About Judgment

     The farther I go along the path, the more I notice how every little event, word, experience, or input triggers either agreement or disagreement.  The news is particularly bad about this, but our society in general pushes us to form and pronounce a judgment of right or wrong, good or bad on anything, no matter how trivial.
     Our society as we know it is geared to exacerbate our common human malfunction.
     What would it look like if we actually passed no judgments on anything or anyone? What would it look like if we never placed opinion over compassion? If we just accepted things as they came, neither adding to nor subtracting from them, and having compassion for the people involved whether they were perceived as causing harm or being harmed?
     It’s hard work to look at a thing, see it for what it truly is: a thing, an event, a situation, a person, and not pass judgment on it. It goes against the hardwiring of the human brain. For me, it can cause a mild headache on occasion. The brain wants to determine if the thing should be clung to or pushed away, but in so doing it frequently perpetuates more harm.
     It is easy for me to see Vladimir Putin as an evil man. It’s a judgment my brain comes to readily. In reality he is a man, like every other, doing what he thinks is best for himself and his country. But his country is not the modern Russian Republic of the twenty first century. He is a man raised, educated and indoctrinated under the old Soviet Union with its ideals, prejudices, fears, and goals. And he is a man who believed and apparently continues to believe in them all. Someone made the remark once that the fall of the Soviet Union was a very personal blow to Mr. Putin, and one he’s never been able to move beyond.
     It is easy for me to pass judgment on fellow Americans who wish to return to the days of the mid twentieth century. These days were comfortable for them, but not for everyone who lived during them. But who doesn’t want to return to the time when they felt most at peace and secure? It’s easy for me to pass judgment on the terrorist, but from his perspective he is fighting for a cause greater than himself. As someone pointed out, technically, the Rebels in Star Wars were, in fact, terrorists against the legal galactic government. It is a matter of perspective.
     It is easy for me to call someone stupid in my head for something they do that I don’t agree with, and to create whole fantasy arguments which will never be played out in reality. It’s not so easy to look deeply and see why that person has done this thing I have disagreed with.
     Jesus taught, “Judge not, lest ye be judged, condemn not, lest ye be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven.” The practice of non-judgment goes deep into what He taught. It’s the practice of seeing the person or situation without declaring it or them to be good or bad, right or wrong, and to see without prejudice, without opinion, and with compassion for all parties. As much as possible, it is the practice of seeing through the other person’s eyes and understanding why they do what they do. It strikes at the very heart, the very root of the human malfunction.
     As for me, my practice to this end feels slow going. I get triggered every time I look at the news. A lot of the time, I want to shout at the computer screen or T.V. “Have you lost your minds?” And I certainly think as much in my head. It can be good exercise in non-judgment, but it can also set me up for failure. Of course, failure too can be learned from and transformed. The best success I can claim to this end is that I am increasingly aware of my judgments, opinions, justifications, and condemnations.
     Jesus rebuked, but He didn’t really condemn. He pointed out hypocrisy, but it was to bring those doing it into the light. Pleading with them and intervening for them to change direction from where they were headed. It was compassion which drove Him, always. He looked deeply at Pontius Pilate, even while bruised and bleeding, and reassured him that he wasn’t going to be held responsible for what was about to happen. He saw the man Pilate was, nothing more and nothing less, saw the predicament he was in and in which he didn’t want to be, and tried to encourage him. Jesus did all this knowing that Pilate would be the one physically giving the order for His crucifixion, because He also knew that the choice had been taken from the Roman procurator. Jesus did not judge Pilate. Neither did He judge the soldiers beating Him. He looked at them and knew the hardships they had suffered in Judea (much like the hardships U.S. soldiers suffered in Afghanistan and Iraq). He knew they didn’t know who He really was, only that they had been told He was an insurrectionist, and they had lost too many friends to insurrectionists. He certainly didn’t judge the thieves on their crosses. And He didn’t judge the Judeans hurling insults at Him as He hung on the cross because of them. He saw them deeply. Knew where each one was at. He didn’t need to judge them. He didn’t want to judge them. They were judging themselves, something He had wanted to rescue them from, and they wouldn’t have it. And in the midst of all of this, He cries out “Father, forgive them, they don’t know what they’re doing!” No judgment, even as they are brutally murdering Him and enjoying it.
     Non-judgment is a core practice of discipleship to Jesus Christ. It’s also something which many churches deride and teach the opposite of. Judging everything and everyone, whether they follow this standard or that, whether they use the right doctrine, the right translation, the right lifestyle. This antichrist teaching hurts and harms people using God’s name, and makes Jesus out to be someone who hates anyone and everyone they don’t agree with. For these churches, God is hate, not love. God is merciless, not merciful. Their god is a delusion of their own malfunctioning mind which conforms to their ideals. It is an idol, and one which has hurt, and hurt, and hurt again and again; a demon wearing a Jesus mask tearing the wounded and hurting apart.
     The Living God does not Himself judge, but shows the soul its own actions through the eyes of those with whom it has interacted, and then lets that soul judge or not. The Living God trains, corrects, forgives, lets go, and encourages us to keep growing and moving forward. The Living God sees all of us through our own eyes, and understands why we do what we do. He teaches us to help, and not harm; to love, and not hate; to empathize, and not condemn.
     And so, I continue being aware of my own judgments, and when I am making one. And when I definitively decide that someone or some group is wrong, frequently, God engineers it so that I become a part of that group to see things from their perspective. This is a kindness on His part towards me, and a part of my training. I didn’t understand it at first, but I am coming to. I started off judging every religion and denomination the group I was a part of didn’t like. Mostly because I was implicitly if not explicitly taught to. And then God would have me either become a part of that religion or denomination, or interact with them positively in some way. He taught me to see things from their perspective, and in so doing, deepened my understanding and relationship with Him.
     Don’t judge, because in so doing, you only judge yourself and no one else.