With what measure you judge....

Judgment is a tricky thing. I find that when I’m discussing something with someone, they often might become uncomfortable with the subject matter and say something like, “Well, I don’t like to judge.” What a line of bullshit. That has to mean one of two things. Either you are at a loss for words and want the conversation to end, or you have set yourself up on some sort of self-righteous pedestal. Of course you judge. We all do. It’s natural and good to do so. How can we possibly make a reasonable go at this life without making judgments? When I meet someone, I make certain observations about them. For instance, if they have shifty eyes, I might be inclined to mistrust them. As I get to know them, it may become clear that there is a different reason for the shiftiness, but until that happens, I have to interpret what I know about them. I had a friend say, “I don’t like to make judgments until I know the whole story.” Well I find it hard to believe that anyone ever really has the whole story. Let me make some examples. Recently a lieutenant general was quoted in a newspaper article as saying, "It's fun to shoot some people... You go into Afghanistan, you got guys who slap women around for five years because they didn't wear a veil. You know, guys like that ain't got no manhood left anyway. So it's a hell of a lot of fun to shoot them." Now, I don’t have to know anything else about this man to know certain things about him. I don’t need to know the context of what he said, as there is no context where this sort of statement would be appropriate. Or, another example, I recently saw a video taken from a hidden camera of a woman smacking a baby in the head. I don’t need to know anything else about her to know that her privilege of being around children should be revoked. Of course, when you cross the line into pigeonholing people just for the sake of making you feel superior, this is wrong. I think this is the thing we are resisting when we say we don’t judge. We don’t want to become like that. As well we shouldn’t. But we must not think that judging is a bad word. It is a thing we ought to do. In fact, I’m sure we don’t do enough of it. I mean in the right way. We’ve got right-wingers judging left-wingers, and vice versa. All to prove one’s own “rightness.” (Right about being left? Left about being right?) So, on a circular path, we return… judgment is a tricky thing. I think of many a professing Christian who quotes the bible, but if you return to the original meaning of the word, we are admonished not to judge in the sense of deciding condemnation and punishment. We are actually told that we should judge things and even the behavior of people. But we are also told many other things to add to that, which protects us from the wrong sort of judgment. So please just don’t talk to me about this shit unless you are prepared to give an account for what you say. Because I’ll call you on it.