO’s, and rednecks. We’ll keep the Bibles and give you NBC and
Hollywood.

You can make nice with Iran, Palestine, and France and we’ll retain the
right to invade and hammer places that threaten us. You can have the
peaceniks and war protestors. When our allies or way of life are under
assault, we’ll provide them job security.

We’ll keep our Judeo-Christian Values. You are welcome to Islam,
Scientology, Humanism, and Shirley McClaine. You can have the U.N. but
we will no longer be paying the bill. We’ll keep the SUV’s, pickup trucks,
and oversized luxury cars. You can take every Subaru station wagon you can
find.

You can give everyone healthcare if you can find any practicing doctors
who will follow to your turf (sic). We’ll continue to believe healthcare
is a luxury and not a right.

We’ll keep The Battle Hymn of the Republic and The National Anthem. I’m
sure you’ll be happy to substitute Imagine, I’d Like to Teach the World to
Sing, Kum Ba Ya or We Are the World.

We’ll practice trickle down economics and you can give trickle up
poverty its best shot.

Since it often so offends you we’ll keep our History, our Name, and our
Flag.

Would you agree to this? If so please pass it along to other likeminded
patriots and if you do not agree just hit delete and hang on.

In the spirit of friendly parting, I’ll bet you ANWAR on who will need
whose help in 15 years.

Sincerely,

John J. Wall
Law Student and an American

P.S. Please take Barbara Streisand.

A Word From Zion

By Jan Willem van der Hoeven

Woe to you when all men speak well of you, for so did their fathers to the false prophets. (Luke 6:26)

Despite the overwhelming and unbelievable euphoria accompanying the election of America’s new president, the sad truth is that the very opposite of what the enthralled millions of Obama supporters – both in the United States and elsewhere – have hoped would happen as a result will actually become the reality.

This truth is too bitter for most of us. Even among many of those Christians who may have voted for the – to them – more friendly team of McCain and Palin, after all their hopes to the contrary, still do not really understand the utter seriousness of what has just taken place.

America has fallen, never to rise again to its former glory and strength. It is as what happened to the glory and splendor of Rome. I have wept about this, and reading now some of the Christian commentators trying to put the typical ‘let’s not lose hope’ seal upon what has happened, I believe this will only speed up this degradation of America’s society.