Overheard in the Sacristy

2 Responses to “Question”

1. Kerri, on July 31st, 2010 at 1:09 pm Said:

   Ummm…no. At least I don’t think so. Compelling thought.

2. Richard, on August 6th, 2010 at 10:24 pm Said:

   It can be even more judgmental than the who is supposedly being judgmental, especially given how easily this is used to discredit those who proclaim moral teaching. In order to judge another, one must be judging the interior condition of one’s soul. This is different from objectively witnessing or being made aware of a wrong and saying one shouldn’t commit such a wrong – with mere knoweledge that such an act is inherently immoral, regardless of whether the sinner’s interior condition or relationship with God is being judged. Yet it is in many cases like these that those who witness to objective morality are called “judgmental”- simply on the basis that they are making an observation that any such action is immoral. Yet to really judge another, one must be making a judgment regarding the state of the soul of another. To assume that one is interiorly making in one’s mind or intentions such a judgment when all they are doing is saying that a given action is immoral, is judgmental.

   For example, someone could witness another killing an innocent person and tell the killer, “You shouldn’t have done that.” Judgmental? No. Killing innocent people is wrong, and one should be able to be told so regardless of whether the interior state of the killer’s soul is being judged as he is told that the action he just commited was immoral. But to say that such a person is being judgmental in saying so demands that you look into that person’s heart in order to judge that he or she is intending to make a judgment on the intentions or soul of the killer. In such a case, it is judgmental to call the person judgmental who is merely making a statement that one should not have killed an innocent person; while the one making the statement that the killer shouldn’t have killed an innocent person could do so without being judgmental at all.

   I know that example is sort of an extreme, but now apply this same scenario to things like artificial contraception, cohabitation, abortion, masturbation, or viewing porn. We see many today who merely say that such actions are immoral being called judgmental – even when they may not be speaking to individual situations at all but simply saying that such actions are immoral. It’s judgmental to call judgmental those who are simply stating that such sins do not align with God’s will, yet doing so usually serves as a cop-out of not listening to them. And, it’s judgmental.

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