I apologize beforehand to all who read this, please do not take personal offense to what I am about to write. This is not directed at any one person but to all as a whole. What follows is a ranting and a plea. I want to hear what you think about this so please feel free to comment, this time it is a completely judgment free zone, we can judge eachother on my next political blog entry.
The famed philosopher John Locke, once wrote,“He that judges without informing himself to the utmost that he is capable, cannot acquit himself of judging amiss” I submit he is only partially correct. I would further add when judging a person's morality and relationship with Divinity, unless authorized and inspired by Divinity, one is always incorrect.
The culture that I live in and am a part of, as good as it is, in generality fails tremendously on this subject. I live in a culture where, speaking again in generality, peoples lives revolve around the way they worship. I consider this a great thing, my life does as well, especially since that devotion is centered around always striving to become a better person. One sad thing that I have noticed is that the striving to become better is starting to shift to being better than what we perceive others as. That by somehow thinking that if you are better than those around you; you are somehow exempt from harsh judgement because there are those that are perceived as worse. You can reserve your seat in heaven by not being your best but just moderately better than what you perceive your neighbor as. I regret to inform you that this is obviously not the case for the following observations:
1. You cannot and are not judged by the merits of others. You can only be judged by your own actions, thoughts, and inactions. Other's actions cannot restrict you from or guarantee your right to celestial glory.
2. One item that is so often mentioned but rarely internalized is that, with the exception of Divinity, no one is perfect. What I mean by this is simply no one is perfect. Definately not me, not you, not your mom, and as much as I love her not even my own mom. That's right, I just said that about my own momma.
3. Again, you are probably saying, "Brad, we already know this, why are you rambling saying the same things over and over again?"
This is the point I am trying (probably badly) to express, why then are we so quick to tell someone when they are wrong? We all have imperfections, we are all striving to do better, in general we are trying to progress but we need to recognize that everyone does it differently. I do it differently than you and you do it differently than me. Is my way better than yours? No. Is your way better than mine? Again a resounding no.
4. I am under the impression that we all have the ability to have a unique and deeply personal relationship with Divinity. Please note the usage of the words "unique" and "personal" in correaltion to "relationship with Divinity." My relationship with Divinity is inversely different than yours. Does that make mine better than yours or vice versa? We would all, unless responding sardonically, echo no. Then why are we so quick to tell someone that they are wrong?
5. I also believe life and eternal progression is hard. Very hard. Why then, would we want to make it that much harder for other people by condeming them by standards that we have decided are correct? In any sociology class that I have taken the theory of a self-fulfilling prophecy is always discussed. What this means is that when someone is conutinually assigned a label the chances of fullfilling that label are exponentially higher. When you give the label as sinner, charlatan, slut, overall bad person, you are helping to enable a person to fulfill that assigned label.
So to keep in line with the command, "Judge not," let us all put aside our spiritual judgements of others, and instead focus on how we can better ourselves as individuals. My life, as hard as it can be at times, would be so much better if others would keep what they think of what I do to themselves. Believe it or not I know the difference between right and wrong. It is left up to me, not anyone else, to decide what is right and wrong for me. If you do this for me I will definately do this for you. I will do it for you even if you don't do it for me.
Saturday, October 18, 2008
The art of judgement
Posted by B-radley at 12:54 AM
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
5 comments:
I know exactly who this is referring to. Thanks. :(
Well said! The odd nature of our religious bubble is one that I myself have contemplated often throughout my short life. I will discuss in part why I think this attitude exists among some.
1. We live in Utah, the place where no one else wanted to live ever. In turn, we have been isolated by the Rockies and trapped within a troposphere of one main culture. This is both a good and a bad thing. It is good because when we are united we are strong. It can be bad because our value of perfection is so high that we tend to point fingers in order to validate our own follies. This is purely biological as an impulse. Technically, survival of the fittest says that we must rise above the rest in order to survive. However, this is the bane of man, to overcome the natural self and the struggle which our biology presents us.
2. Many religious people are bored. While everyone else is out partying it up we are watching PG rated movies and putting our shoulder to the wheel. So when we see someone out of the ordinary, we are not only intrigued and interested by them, but we are extremely jealous of them as well. The get to go golfing on Sunday! Whatever they do in Vegas, stays in Vegas!!! How dare they live a normal life, like the 90% of the population!
3. LDS folks tend to forget that most if not all people drink alcohol. It is not a bad thing. Most if not all people watch rated R movies and they even drink Mountain Dew. But here is the catch....wait for it....they are still very good people who do very unselfish kind things for humanity!!! Shocker!!!
4. The point is, most people don't judge others because they are truly worried for their salvation. A perfect film example of this is Mandy Moore's character in Saved. Most people want to direct people's attention away from their own sins. The point is, who gives a crap if someone's relationship with God is different than yours? We should only be worried about ourselves and what we need to do to be right with God. I find this annoying when people start arguing over doctrine in the church. I am definitely not educated enough or spiritual enough to understand every single facet of this religion. Do I believe JS saw two heavenly dudes in the woods? Yay or Nay? If I say yay, than that is that. I don't need to sit and stress about everything else. I believe.
Last but not least, I figure I'm in a win win win situation even if my religion happens to be slightly off or wrong ( which I highly doubt ).
If we go with your basic heaven and hell theory, I'm a pretty good person I will probably go to heaven. If we go with your basic reincarnation theory, I messed up and I get a few more lives to figure this whole thing out. If we go with your atheist you die and your dead theory, I will be dead and won't realize I've been jipped and therefore will not care. I could go on and on. The best part is, if I'm right I win even more! Woo hoo!
The point is God loves everyone. So its all good folks! No need to fret, just do your very best and be happy. Enjoy life!
(Sorry that this was excruciatingly long, I'm bored obviously. Also, if some of these analogies made absolutely no sense I apologize profusely.)
Oh and one more thing I forgot to add (sorry).
Oftentimes we forget the fact that our religious dedication is quite rare among the human race. I mean if you think about it, we could be categorized with the Catholic Monks and Nuns who lock themselves away from the world, the Buddhist Monks of Tibet who lock themselves inside a temple, and the Hindu gurus who also put themselves away from the world. The only difference is that we also minister among the people. As endowed members of the church we do rise above humanity for a time of worship in the temple, away from the world. We wear special clothing much like a monk or nun that protects us and reminds us of our duty. But we also are commanded to do as Christ did, to live amongst the people, helping them and healing them. Not to mention Christ knew that we would benefit most greatly ourselves by loving and helping others.
In other words, living this life is something we welcome all to do and live an example to encourage them to do so, but it is not something we should be condemning them for not doing, as it is a very high standard and a rarity among mankind.
Sorry, just a random thought :) Your friends most likely think I am crazy, yippee!!
Dearest bradly,
I love this post and am so happy to hear your comments on judgment. Your thoughts echo my feelings on the subject and for this I am greatful you had the courage to post as I should.
One point I would like to add to your post... Grace. Lets define grace.. after all we can do it is still not enough, so the lord provided a savior for all of us to make up the rest. The lord promises us that we must do all that WE can do(not what suzy homemaker down the steet can do)and he will help us out with the rest. This means that we must understand ourselves well enough to know what are best is and when this is figured out we must let go of the control of what we cannot change and give that part to the lord. What an amazing blessing!!!
Now, I did not mention my neighbor's role in this....oh wait! there is non. It is all done by your self. I hope that I can remember that when someone passes judgment and even when I do.
I would like to restate chelsi's wonderful comment,
"Do I believe JS saw two heavenly dudes in the woods? Yay or Nay? If I say yay, than that is that. I don't need to sit and stress about everything else. I believe."
That is the most important part and I appreciate Chelsi for her comment. I pray we can all believe and live worthy of it on our own way and find our personal, private, and beautiful relationship with God.
I have actually been thinking a lot about this, myself. I would be 100% wrong if I said I never judged anyone else, or compared myself to anyone else. I do. Lately, though, I have realized how hard it can be when you are the one being judged and I have come to appreciate that so that I can try my hardest NOT to. Anyways... thanks for that post. I think we all need to hear this every so often to keep us grounded.
Post a Comment