Judgement Is Different Than Wisdom

I find myself in the somewhat unenviable position of having to talk about the Pope. But only as an intro to talking about something else.

Pope Francis recently said, “If someone is gay and he searches for the Lord and has good will, who am I to judge?” My first thought was, "Well, you're the Pope, that's who," because I was feeling slightly flip. Popes in the past certainly haven't felt any compunction about judging people even if they search for the Lord and have good will.  But that's not fair; it is a statement of Biblical teaching.  "Who am I to judge?" is an excellent question.

The favorite scripture to quote in this discussion is Matthew 7:1, "Judge not, lest ye be judged."  It's the beginning of a larger speech by Jesus which basically boils down to, "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you," but is more interesting than that.

First, we've got judgement.  There are Christians who seem to think that this "judgment" is "wisdom," which it isn't. You'll hear them argue, "Well, Jesus just meant that I should keep my house before I judge other people's houses.  Plus, I need to be able to judge people as being good or evil, because otherwise anarchy, dogs marrying cats, rain falling upward, and teh gay!"  A lot of them point to various places in the Old Testament for support, but let's face it, Old Testament God was pretty judgmental.

Yes, we need to use our judgment, in the sense that we should be shrewd as serpents. Whether Old or New Testament, there's no commandment that says, "Thou shalt judge the hell out of thy fellow man, for thou knowest all." In fact, God's pretty clear on that point, even when he's being judgmental. The buck stops with the Big Guy.

There's a difference between judgment as "wisdom or discernment" and judgment as in "passing judgment on someone," but some people seem to have a hard time with that concept. One gentleman (I hesitate to give him traffic, but citation where citation is due) even goes so far as to to say:

All the prisons would be empty and thieves, serial killers, drug dealers, rapists, and murderers would be loose in your neighborhood.

You could not discipline your children and teach them not to steal, lie, do drugs, or give in to peer pressure.

School could not be mandated (by parents or govt) but if children did attend, they could not be evaluated as to their progress. Everyone should graduate regardless of their advance. Students could not be graded or disciplined.

You could not judge any false doctrine and would have to allow it to be taught from your church’s pulpit ("discerning" is the same thing as "judging").

You should leave your children with anyone who said was qualified to be a baby-sitter. You should not bother to check his/her background. Later, you should not be upset if this baby-sitter turned out to be a child-molester, because "thou shalt not judge."

You should marry anyone that asked. You shouldn’t worry about his/her character or beliefs. What if he beats you up? What if she runs around on you? You shouldn’t get so mad because "thou shalt not judge."

 Yes, that's a straw man (because come on, there's a difference between the criminal justice system and judgment of that particular passage) but it illustrates a common perspective: we should ignore Matthew (and by extension El Cristo Grande) because obviously Jesus didn't want us to be all wishy-washy liberal non-judgmental. My first response is, "Which Jesus are you talking about?" because the Jesus I know was pretty non-judgmental, at least about temporal matters. Lepers, tax-collectors, prostitutes, the poor, the sick, and so on: he loved them, and you can't love someone while being judgmental about their condition.

But secondly, Jesus isn't telling his followers not to make judgments, he's telling them not to pass judgment. You can say, 'Oh, he was just saying, 'Don't pass judgment on people when you're doing the same thing,' or, 'If you pass judgment unfairly, it will be visited on you by a vengeful God,'" but that's not true. He said, 'Don't pass judgment, or you will have judgment passed upon you."  He also said, "You judge after the flesh; I judge no one."  Did you catch that last clause there? "I judge no one."

Let's return to the text. "For what judgement you pass, it shall be passed upon you, and what you mete out will be returned to you." Nothing about, "God will judge you based on your own judgments." Do unto others. If you judge others harshly, others will likely judge you harshly. That's practical; elsewhere, Jesus also talks about the less-practical reasons for doing unto others as you would have them do unto you, even if they do unto you in a way which really, really makes you wish you could do unto them with a hammer and fire.  Love one another.  Be excellent to each other. Whatever you want to call it.

Why do you see the splinter that’s in your brother’s or sister’s eye, but don’t notice the log in your own eye? How can you say to your brother or sister, ‘Let me take the splinter out of your eye,’ when there’s a log in your eye? You deceive yourself! First take the log out of your eye, and then you’ll see clearly to take the splinter out of your brother’s or sister’s eye.

There's more here than meets the eye (pun unintended but once I made it I let it stay, which is usually what people mean when they say anything about puns in writing). First off, don't be hypocritical; if you're judging someone for something you do yourself, don't do it.

Second, really don't be hypocritical, because you can't see what's in your own eye. Maybe you think, "Oh, it's just a splinter, I'll help my brother or sister with the splinter in their eye first." "Oh, what I'm doing isn't as bad as what they're doing." "Oh, my house is a bit messy, but I'll make my neighbor clean up theirs first because it's a sty." "Bullshit," says Jesus (not in so many words). "You deceive yourself! You've got a log up in your eye, and maybe you should get that one out first, huh smart guy?" Splinter to log; see what he did there?

Thirdly, Jesus most definitely didn't say, "But occasionally there are people who don't have anything in their eyes and they should be allowed to judge people all they want because hey, they're awesome." "Why do you see the splinter in their eye but not the log in yours?" You.  All of you. Not, "Why do some people do that?" "Why do you all do that?"

Fourthly, Jesus didn't say, "Why do you see the splinter of elm wood painted green with hints of patina in your brother's or sister's eye and not that exact same thing only bigger in yours?" Jesus was a big one for abstraction. Yes, he could be talking about castigating someone for looking at another woman when you've got three on the side. Or maybe (and go with me here) he could have been saying, "You're all sinners. You've all got logs in your eyes. Big, small, different colors, shapes, origins, there are logs in your eyes, and you don't see them. You don't notice because you're so busy looking for specks in other people's eyes. Guess what? You'll probably find them, but maybe you should check out the logs in your own eyes first, Charlie. Let he who is without sin cast the first stone?  Ring any bells?"

Lastly (otherwise we'll never get to the rest) "first take the log our of your eye, and then you'll see clearly how to take the splinter out of your neighbor's eye." "For now I see through a glass darkly..." Jesus is practically screaming, "You're human! You don't know what a splinter is! You can't see your own log, and you're trying to see splinters, and how the fuck can you when all you can see is log, because you've got one in your eye! A log!"

Judge not. You don't know what you're doing. Don't bother.  How much clearer can Jesus be?

"Don’t give holy things to dogs, and don’t throw your pearls in front of pigs. They will stomp on the pearls, then turn around and attack you." Aside from being good advice, it would seem to imply that you need to figure out who the dogs and pigs in this life are, and judge them. What's up, Jesus? Didn't you just say...

"See, everyone gets that mixed up. Look at the context."

I don't claim to have conversations with Jesus. That was my inner literary critic talking. Christians (no names, no blame) are great ones for taking things out of context, even when they're supposedly taking things in context. And the context here is Jesus talking about judging people and how you shouldn't do that. So how can we reconcile this?

I don't propose to answer; there are biblical scholars for that. I merely propose to give my feelings on the subject.  My speculations.  Aided by Matthew, who was, after all, there at the time.

"Jesus wasn't talking about real pearls, right? I mean, come on, nobody's that dumb. Wasn't even talking about real valuables, or real pigs. But in a simplistic way, he was saying, 'Don't give it out to just anybody, man.' Don't open yourself up to bad people because they'll turn around and abuse your trust, you know?

"But Christ was not a simplistic guy. He would be saying one thing, and you get into the shallows and he's saying another, but then you walk out until the water's over your head and he's saying something else. He's not saying, 'Figure out which people are pigs and dogs and then don't give your pearls and holy stuff to them.' Jesus wanted you to love everyone, man, and if that's not giving your pearls to some pretty big swine, I don't know what is.

"Look at what he said before: 'Don't judge, otherwise you're going to get judged.' Do unto others and all that. Judgement belongs to God, and He gave it to you so that you could make sure you're walking that line. Not so you could make other people walk that line. Pull that log out of your own eye. Judge yourself, your actions, with the gift of judgment and morals given to you by the Big Guy.

That's your pearls, man. Holy things. Not, "Oh, don't trust your baby with a rapist." Don't give holy things to dogs and throw pearls to swine, because the Father gave you your judgment not to waste on others but to use on yourself. No one is going to appreciate being judged. They're going to ignore it and turn around and attack you. Result: wasted pearls and angry swine, man."

Some versions of the text break off here, because we now move into "Ask and ye shall receive."  Which is a good part too, but less about judgment, although the whole point of Matthew 7 could be said to be, "I don't care who you are: if you ask, you shall receive, so there's no point in judging.  Anyone can receive. Just ask.  It may not be what you were expecting, but unlike people who promise things they can't deliver, God will deliver."

So judgment: the Bible has more to say about it, as does Jesus. But don't mistake, "Who am I to judge?" with, "Who am I to say whether that's good or not?" We have to be able to say what's good or not, though as Jesus has helpfully point out, our knowledge and understanding are imperfect, so we also have to be willing to change what we say is good or not. Moral judgment shouldn't get thrown out the window just because we're all sinners. "Who am I to judge?" should be understood to mean, "Who am I to pass judgment on my fellow man?"  Hell, the Pope even qualified it by talking about what other qualities his "fellow man" most possess to fall under his statement.

Who am I to pass judgment on my fellow people, on my friends, neighbors, brothers and sisters? What gives me the unmitigated gall to ignore that log in my eye? Why should I use my God-given moral judgment for purposes other than why it is given: to follow God myself. All I can do for my fellow people is to love them. If I see imperfections, that's not my problem; I have to love them as myself, as I love God.

So where do people get off judging anything others do? There's a difference between seeing someone doing something you think is wrong and knowing that you don't want them telling you what's right and wrong; and seeing someone doing something you think is wrong and morally castigating them, telling them they're a horrible person, and saying they're going to hell.  And even if you think what they're doing is wrong, maybe you're wrong. I don't care if you get it straight out of the Bible. You're human. You don't know everything. The Bible is frighteningly clear on that point.  You can only judge based on your faint glimmer of understanding, whatever that might be. Best to keep that sort of thing to yourself.  You don't want to look stupid when you meet God.