Judgement or Judgementalism?

On my principle of never wasting a piece of writing, here's this month's attempt for the church magazine.

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The other day I heard someone quote the text 'Judge not lest ye be judged' in a way that seemed to imply something along the lines of 'Don't disagree with my beliefs and I won't disagree with yours'.

On the other hand, some people seem to feel that the world has become a hostile place for Christians and that to express any conviction other than 'anything goes' is no longer permissible in wider society. Some Christians seem to be asking the question: 'Don't we have a right to express our views just much as anyone else? Why is that it we are seen as being judgemental when we stand up for what we believe?'

I often joke that my 'easy answer' is 'there is no easy answer' and this seems to be one of those situations. I offer this article as a think-piece in the expectation that not everyone will agree with me but perhaps it will start an interesting conversation.

To begin, you'll probably not be surprised that I believe that Christians do have a right to express our faith and our views. Indeed, I believe that Scripture tells us that we have an obligation to do so.

Of course, in a democratic society, other people also have the right to express their views. Here is where I expect some possible disagreement: I think that Christians risk being seen as judgemental when we fall into the trap of thinking that the wider would should agree with us and when we become become outraged when people don't. Sometimes the Christian media gives me the impression that it it never occurred to us that people of other faiths (or even of no faith) might have given quite a bit of thought to their position and come up with a sincerely-held and strongly-held view that is very different from our own.

When I was an adolescent, I was puzzled to be told by adults in the church 'There are no questions about faith that are out of bounds' and then to find that people got angry with my questions. Many years later, I realised that I wasn't supposed to ask questions like 'Why do we believe this?' I was supposed to ask the question 'What is the right answer to my question?'. Then, I was supposed to accept the church's answer and go away and believe as everyone else did.

I sometimes get the impression that the Christian Church has this attitude toward witnessing. It seems that we naively expect to put forward our point of view and have it gladly received. We get frustrated and maybe even angry when our seeds of wisdom fall on rocky soil, as Jesus said that some of them would most certainly do.

Scripture also tells us that no one can profess faith in Jesus as Lord except by the Holy Spirit. It's our duty as Christians to witness to the Gospel in the same way that a witness to an accident tells the court what she saw. But, just as the witness in court cannot control the court's decision, it's not our job to change the hearts of people: that's God's job. I think it's when we begin think that we must change people's hearts that we risk being seen as judgemental.

In witnessing to the Christian faith, there will inevitably be some people who see us as being judgemental; as the saying goes, 'You can't please all of the people all of the time'. There are many people in our society who think that to have a strongly-held religious conviction or belief is necessarily to be judgemental. As the person did the other day, they might quote 'Judge not lest ye be judged' in that way.

However, biblical judgement is not about having strong convictions, it's about judging someone as worthy or unworthy of being in God's Kingdom. The bible also tells us that this kind of judgement is not for us to do but is to be left to God.

Let's not fall into the world's trap of believing that to have a strongly-held view on a matter of faith or ethics or morality is to be 'judgemental'. As we come into Lent, we will need to see clearly in order to turn again and walk in God's direction. We cannot walk in God's direction if we don't have a clear idea of what constitutes godliness.

But let's also recognise that what God asks of us is to tell our story to others, to give witness to what we have seen and experienced of God. Let's recognise that it is not up to us to convert people or to change their hearts. Equally let's walk with peace, patience, kindness and gentleness toward others and leave the final judgement to God.

Differing Gifts

Thinking about The Holy Spirit, I loved the following idea from this post over at Ship of Fools:

There is 'hot' ecstasy and there is 'cool' ecstasy. Often those who are into 'cool' despise what they see as the hysterical, over-emotional expressions of the 'hot' and those who are into 'hot' despise what they see as the insipidness and tepidness of the 'cool'. It's sad. Why should we need to judge other people in these ways?

There is universal truth about the Christian life in that statement. How many times have I heard one side or the other denigrating the practice that wasn't theirs? For me, one of the good things about Methodism is that by and large the 'hot' and the 'cool' people do manage to see Christ in each other and to hold each other as brothers and sisters. Each of us has our own gifts; this is biblical truth.

Methodism: Dissing is Futile, Vision is Everything

I've been an amateur practitioner of Ignatian Spirituality since my undergraduate years at a Jesuit University in the 1970s. I don't claim to be an expert, by any means, although I've made some study of Ignatian Spirituality for my own devotional purposes.

The thing that I really like about Ignatian spirituality is that it actually provides fairly simple, common-sense guidelines for spiritual discernment. How do I find God in ordinary situations? How do I know that it's God talking and not The Enemy?

The principle is simple although the practice of the principle most certainly is not. Using Protestant Evangelical language: a committed, saved Christian who is genuinely trying to seek the will of God will find energy and motivation when he seeks to do the will of God. The Enemy will not normally tempt a committed Christian by trying to get him to perform blatently sinful acts. The Enemy will tempt a committed Christian by presenting him with apparently 'Godly' options. Jesus' temptation in the desert fits this model well.

One way that I suspect that The Methodist Church in Great Britian may be falling into the temptation of The Enemy (define her / him as you will; I believe) is our constant talking ourselves down. As an organisation, we have very effectively communicated the message to both our members and to the general public that we are dying, that we are useless, that we are ineffective and that we have nothing to offer. In other words, we have been very, very, VERY effective in 'dissing' ourselves. Everyone is now 'on message' with this, including the secular media.

I believe, in fact, that Methodism has a great deal to offer the world. By history and tradition our rendition of the Gospel is a very powerful 'vision statement': The Kingdom of God. A Kingdom that is: 1) now and 2) not yet. 1) A 'now' kingdom that we are called to work for in our discipleship in this life; 2) A future, eschatological, 'supernaturally'-initiated Kingdom that will come when God decides and by his mighty hand mediated by the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

This is a vision that I can get excited about; I don't understand why we are not holding this vision before the Church at every opportunity.

The human mind does not work well in negatives. We will not inspire anyone - members or others - by constantly talking ourselves down. If we keep saying that we are useless, then this will become a self-fulfilling prophecy just like the little boy whose parents tell him he will never amount to anything. Hold before the Methodist people an image of a dying, gospel-less denomination and we will become that dead thing.

I genuinely believe that by and large Methodists and Methodism know what the Gospel is. My challenge to us is to hold this vision of the The Kingdom of God constantly before each other and before ourselves. Whenever we are tempted to say 'We are useless because our numbers are declining', I hope we can hold Christ and the vision of the Gospel before each other to encourage one another. I hope we can stop repeating our narratives of discouragement.

This is not a call to complacency. It is, in fact, a call to action and a call to stop using our energy to discourage ourselves and one another but rather to encourage each other and to work for the Kingdom. Who knows what God's purposes are? This may be a time when we are being called to patience and perserverence so that God may do things we cannot even imagine in the future.

Another Profile

Another Church in our Circuit asked me to write a personal profile for their newsletter. I thought I'd reproduce it below as I always like knowing a little bit more about people. And heck, why let a piece of writing go to waste? If this is of no interest to you, feel free to ignore it!

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During the autumn of 2003, I applied for Foundation Training, thus beginning a period of discernment in partnership with The Methodist Church. At the time, T***** and I were living in Barnet, North London and I was attending Trinity Church Enfield, a large church that is a combined Methodist / URC LEP (Local Ecumenical Partnership).

My journey to ministry did not begin with a flash of lightening or an email from God (God’s will should be so clear!), rather it was simply an inkling that I should start walking in the direction of ministry and see where the journey took me. It was a case of pushing a door to see if it opened and then moving on to test the next door. I think that God requested this gradual process because I’m a person who likes to know exactly where I am going and how I’m going to get there. God did not allow this particular journey to be so clear and I was asked to walk by faith a bit more than I would have liked!

Perhaps I was not the most obvious candidate for Methodist ministry; I have only been a Methodist member since 2000, having previously been a member of an Anglican church, an ecumenical church with a URC affiliation, and the Lutheran church in the United States. Let’s not even talk about the fact that I got my first degree in theology in 1979 from a Roman Catholic university! However, the Formation in Ministry Office made sure I was thoroughly “Methodised” before shipping me out into Circuit and my ecumenical credentials are obviously second to none. Prior to arriving in Kidderminster, I studied full time for a year at Wesley House, Cambridge, completing the course-work for an MA in Pastoral Theology and I am currently working on my dissertation.

I “retired” from my secular work in 2005, having spent 22 years working in pensions, 18 years of which were in the UK. I came to the UK in 1989 from Brussels to work for B****** ******’s Pension Fund and in 1995, I joined a company called M*****, a consulting firm that helps employers structure their employees’ pension schemes. I very much enjoyed this work and I feel very lucky and blessed to have been able to work for two excellent firms in this country. I also feel very blessed to have been called to ministry in mid-life and I hope that I can bring some of my past experience and skills into this new calling (although please note for future reference that I have no desire to be Treasurer of anything!).

Although I was raised in a Christian home and even went to a Christian primary school, my own faith journey has not been particularly smooth. There was a time in my life when I did not consider myself a Christian because I felt that being a Christian involved believing 613 impossible propositions before breakfast. I sometimes envy people who say that they had a happy, loving, Christian upbringing but I also recognise that some of the “wrestling” that I have done with both God and – more especially with the Church – has helped me to talk to other people about faith. I have learned that God is faithful and that there are no questions, doubts or struggles that are off-limits to God; after all, God invented these minds of ours that enquire and struggle after Truth and Goodness.

T***** and feel privileged to have come to Kidderminster. We find the community and the Circuit to be friendly and welcoming and we thank you all for your warm welcome and your friendship. It is my prayer that, as a Circuit and a section, we can continue to strive to discern God’s will for us and I thank you all for your patience and your assistance as I learn the ropes of being a new minister.