I recently read a comment on a social site that echos a common thinking in our culture today:
Why is it that our government still, after the last 17 years of “don’t ask, don’t tell”, can’t make a decision to lift the ban on gays in the military? I am pretty sure, if I’m reading my Bible correctly, I’m not suppose to judge.
Here was my response:
This is NOT a comment about “don’t ask, don’t tell”; it’s a comment about “the Bible says don’t judge”… something that is repeated ad nauseum today…
What the Bible say and means is “don’t judge… in a manner that will bring judgment on you.” (‘lest you be judged – Matt 7:1-3) Everyone leaves out the second part. It means don’t judge in a way that is 1) hypocritical and 2) that uses your human standards instead of God’s divine standard that are above the pettiness, selfishness and agenda of man.
It is impossible NOT to judge and people don’t stop to think about how illogical that statement is. We judge things constantly, all day, every day: that rapist is evil, the thief is wrong, that liar is doing bad, that jerk who just cut me off and gave me the finger is, well, a jerk. We judge the person who ignores the poor to be callous; the politician who makes false promises is a liar. We make judgments constantly: that was a mean comment, that was an ugly thing to do, you aren’t being kind, that was rude, you’re not very kind, those people are intolerant… I’m right, you are wrong (a judgment).
And the most ironic and obvious judgmental statement of all: You’re being judgmental! Why is that no one realizes they are being judgmental when they call someone judgmental?
The commenter has judged that not lifting the ban on gays in the military is being judgmental because we’re not suppose to judge as Christians. It’s an innocently hypocritical statement. You judge the ban as wrong based on the fact that we shouldn’t judge. The REAL cultural pressure behind this idea is this: we shouldn’t judge CERTAIN THINGS that meet current politically correct or social off limit criteria which of course homosexual politics is one. They seek to judge EVERYONE who does not rubber stamp their agenda while self-righteously crying “don’t judge” in the face of any opposition, disagreement or anything less than total acceptance and promotion. That, my friends, is exactly the type of hypocritical judging the Bible definitively condemns.
So the real question is this: how do we PROPERLY judge the issue of “don’t ask, don’t tell” without being hypocritical and according to God’s eternal, transcendent standard rather than our own vacillating and unpredictable human standards?
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at 7:16 am
If I may “make a judgement here” and go out on the limb and ask a question:
How would you feel if you knew, “that National Guardsman over there with the fully automatic M-16 machine gun with fully loaded 20 round magzines of ammunition had been highly trained in the technique’s of warfare but, you know without a doubt, he has a debased mind. Because you asked them or because they told you so. Would you feel safe and secure knowing this individual was loaded for bear but had a debased mind? Is there a chance they might “Wig Out” and start shooting? Exactly how stable is an individual with a debased mind? Or maybe the question should be, How un-stable? Should we trust them with our very lives?
at 9:12 am
That’s an easy one. I “judge” the KKK because they are wrong. I am not judging them in a way where I will be judged, I am standing up for righteousness, they are wrong in the eyes of God and of our country’s laws. The ban in the military, where I am judging an organization rather than an individual or a group with like-minded morals and beliefs, is also against God (tell me where it says in the Bible “gays” can’t fight in battle? Did I miss that verse?) and calling them out for ridicule is ok with God? Seriously? and it is also against our own Constitution where “all men are created equal”.
And here’s a question: So God doesn’t want gays in the military because they might act out on their preferences… but it’s perfectly ok to throw a bunch of criminal men in small cells together where all kinds of immoral things occur but that’s ok because… ummm…. oh, that’s where the don’t ask don’t tell comes in…
at 10:13 am
Isn’t the KKK a “an organization rather than an individual or a group with like-minded morals and beliefs”? Yet you judge them. Could it be that the judging the KKK doesn’t invoke the wrath of anyone (aka, it’s not politically incorrect) but judging ANY aspect of the homosexual agenda does (which is the poster definition of political correctness)?
Who is calling anyone out for ridicule? The military won’t accept a long list of people for a long list of reasons. Are they calling out for ridicule the guy with epilepsy or missing a leg because they won’t take them either? The historical reasons for not accepting homosexuals (besides the 200 years it was considered a lapse of moral judgment, HOW BARBARIC…) is because of the tension and distraction of sexual attraction in combat situations where you have to eat, sleep, change clothes, shower, undress and lose all privacy in front of someone who might be sexually aroused by it. Like it or not, vast amounts of soldiers are uncomfortable with homosexuals. The military is not SOCIAL EXPERIMENT nor should it be governed by political correctness. It should be run by one rule: how you do put together the most effective fighting force in the world to defend the freedom of the U.S.? I was a Drill Sgt for 10 years. I know a little bit about this. People make this a “homosexual” issue, instead of a “what is best for the military” issue.
Ever heard of “straw man” arguments? It’s making up one argument that supposedly supports the current one in question. Your “men in cells” argument is so utterly irrelevant on so many fronts it doesn’t merit serious response. BR
at 10:18 am
Debased mind? C’mon Richard… that’s cave man thinking. You KNOW there is absolutely nothing immoral, abnormal or questionable about anything that concerns the homosexual agenda, lifestyle or motives. Right? You know that, right? You HAVE been listening to culture ram that down your throat for that least 20 years, right? What are you, some sort of religious fanatic neanderthal???? You don’t actually think that archaic, mistranslated, misinterpreted stuff in the Bible about God calling homosexuality a sin, a perversion, is true do you? You need to wake and join the enlightened masses of “hope and change”.
at 7:41 pm
I am who I am. Whether a homosexual male or heterosexual woman makes sexual advances toward me does not change me. Whether I arouse them, unless I’m trying to, does not endanger me. I’m too old to get ‘foxy’ but in years gone by, my sexual instincts were subject to arousal by attractive women. Should I have been banned from society? If so, society would have few males at large. Yes, if I acted on my impulses. Unless the homosexual acts on their impulse they are no more danger to me than heterosexual women.
The truth is, homophobia is driven by fear of God’s judgment more than fear of the homosexual individual. Those same sections of scripture that condemn homosexual acts also condemn improper heterosexual actions, as well as a whole list of other abnormallities or activities.
I have to bite my tongue to keep from questioning my friends, who I know are promiscuos heterosexuals or divorced and remarried, when they condemn homosexuals and declare God’s condemnation on them. I kind of have to wonder if that is not what Jesus was addressing, when He said “judge not lest ye be judged and condemned”. I think maybe I’ll just let God judge the sexual morals of my fellowman and work side by side with all men or women regardless of their sexual orientation.