It would be helpful to first define what it means to be judgmental. My definition is as follows - deliberately fingerpointing at other people's sins while being unapologetically hypocritical. Being "judgemental" goes beyond a declaration of both general and specific sin - it is characterized by the pride of the "Thanks God I'm not like that sinner" kind of attitude. Being judgemental inherently stems from a prideful, self-righteous, hypocritical attitude.
[I also think I need to take a quick moment to point out that people can feel judged, even when Christians aren't being judgmental. This is a huge topic and I could spend a lot of time talking about it, but in this post, I'm primarily addressing the decrease of exhortations to Christians by Christian leadership to be "less judgmental".]
The following are two possible reasons for the decline in talk of being judgmental.
1) The church has become less "judgmental".
No, I don't think that the church struggles less with pride and self-righteousness than in the past. Those are human problems that will never go away until eternity, but I do think that the church has shifted attitudes in two key areas in the increasingly secular environment, as described below.
The church has taken greater ownership of its past failures and present brokenness.
In my opinion, the eyes of Christians everywhere have been opened to the brokenness of the church and church leaders are finally admitting to being personally broken. Gone is the idea and the ideal that all Christians are morally upstanding people with perfect marriages. Gone is the illusion that being a Christian will fix your life. Gone is the myth that church leaders are less prone to temptation and sin than their members. As Christians, we've been hit in the face with the reality of the despicable actions by countless pedophile priests and the secret sins of evangelical pastors everywhere. We can no longer pretend that the church is a bunch of holy people led by even more holy ministers. Similarly, we can also no longer deny the historical atrocities of the church. As Christians, we've been taught and forced to confront the failings of the church in the past - the Crusades, the Spanish Inquisition, the Salem witch hunt, and the list goes on and on. More than ever, I think that Christians are forced to recognize and admit the brokenness of the church, dispelling a bit of the previously assumed self-righteousness for being a Christian.
The church has become tolerant, accepting, and sometimes even supportive of sin.
The decline in the seriousness towards sin is so obvious, I don't need to write much to convince anyone of it. The word "sin" itself has become taboo in churches, Christian music, and evangelism techniques all around the country. "Christians" living in licentiousness is almost the norm, and non-Christians can find churches to attend where they are comfortable for the simple reason that the people they see in church are living similar lives to the ones that they live. And then there are the churches far out in left-field encouraging the practice of what the Bible calls sin and even ordaining ministers that unabashedly, unrepentedly practice those sins. However, as easy as it is to pinpoint and blame the liberal, mainline church, we evangelicals are also very guilty for downplaying the seriousness of sin. How often do I find myself euphemising sin in conversation and evangelism with more user-friendly words like "struggle" or "brokenness"! How rare is it to hear contemporary Christian music that properly addresses the wretchedness of the human condition!
2) The objection to the church is much deeper.
In the past, most people agreed generally with the values of the church, but I think that now more than ever we see a divergence between the beliefs of the religious and non-religious. Where it seems like a few years ago, the complaint mainly was on how things were preached, but now it's about what is preached. We have seen the progression from "Practice what you preach, then maybe I will" to "Practice what you preach, but don't expect others to" to finally where I think it is now - "What you preach is wrong." No longer do you need to be carelessly insensitive or obnoxiously self-righteous about your beliefs to offend - simply holding certain beliefs is enough to be cause offense. For example, the mere suggestion, no matter how gentle and loving, that homosexuality is a sin is enough to offend and turn people away. The declaration of the universality of sin itself is considered a needlessly self-deprecating way of making people feel bad about themselves.
When others think that it is simply wrong to believe what you believe and the resentment goes beyond the presentation of your beliefs to the core of your worldview, most talk about being judgmental is moot. People feel judged not simply because of how you act or what you say, but what you believe.
"There is no higher testimony to their fidelity than for the servants of God to evoke the rancour and hostility of the reprobate." - A.W. Pink
In a way, I'm glad that we've started to realize as a church that it is impossible to sugar-coat sin, as Christians have been attempting to do for some time now. We've begun to see just how offensive the gospel really is to those who do not believe. I truly believe that it isn't long before Christians will be not only scorned, but hated for stating their beliefs on sin. Christians in our generation don't know yet what it means to be hated for their beliefs, but I genuinely believe that it won't be long before God bestows on us the privilege of suffering deep scorn and hate from the world.
What are your thoughts? Do you agree or disagree that there has been less talk of "being judgmental" in the Christian community? Do you think it's actually a real change in attitude or just simply a change in rhetoric?
"And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God."
- John 3:19-21
"Why do you not understand what I say? It is because you cannot bear to hear my word. You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father's desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies. But because I tell the truth, you do not believe me. Which one of you convicts me of sin? If I tell the truth, why do you not believe me? Whoever is of God hears the words of God. The reason why you do not hear them is that you are not of God."
- John 8:43-47
"If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you."
- John 15:8
"If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you."
- John 15:8
No comments:
Post a Comment