Judging One Another

Recently a news story broke about a little church in a little community in Kentucky.  This particular church (averaging Sunday morning attendance of 40), had a business meeting where they discussed the language of a statement that was a proposed addition to their bylaws.  The reason this statement became a national news story covered by CNN, USA Today, and a multitude of other news sources was because it was a ban on interracial marriages among it's church members.  I have been involved in several discussions about this issue.  There seems to be three sides to this debate.

The first camp is one that I would describe as shocked/angry.  These folks cannot believe how a church can espouse such hatred and judgmental attitudes.  Surely in 2011--almost 2012, we can get past the race issue, can't we?  The second group is the group that is righteously indignant.  The mantra of this group is one that gives the viewpoint that a church is supposed to promote love and unity and you know, the Christian point of view on all things, and this surely isn't that.

Then there's the camp that I find myself in.  This camp seems to be very small.  I am not making any statements on the rightness or wrongness of this ban on interracial marriages.  That's my personal opinion.  If you really want to know, you can ask me in person.  Myself and several other people wonder why this has become a national news story?  It was a small group of people--of the 40 church goers, only 15 voted on the addition to the bylaws.  This addition was going no where fast.  By all appearances, this group of believers was not going to enact such a divisive bylaw.

In one of the discussions I was involved in, I asked this question:  Whose intolerance is worse?  The people who are opposed to interracial relationships or the intolerance of those who are opposed to such thinking?  Think about this for a minute.  Go ahead ponder a while.

The New Testament teaches a simple philosophy that says "judge not, lest ye be judged."  In my experience, this verse is used as a defensive argument--"you shouldn't judge me."  I think this news story shows us a startling fact.  We are so good at shining flashlights into the dark corners of  other people's lives that we forget about our own dark corners.

We are quick to point out the sins of others and hold them up for all the world to see--whether through CNN or through gossip.  It's much easier to shine the examination light on others than to shine that same light on ourselves.  Do you remember the story of the woman in the Bible that was taken in the act of adultery?  What did Jesus tell the men that brought her before Him?  "Ye without sin, cast the first stone."  He was forcing the men to look in at themselves.  The scripture goes on to say that one by one, starting with the oldest, each man dropped his stone and walked away.

I think our world would be much better off if we spent more time examining our own thoughts, actions, and philosophies than we spend examining others. I wonder how many of us would find ourselves in the category of stone dropper rather than stone thrower?  I know I would.