It’s been my day off, so my day starts off with being on my computer and since I like gameshows, I watch The Price Is Right and I usually watch Montel before that. Lo and behold, today on Montel they have a couple on there that is a playboy couple. They both have affairs outside of their relationship. (I say relationship. They’re not married yet.)
Someone in the audience decides to speak. I admire this guy’s passion, but he needs zeal according to knowledge. He immediately starts off by telling them that they’re living in sin and the Bible says that the soul that sins it will die. Yes. I agree with the message. However, I think most in the world today cast aside that message.
The guy in the relationship on stage responded though saying he was a Catholic and gave two passages with Jesus speaking telling where they were located. (Conveniently he leaves out those passages about sexual immorality.) I heard the remark of “I have a relationship with the Lord, and I’m glad you’re not his spokesperson.” (Apparently, this man was claiming a correct interpretation though to know the other man’s was wrong. I look back and note he never denied it was sin. It was simply, “Don’t judge.”)
Later today, I stop at a gas station to get gas. I’m paying and I put my book on the counter that I have with me. It’s J. Budziszewski’s work “Written on the Heart: The Case For Natural Law.” The girl at the counter asks me if that’s interesting. I tell her that it is and I decide to toss something out to see how far it will go and say “It’s about how man has some basic ideas of morality and how some things are absolutely right and some things are absolutely wrong and we all know it.”
She smiles and tells me that that’s true. Really good sign I think. So I say “It’s amazing how many people deny that though. I’ve had some people tell me that we can’t really call the VTech shootings evil for instance. They just didn’t like them.” I get the response then of “Yeah. We can’t really judge that though. That belongs to one person.”
I’m stunned. I want to scream and wonder if this lady recognizes the contradiction. If some things are absolutely right and some absolutely wrong and we know that, then surely we can have some distinctions. If what happened at VTech wasn’t evil, then could someone please tell me what is?
I got in my car with my friend and told him my lament. We in America have lost the idea of judgment. Tolerance has become the main virtue. The F word has been replaced to be Fundy and the S word has been replaced to be Sin. The only crime today is to not be tolerant. The only judging that is allowable is that of judging judgmentalism.
We have a right to judge, and we need to get back to that judging. Now I can’t judge some things such as motives of people unless I know them, but I can sure judge their actions. I can judge that what the VTech shooter did was evil. I can judge that a mother taking care of her child instead of aborting it is right.
If we can’t make these simple moral decisions, is it any wonder that our world today exists in such moral chaos? Is it any wonder we fudge on abortion and homosexuality and other issues? Is it any wonder that we become a people who live only by feelings and seeking the next best feeling?
This girl I spoke to was a theist seeing as she says judgment belonged to one person. But what is God judging? He’s judging good and he’s judging evil. If he is judging such, then they must exist. If they exist, then is there any reason we cannot know what they are? Especially since he tells us to pursue one and shun the other, surely he expects us to know the difference.
What do I say? Pray first. We need to pray the prayer of boldness that we will be willing to act and to speak. Act. That’s the second thing. We need to act. John 3:16 used to be the most quoted Bible verse. Today, it’s “Judge not.” We have switched from the love of God being the gospel to “Be nice to one another and don’t hurt their feelings” being the gospel.
It’s a disgrace to the gospel and it’s a disgrace to our neighbor. It is neither loving God nor our neighbor and it needs to be changed.
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