Greg Boyd, in his newest book, The Myth of a Christian Religion: Losing Your Religion for the Beauty of a Revolution
How pervasive is judgmentalism? What do you think we can do about it? Would you say it is idolatrous to judge others?
Greg, sitting in a mall watching people, began to listen to his own commentary on the people he was watching and was amazed at how judgmental he was. It made him feel alive to tear others down; it exalted himself.
We all do this. We need to think about it more.
What do you think of the following definition?
But judgment is not the same as discernment. Discernment distinguishes the good from the bad while judgment separates myself (whom I consider good) from others (whom I consider bad). Judgment is idolatry because it places us in God’s place.
People do this in nationalism. People do this in petty judgments. Love is to lay down your life for another. And we are called to give the same worth to others that God gives to those same others. They are God’s Eikons.
“Nothing is more central to the Kingdom than agreeing with God about every person’s unsurpassable worth and reflecting this in how we act toward them” (51).
Judgment and Life (and love) are antithetical: To judge is to usurp God’s role and to sit in judgment on others; to love is to give ourselves to them. We are called to choose between the judgment game or the grace game.
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