What Would Grandpa Say?
[EGW
editor's note: Published in the July 2014 issue of Think
magazine, used by authors permission.]
You
cant Judge Me!
by Jim Mettenbrink
[printable PDF]
You
cant judge me! People misusing
Jesus own words Judge
not, that you be not judged
(Matthew 7:1) in order to at least intimidate someone
into silence.
To be sure, the context (verses
1-5) of Jesus statement is not about criticism of a persons
belief or behavior, but rather about being a hypocrite
criticizing someone, while sinning in the same way. Making
a judgment or condemning sin was not and is not prohibited by
Jesus. The apostle Paul repeatedly made judgments about
sin and sinners (e.g. 1 Corinthians 5). But have
you ever wondered what gave rise to the popularity of You
cant judge me, or at least not utter your judgment
out loud? Today, this accepted silence is couched
in an all too familiar term.
Hows your PC
working? No, not your personal computer, but Political
Correctness. Through several centuries PC had changing
meanings.
Further, most of us never heard
of it until relatively recently. However, since 1991 the
media have bathed us in its current usage. Although, tired
of hearing the term, I am sorely saddened by its practice, even
by Christians. A broad spectrum of American society has
become one of cowardly and submissive robots following PC! Why?
What has caused this unAmerican
even unChristian
characteristic? Having an understanding of PC will lead
serious Christians to introspection of their beliefs and thereby
prompt each to have the right attitude toward PC and be in harmony
with God.
In his 1991 University of Michigan
commencement address, President George H.W. Bush (198993)
spoke against
a movement that would declare certain
topics off-limits, certain expressions off-limits,
even certain gestures off-limits
. In
effect, his statement announced that a cynical and tyrannical
foe threatened to obliterate the first amendment of the US constitution,
which is now having an impact on Christendom. The warning
had come from the mouth of the highest and most powerful elected
official in the world the US president.
PC has become the cultural standard
of redefined tolerance. At one time tolerance
was the respect of others beliefs and practices even though
a person did not accept them as valid or right. For example,
when I joined the USAF in the mid 1960s, it was only a matter
of days before we were asking about one anothers faith.
All of us were open about it. We obviously did not
agree with one anothers beliefs, but we respected one another
and their right to hold their beliefs. No one ridiculed
the Catholic for making the sign of the cross at the mess hall.
More so, in the days of my childhood, we were taught to
tolerate the unbearable person and his unmannerly, even disrespectful,
behavior. However, in the last couple decades PC has become
the guideline, or rather the hammer and anvil, of what is narrowly
defined as acceptable versus unacceptable speech in almost every
sphere of life. In other words the new tolerance is dictatorial
tyranny. And it is worse than just speech or gestures as
President Bush warned.
Respecting a person, even
one who is abhorrent in character or belief did not arise from
man, but from God. He created all of us with an
eternal spirit. Out of His unfathomable love for all of
us, let alone the most despicable, Jesus sacrificed Himself to
provide a way of reconciliation with God (Romans 5:8-11).
In societies where the Bible has had significant influence,
it became a cultural norm to respect one another because of Jesus
love, even though they disagreed. What would happen
if Jesus, the knowledge of His love, and the Bible were removed
from that society?
That sinister thought began to
slowly infect mankind, especially the Western world, via the
Renaissance which began in Italy in the 1300s. Certainly,
great progress was made in literature, art and architecture,
but it was also a radical shift from glorifying God and living
for Him to mans self indulgence. Europe began the
slow trek of depending upon itself rather than upon God. The
1600s brought the Age of Enlightenment (Age of Reason) and the
influence of Voltaire and Descartes who essentially proclaimed
that although God created this universe, He no longer had any
involvement with it Deism. Man was now on his own.
At the same time the Age of Reason spawned a movement to
criticize the Bible. Exercising Higher Criticism
essentially made man the judge deciding whether the Bible was
from God or man.
The technological progress of the
Industrial revolution (1700s -1800s) made mankind more self sufficient,
prompting him to depend even less upon God, and more upon himself
for the answers of life. The advent of Darwins Origin
of the Species in 1859 took God out of the creator
role and completely naturalized our existence. The supernatural,
i.e., God, was no longer needed.
By the end of the 1800s, higher
criticism had de-constructed the Bible so as to declare that
neither Jesus nor His apostles ever existed, thus the New Testament
is irrelevant. In effect, this endorsed the naturalist
premise that man is his own god.
These premises developing through
several centuries began to come together as a new religion in
the first quarter of the 20th century. In 1918, Curtis
Reese, a Unitarian minister, evolutionist and leader among the
no-God men, stated at an annual Unitarian
Conference that God was philosophically possible, scientifically
unproved and religiously unnecessary. In 1930
Charles Potter, also a Unitarian minister, wrote Humanism:
A New Religion. He stated, Humanism
is not the abolition of religion, but the beginning of real religion.
By freeing religion of supernaturalism, it will release
tremendous reserves of hitherto thwarted power. Although
it was first called Religious Humanism, in time it was renamed
Secular Humanism, attempting to hide the fact that it is a religion.
In 1933, the first Humanist Manifesto
established the foundational beliefs. Humanism made man
his own god, who could make his own ethics and morality. By
the mid 1970s, it was being taught surreptitiously in the high
schools. In 1982, I forbid my 7th grade son from participating
in a series of values clarification classes (read that undermining
parental values class) teaching the kids to decide
for themselves what is right and wrong. Todays teachers
were taught that as students in these public schools and later
were taught in public universities to teach the Humanist doctrine.
Humanism became Americas defacto state religion!
Humanism was spawned within the
context of Modernism which states real truth is determined by
observation (scientific method, etal). Spiritual
and philosophical truths were deemed as not absolute, but relative.
Morals and ethics are not absolute but changing as the
situation dictated. Since man is his own god, making his
own rules, he can change them at any time on any occasion (Situation
Ethics).
If man is his own god, there is
no real sin, only choices. That being the reality, who
could say any one is ever really wrong? You cant
judge me. Enter Political Correctness
For over 20 years, the PC doctrine
has been applied to ensure no one offends another. It is
the watchdog guarding the humanist choices from being offended
by others different choices or beliefs. PC tries
to protect the masses from those who know God and His absolute
ways.
At the same time Postmodernism
began its prominent rise. It has the sense of equality
everything must be equal and equally accepted. For
example the USAF Academy has worship services for Wiccans in
the chapel because it is an equally valid religion. This
principle applied to the religious and moral realm is an anathema,
especially for anyone who believes in Jesus.
Postmodernism, not only dictates
respect for the other persons choice (e.g. immorality),
but you must consider it as equally valid with yours. In
practice, this means a Christian can not say homosexuality is
wrong. It must be considered as valid as heterosexuality.
This explains why there is an increasing opposition to
any semblance of God, Jesus and the Bible in the public realm.
In 1993, Dr Fredrick Hill, a school
administrator, stated, It is the mission of public schools
not to tolerate intolerances. The United Nations
Declaration of the Principles of Tolerance
states, Tolerance
involves the rejection of dogmatism
and absolutism.
Since Jesus said, I am the Way, the Truth
and the Light. No one comes to the Father except through
me (John 14:6),
Postmodernism judges Jesus as unacceptable because He is intolerant
of all other faiths. There is nothing in Christianity which
Postmodernism will tolerate. It now uses government to
force folks to be tolerant celebrate everything as equal
and valid. Examples: (1) In 1995, Samuel Kent, a US District
court judge threatened any student with six months in jail who
would mention the name of Jesus in the graduation prayer. (2)
In 2010 Augusta State University told Jennifer Keeton her belief
that homosexuality is immoral is incompatible with the counseling
profession. She was ordered to undergo diversity sensitivity
training and write about its impact on her beliefs. Todays
PC would be better called PCP (Postmodern Correctness Police).
Postmodernism moved PC from silent disagreement to forced
validation. PC is the silencer and PCP is the handcuffs.
King Solomon wrote, And there is nothing
new under the sun. Is there anything of which it may be
said, See, this is new? It has already been
in ancient times before us
(Ecclesiastes 1:9-10). The principle that everything
is equally valid is not new.
Judahs King Manasseh brought
wholesale idolatry, including homosexual religious rituals (2
Kings 23:7) into Gods temple. All religions were
valid, except Gods. The scriptures were literally
lost (reflecting the disrespect for God), only to be found
by his grandson Josiah, some 20 years later (2 Kings 21-23).
Evidently, Judah had such a Humanist attitude some 100
years earlier. God said Woe to those who call evil good, and
good evil (Isaiah
5:20). There was no right or wrong.
Grandpa says, Know the devil is sly
and often works slowly. Thus to judge righteously, one
must study the Bible to know real right and wrong. And
pray for boldness (Acts 4:29). Parents, its your responsibility
to ensure your children are being reared righteously and not
postmodernly (Ephesians 6:4). Oh
and we are commanded
to judge Do
not judge according to appearance, but judge with righteous judgment (John 7:24).
Thomas Jefferson Memorial
God
who gave us life gave us liberty. Can the liberties of
a nation be secure when we have removed a conviction that these
liberties are the gift of God? Indeed I tremble for my
country when I reflect that God is just, that his justice cannot
sleep forever.
[printable PDF]
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