THE PRACTICE OF CHRISTIAN JUDGMENT

I had coffee with a friend of long acquaintance some time ago - we had not met in months if not years, and I looked forward to catching up and exchanging news of our lives.

Not far into our conversation, he enquired about my religious activity. In particular, he wanted to know if it was Christian. As usual, I had a complicated answer, but I was really not feeling up to a deep discussion at that moment. There had been a loss in the family, and I was tired from the affairs of the week. As a result, my responses were, I felt, not quite up to par.

I am used to this kind of questioning from Christians, and I am past the point where I feel insecure about my chosen path, as I might have felt, say, ten or twenty years ago. But I always sense a kind of judgmentalism in the questions, as if I am not measuring up to some standard that others have chosen to set. Our group, although it has Christian roots, is generally not regarded as quite "Christian enough" for the more fundamentalist crowd.

This used to arouse in me some anger, but now it just calls up a sort of sadness, to think that those who claim to follow Jesus have not caught on to the teaching, “Judge not, lest ye be judged.”

The other thing that emerged in our conversation was a subtle kind of ‘sell job’, using the language unique to his chosen path, which of course did not have the same meanings for me. Each spiritual group will adapt the English tongue to illustrate their concepts. The repeated use of one particular catch phrase appeared to me to imply that this was something he had ‘got’ and I might not have ‘gotten’.

Our study of Spiritual Law is no different. It too brings with it an extensive set of definitions, words and phrases which we have adapted to have unique meaning for us. If each path of faith thinks that their definition or use of a word is the only correct one, it becomes hard to have a meaningful discussion. I made no effort to bludgeon my friend with the ‘in’ language that we have adapted to help ourselves in understanding Divine Principle. To do so would have been insensitive and even cruel.

I try to express my enthusiasm for the path of Religious Science without anyone feeling that I am ‘selling’ it to them. There are many paths, and ours is not for people who need something more rigid or more authoritarian, for example.

Selling your religion to others in a judgmental manner is a mark of insecurity - as if you need everyone to believe as you do in order to have your choices ratified. By all means tell me what it has done for you - I will celebrate with you - but it is like a prescription medicine: I am not always healed by taking the same pill that healed you.

All I ask of a friend is to celebrate with me the things that have enriched my life. I look for affirmation, not denigration.

Coffee, anyone?

Rev. Darrell Gudmundson