Gospel.com Blog

Do you judge celebrities and public personalities? What does it mean to you to “render judgment” on a pop star or role model gone astray?

There’s an interesting article at Plugged In about teen pop star Miley Cyrus’ all-too-predictable transition from squeaky-clean Christian role model to hyper-sexualized music video vixen. But the article isn’t just lamenting the moral failings of a celebrity; it talks about the culture of brutal moral judgment in which these dramas play out.

We live, the article argues, in a culture that publicly professes to be non-judgmental. (I’m sure you’ve seen the usually fruitless back-and-forths between Christians condemning some type of inappropriate behavior and others condemning the Christian for “judging.”) But pop culture society is no better at living up to this standard than Christians are… as seen in the viciously judgmental reactions to Cyrus’ latest escapades:

We’re supposed to be living in a kinder, gentler, less judgmental time: My ideals and beliefs aren’t better or worse than yours, we’re told, just different. “Hey, it’s great if that thing works for you,” we’re apt to say, “but don’t tell me how to run my life. Don’t get up in my business. Don’t judge me!”

Here’s the honest truth, though: For all the tolerance we supposedly show, we judge one another more frequently and more harshly than ever.

We post demeaning comments on YouTube or Facebook. We call radio shows, lambasting politicians or banks or businesses. We scream about BP’s malfeasance, snicker as Lindsay Lohan skulks off to jail and write lengthy diatribes on why Google or Apple or Perez Hilton or McDonald’s Happy Meals portend societal devolution. Tolerance? Hardly. We live in an age of outrage and apology, where each secret and slight is posted on Huffington and mocked on Fark, where every person who makes the slightest misstep is beaten and kicked for the pleasure of the 24-hour news cycle.

We’re all up in each other’s business now. We can’t seem to help ourselves. And few people today have been judged as frequently or as rigorously as Miss Miley Cyrus.

The articles goes on to cite some of the often brutal criticism of Cyrus, both from professional critics and the internet-using hoi polloi. In the face of that evidence, it’s hard to deny that our culture, whatever its ideals about non-judgmentalism might be, does plenty of judging.

This raises some interesting questions about the place of judgment in our culture—and in the Christian life. As a Christian, do you judge people? If so, is your judgment different than the hate and vitriol that our culture heaps on its objects of scorn?

Here are a few specific questions to ponder:

1. How do you understand the Biblical command to not judge others? Is it possible or appropriate to judge a person or action, or does our own sin render us unworthy to judge?

2. What, if anything, is different about Biblical judgment compared to societal judgment? Is there a difference in motive or desired outcome?

3. In the case of Biblical judgment, who is the judgment for? When you judge somebody, are you calling them to repentance? Warning other Christians (or yourself) to steer clear? Both?

4. What, if anything, would you say to Cyrus if you had the chance to address her in person?

Have you ever been called a “Pharisee”? I hope not—it’s a term deeply associated with arrogance, legalism, and hypocrisy. It’s one of the harshest insults you can throw at a Christian, because it implies that in their obsession with being holy, they’ve failed to grasp Christianity’s most basic teachings.

But at one time in history, the word “Pharisee” wasn’t an insult; it was high praise! When Jesus criticized the Pharisees, he was challenging people’s core concept of what holiness and faithfulness looked like. In this devotional from Slice of Infinity, Jill Carattini imagines how Jesus’ words about hypocrisy might play out in the modern world:

Ironically, the description “pharisaical” would once have been a great compliment. The Pharisees were highly regarded guardians of the strict interpretation and application of Jewish Law. They were known for their zeal and for their uncompromising ways of following the God of their fathers. It is likely that the apostle Paul was a Pharisee, and it is suggested that much of his Christian theology owes something to the shape and content of this earlier training. In other words, to be a Pharisee was not an easy life riddled with loopholes and duplicities, like we might assume. The Pharisees were so certain there was a right way to follow God that they sought to follow Him to that very letter with all of their lives.

In this light, Jesus’s words seem a little harsher, his tone a little crueler, and perhaps his warnings a little closer to home. In the Pharisees, Jesus scolded the very best of the religious crowd, those who dedicated everything, and cared the deepest about following God. If Jesus came today into churches and singled out the ministers who work the hardest, the youth who are most involved, and the families who serve most consistently and called them a brood of vipers, we would be hurt and confused and even defensive. This is exactly what happened amongst the Pharisees.

Imagine the jarring effect Jesus’ words must have had—it would be like seeing the most dedicated and earnest members of your church criticized for being hypocrites! But Jesus’ message was not just a condemnation—it was a call to change. While most of the Pharisees resisted that call, at least one of them—Nicodemus—realized that even a life lived in pursuit of holiness could go astray, and sought out Jesus.

Have you ever felt convicted of being a modern-day Pharisee, finding yourself spiritually astray despite your devotion to church and religion? How did God deliver that message to you, and how did you respond?

This is the fourth in our series of posts about common objections to Christianity. In each post, we present an often-heard objection to the Christian faith and ask for your response, in your own words.

Imagine that a friend has challenged you with this objection, and that you don’t have access to any books, sermons, or other publications to which you can refer them. They want to hear your response, in your own words!

How would you respond to this statement:

Everyone knows that the church is full of hypocrites who preach Christianity but don’t live Christ-like lives. If the Christian message isn’t compelling enough to change the hearts of even self-professed Christians, then it has nothing real to offer me.

Share your response!

Previous posts in this series:

Does prayer really work?

Why does God allow Hell to exist?

Did God endorse genocide?

The offer of redemption is almost incomprehensibly generous… but it’s even more incredible when you realize that God extends this offer to human beings who actively hate and reject Him.

That’s the theme of this devotional from Words of Hope, which looks at the corrupt, arrogant ancient church at Laodicea. This was a church that was busy ignoring every one of God’s commands, but incredibly, Christ still persisted with his offer of forgiveness and restoration:

The church in Laodicea had a high opinion of itself. They felt that they were rich, had prospered, and needed nothing. But to the searching eye of the risen Lord they were “wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked.” Quite a different evaluation!

The Laodiceans were so self-satisfied and complacent, so lukewarm, that the Lord was ready to “spit them out” of his mouth. No other church in Asia had received that kind of withering rebuke. They were in desperate need of repentance.

Yet the Lord wanted to give them true riches, white robes to clothe them and new vision…. Then came the astonishing offer. “Listen! I am standing at the door, knocking; if you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in to you and eat with you and you with me.” To even the most proud, nauseating, and messed-up people, Jesus offers his abiding presence and fellowship when they turn afresh to him.

Read the full devotional at Words of Hope.

If you’ve ever worried that sin in your life—or in the life of a loved one—is too much for God to forgive, this is the most reassuring passage in the entire Bible. If God’s offer of forgiveness and love stood for the broken hypocrites of Laodicea, it stands for all of us!

Today is Friday the 13th. Does that make you nervous? Did you glance anxiously over your shoulder on your way in to work this morning? Carefully avoid stepping on sidewalk cracks or walking under ladders?

Probably not. I’ve never met anyone who took Friday the 13th, or any of those thousands of other little superstitions, seriously (although it’s interesting how long they’ve stuck around, given that few people give them any credence). Americans, and Christians in particular, aren’t a superstitious lot… or are they?

This morning, I took stock of my life to see if anything I did could be called “superstitious.” And I was surprised to realize that in fact, I often act on what you might call “Christian superstitions.”

By “Christian superstitions,” I mean spiritual activities performed not because they contribute to my life as a Christian, but out of fear, routine, or a sense of obligation. When I do “Christian activities” mindlessly, out of guilt, or “just because I’m supposed to,” those activities become little more than dumb superstitions. Here are a few examples from my life:

How often have I mumbled the same old prayer before meals without giving any thought to what I was saying? Surely, a prayer in which I am not even paying attention to the words has no value at all.

How often have I gone to church on Sunday morning out of a sense of “Christian obligation” rather than a desire to worship? If I’ve just spent an hour sitting in the church pew daydreaming about the latest Batman movie or worrying about work, I’ve just wasted an hour of my life on a pointless activity.

How often have I dropped money in the offering plate at church because I’m expected to, and not because I want to gratefully give back to God? I may be helping the Kingdom of God financially, but the activity is robbed of any of the spiritual import it’s meant to have. If I give of my time or money for no other reason than “that’s what Christians are supposed to do” or out of a vague sense of guilt, that’s just empty superstition.

As you can see, I can be quite good at taking praiseworthy spiritual activities and turning them into meaningless religious routine. I don’t think that’s much more useful than avoiding black cats on Friday the 13th.

What about you? Every Christian must struggle at some point with the challenge of keeping our daily and weekly spiritual activities from becoming empty routine. How do you stay on guard against this tendency toward superstition?

[Photo by flickr user rachdian; used under a Creative Commons license.]

What do you think?

At least several times each year, a Christian leader or politician makes a major, and public, moral mistake. And each time it happens, Christians around the world wonder aloud (or ask on their blogs): what happened? Why wasn’t there a supportive Christian community in this person’s life to identify the moral problem and shepherd them away from sin before it consumed their life and career? Where was the Christian support network?

I wonder if Christians in modern American society feel the tension between accountability and individuality more acutely than our predecessors throughout church history did. Few societies have placed as much value on individuality and personal freedom; and while few of us would call those bad things, they do tend to push us away from the Biblical concept of accountability to the community of believers.

Most of us aren’t public figures. But most of us are vulnerable to the same temptations that bring down high-profile pastors and politicians.

Recent scandals have generated some discussion of accountability groups in Washington, D.C. that aim to help public figures avoid career-ending moral pitfalls. But the concept of an “accountability group” or “accountability partner” can be found in our local church communities. Ed Stezer has a recent post with lists of accountability questions that Christians from John Wesley to Chuck Swindoll have used to try and hold themselves accountable to God and the church. The Church Relevance blog picked up on these accountability questions with some commentary.

What about you? Do you consider yourself accountable? To yourself? To God? To other people in the church? Have you ever, on your own initative, decided that you needed to be accountable to somebody else, and went out and found yourself an accountability partner?

And whether you have an official “accountability” relationship with somebody else or not, what do you do on a regular basis to hold yourself accountable to the Christian faith?