Judgment Day

if the act of judging is a necessary part of life, what can the Biblical adage — judge not, lest ye be judged — mean?

My mother liked to remind me not to judge others — lest I be judged.  She meant that if I judged the actions of other people, that I would be judged by them, and this was surely a bad thing.  Her
warning seemed ominous to me, until I thought long enough to realize
that my mother was judging me in the process of telling me not to judge
other people.  This taught me an important lesson — our detractors judge our actions regardless of whether we judge our detractors.  As
a result this Biblical adage seemed either self-righteous and
hypocritical or unrealistically saintly — a time worn utopian wish that
all people could live and let live.

Despite
my mother’s admonition, I doubt that it is possible to function in
society without judging the actions of people or the value of things.  Judgment plays a useful role in the life of a community — it allows for the protection of people’s rights.  One
need only think of how our civil system of justice seeks to hold those
who violate other’s rights accountable — by requiring restitution for bad
acts and sometimes awarding punitive damages to dissuade those who
callously disregard other’s rights. The act of judgment, whether based
on shared community norms or personal belief, is inevitable.

So, if the act of judging is a necessary part of life, what can the Biblical adage mean?

In
think that it has to do with the internalization of a “judgment
standard.” The act of judgment necessitates that the Judge believe in
the standard with which he judges others—otherwise the act of judgment
is meaningless. 

Internalization of a judgment standard may not seem too worrisome.  For example, I say that murder is evil (which it surely is).  This is a standard that I can live by because I am not a murderer — and so I can feel good about myself on that front.  Christ’s message speaks to this type self-righteousness.  Jesus said that if you hate your brother then you have committed murder in your heart.  This
is what I think C. S. Lewis was talking about when he noted that the
things that we hate in others are the very things we can’t accept about
ourselves.

In this light, the internalized judgment standard becomes the measure by which you judge yourself.  In other words, honest self assessment requires us to face our weaknesses and hold ourselves up to our own standards.  It requires that we acknowledge that we are too human.  This
self-honesty and awareness of weakness creates empathy and encourages
us to see what we have in common with people we might have otherwise
ignored.  Empathy breeds tolerance and ultimately spurs us to take action to help other people because we see how we are the same. 

This week, the Republicans are running their “Values Voter Summit.”  This title is code for a lack of tolerance summit — find a way to legislate morality.  I
think that instead they should consider the words of Christ, focus on
helping those Americans who have been left behind, and refrain from
throwing stones. 

As for the democrats, I think that a number of democratic candidates have an awareness of weakness and empathy for others.  I have no doubt that Bill Clinton’s humble beginnings taught him how people struggle.  If Democrats want to start winning elections, the candidates better not loose touch with this type of empathy.  They
need to be strong enough to admit that they are human and don’t have
all the answers, but they need to be tough enough to stand up for
tolerance and act on empathy — after all, Christ did.