Thinking about Discernment and Judgment

I'm very aware of the tension between discerning the truth and judging others that makes many, if not most, people uncomfortable. So-called fundamentalist and evangelical Christians are frequently perceived as being "too quick to judge" others, or even one another. Main-line denominations may have more problems with erring on the other side of the issue - failing to speak truth or use the Word, at all, for fear of being perceived as "not nice", "not friendly", "unloving", or "judging" others. I know leaders in a main-line denomination who don't want others to tell Scriptural truth, who don't want to hear truth, and who fail to speak truth, at all, because they perceive truth-telling as judgmental.

I'm going to toss a thought into the ring that occurred while I was mulling over this during my times with the Lord the last couple of days. I believe the above dilemma involves a grave misunderstanding - on both sides - of "judging" and "judgment."

Discernment: Christians need to speak the truth according to the Word, and Christians need to discern the "signs of the times", the presence of ungodly or counter-biblical practices in ourselves and one another, because to fail to speak truth is to fail to love others as God loves us. God, God's Son, Jesus, and God's servants (prophets and apostles) always called a spade, "a spade"!

Judgment: Let me suggest this idea that has held up so far in my studies (James 4, Matthew 7 and my understanding of the Hebrew, mishpat). Judgment is the decision of the Judge to render consequences to the guilty. Judging involves acting on the awareness of guilt, or the perception of guilt according to some legal standard. That legal standard may/may not be God's standard, in real life, because we frequently get our own personal laws mixed in with God's.

Pro-Discernment: Christian discernment is normed by Scripture. Christians must discern truth from lie, reconciliation from cessation of warfare, repentance from highly glossed words and pretense, the faithful follower from the facade of the religious. No Christian can succeed at godly discernment where they have failed to come under God's own discerning eye, repented, received the pain of consequences, and picked up his/her own cross to follow Jesus. (Being human, it's easy to believe our own self-deception that we don't have to do the hard and humbling stuff ourselves in order to be able to see clearly what's happening with others -- cf. Matt.7:4-5.)

Anti-Human-Judgment: Where Jesus, Paul and James, as well as the OT prophets, drew the line, is against the times when we decide to impose consequences on the other. We're not the Judge, James said, so we should not "speak evil against" or "slander" one another. Speaking evil against, or slandering one another is an act of human judgment; we're deciding what consequences to impose for whatever the offense was and we're carrying it out. We judge others when we impose the penalty on them, and in so doing, distrust that God will be the One Judge. Separation from one another, divorce and alienation are also signs of judgment. This judgment, then, is an act of faithlessness.

Discerning truth from lie and speaking truth, on the other hand, is essential to being a faithful Christian, and needs always to stem from a humble heart that serves God and others. Anger isn't antithetical to humility, by the way, because Jesus, the apostles and prophets surely were angry at those who abused the powerless and poor! However, anger is not justification for slandering or demeaning the other created in God's image.

Truth hurts -- the sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God will always cut us. Our faith may be first evidenced in standing still under God's sword, facing the ugliness of who we are - broken and ugly in sin without Godself, and trusting that the pain we feel is only God's faithfulness in dividing death from new life. Thanks be to God whose Son Jesus gives us the assurance that we may know new life because of his sacrifice and resurrection!

We should be seeking faithful brothers and sisters in Christ who won't fail to tell us the truth while always standing under the truth of the Word with us. In other words, truth-tellers don't abandon others, don't slander others, do give grace and forgiveness, but may face being abandoned themselves, being slandered, being unforgiven, and harmed by those unwilling to face the truth with us. None of the latter should prevent us from loving them enough to speak truth and offer grace -- we are the Body of Christ!

1. in response to Larry Kamphausen's comment: Larry made a comment about the discernment/judgment blog I wrote that adds "time" as an element. I agree with him, particularly because we're naturally so impatient with one another. Thank you, Larry, for pointing this out! If we consider that the metaphor of fruit is frequently used in the discernment process of godly and ungodly paths both by Jesus (Luke 6) and Paul, it reminds us that our posture of love-which-is-patient-and-kind allows the evidence to mature and waits for the "kairos"/season to speak. Remembering that our attitude and posture of humble servants to God and to others is essential to keeping us Christ-centered.

At peace or war within ourselves

Last week I had one of those encounters with a very angry person that leaves one wondering, "what was that about?" Since our house church has been studying James together, my thoughts went back to some of the verses, and I realized that 4:1 is translated differently in various versions. "Those conflicts and disputes among you, where do they come from? Do they not come from your cravings that are at war within you?"

Although the "you" is plural in the Greek throughout the verse, there is the implication in the second clause that warring within ourselves leads to disputing with others. Perhaps your anecdotes and observations may differ from my own (and from James', cf. 3:13-4:12), but I don't recall ever meeting a peace-filled person who seeks confrontation not conversation; however, I have met folks who avoid all confrontation and still lack peace themselves. Obviously, confrontation or avoidance don't produce peace in and of themselves. What does?

Jesus said, "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God." (Matt. 5:9) Jesus was a teller of truth (aka "prophet") which is an uncomfortable and dangerous position in a world filled with people wedded to the status quo, the system, and its supporting structures. Making peace, according to scripture, has more to do with encouraging one another to face the truth than with approving of, maintaining, protecting, giving in to, avoiding, dominating or manipulating one another. The sword of the Spirit is the Word of God, according to Paul (Eph. 6), although human wielding of the Word isn't always Spirit-led, as most of us have witnessed! (but I digress...) The gospel of peace is proclaimed with the sword of the Word, and that sword cuts both ways -- we have to lose our lives in order to wield it (Matt. 10:34-39).

Perhaps Arthur Frank's "Dialogical Stoic" is an apt descriptor for some of us. (The Renewal of Generosity: Illness, Medicine and How to Live) I find it helpful. The stoic is able to receive or refuse true or false representations of his/her self when others cast them onto him/her. (cf., Eph. 6:16, the shield of faith) But, the dialogical aspect of Frank's stoic always seeks to remain in conversation with the other, recognizing value and worth despite the other's possible misrepresentations of the stoic. (James 3:17-18)

For those of us who follow Christ's way, we can face the truth about ourselves and the ways we've been hooked into unhealthy systems, while knowing that our turning toward God by the power of the Spirit results in forgiveness. When others who remain hooked cast their representations onto us, we should know God, the Word and ourselves well enough to know what is true or not about that representation. Hear any truth, let go of anything false, stand in Christ, respond with grace and truth (not with carnal weaponry like name-calling, anger, ad hominen attacks...). This is our call to humility and maturity - a tall order which seems possible (at least to me!) only when I'm walking in the power of the Holy Spirit.

At what price "order"?

Perhaps news reports about abusive treatment of the poor and of women have highlighted this issue in my mind. James said that our conflicts (verbal and physical) begin in the unfulfilled desires raging within us. (1:14-15, 4:1-3) Prof. Boaz Johnson (North Park University) recently wrote about the enslavement and maltreatment of the lower castes by the higher castes, while reflecting on the movie which story had echoes in his own childhood, Slumdog Millionaire. http://www.covchurch.org/cov/news/item6917 A World Focus segment on female genital mutilation in Africa and subsequent conversation with an African friend reminded me how girls and women have been harmed, deformed permanently, and sometimes killed by this procedure. http://worldfocus.org/blog/2009/03/09/full-show-march-9-2009/4349/ Is protecting one's daughters from genital mutilation or social ostracism and public humiliation if it's refused grounds for refugee status in the US?

I happen to be working in an environment that orders by alphabet soup -- i.e., when one walks down the halls of this institution, past dozens of offices, each name plate has the person's name, followed by title and the acronmyn for every degree and certification achieved. Somehow, I think my grandfather, a college President who believed education to be a guarantor of "equality of opportunity for all," would have been sorely disappointed to see how humans have wielded their educational credentials to aggrandize one's position, and to batter others' self-worth.

Whether order is cemented by circumstance of birth family, by gender, by educational or experiential credentials, by personality or charisma or appearance, by race or ethnicity, or by physical power, makes no difference to biblical prophets. God's ordering is the antithesis of ours: we serve an upside-down God - or, rather, we have been up-ended by our sin and God is the only upright One!

So, to the co-worker or boss who objects to the "disorderliness" of kindness and patience, our faith responds with a graceful "no" to reorient the process toward love, care and service of one another. We're called to look to the interests of others, to deny ourselves, to have the mind of Christ, who served us even to the cross. In the face of one who demeans any other person, we respond with love and grace toward that one, a re-affirmation and reminder within ourselves of Whom we serve, and we continue to stand for the good news of God's value and worth of the other person. May we not back down in the face of the threat, whomever the person threatening us may be!

We're simply afraid of God's ordering of love. We think we'll lose position, wealth, status, or worth. Where's the faith of Jesus Christ whom we claim to follow?
Psalm 56:10-11

In God, whose word I praise,

in the LORD, whose word I praise,

in God I trust; I am not afraid.

What can a mere mortal do to me?

how are the rich boasting now?

We've been studying the book of James for the last couple of months. It's remarkable how timely it is - proving, once again, that there's nothing new under the sun. One of the crucial mistakes that each generation makes is thinking that we know better than those who lived before us. We won't make those mistakes that they did in the last big economic bust; this time is different because of technology / education / free markets /whatever. It's as if we forget that humans are humans, likely to be greedy when markets float on the hot air of the arrogant, and likely to be fearful when uncertainty and losses burn hotter and spread faster than we can hose them down.

Reading James in these times is remarkable because we can hear prophetic words in a book considered to be "wisdom literature" by most scholars. Consider the messages to the rich and poor in the 5 short chapters. The rich should "boast in being brought low" (ch. 1) and not "in [their] arrogance." (ch.4) They should weep and wail for the miseries that are coming because their riches have rotted, and their gold and silver have rusted (ch.5).

James 2 chastises people who fawn over the rich and demean the poor ("maybe the poor haven't worked out enough to pull themselves up by their boot straps, or they're just lazy", they say). In ch. 3, James could very well be warning trash-talking TV & radio hosts how their words have contributed to the whole cycle of nature being set alight. Their tongues are likened to the venom of poisonous snakes, or the ember that sets a forest alight and which is set on fire by hell. Why do so many people who believe themselves to worship Jesus Christ tune their radios and TV's to these hosts? There are ways to speak truth without fanning flames of polarization and division.

The irony of claiming to be Christian while failing to honor others, verbally and in actions, made in the image of God shows up throughout this letter. These are the "hearers [of the word] who deceive themselves", who "look at themselves in a mirror...and, on going away, immediately forget what they are like...[they are] hearers who forget." (ch.1) Their so-called "religion" is worthless.

James spoke to Christians in the midst of furor and upheaval with the certainty of one walking closely with Godself. Patience, endurance, meekness, peacefulness, mercy, purity, gentleness, truthfulness, humility, compassion, and wisdom characterize the "doers of the word...those who look into the perfect law of liberty, and persevere...doers who act - they will be blessed in their doing." Being patient in suffering is a sign of trust in the Lord. How short-term is human focus! Always has been, always will be! Endure this time, patiently, and keep looking to the Lord, remembering the prophets and believers who've trusted the Lord through their own traumatic times and dangers. In this time of fear, frustration, and anger at being defrauded by the rich, James calls us to worship God, to take care of one another, to feed the widow and the orphan, to work patiently and diligently, to pray for wisdom from God and for healing of one another.

Finally, his advice to the rich is to weep and wail - most of us hear those words as "you'll get yours!" Rather, I believe he is calling them to repent of their fraud, their hoarding of wealth to the deprivation of the poor, and their failure to do what they know is right. (ch.4:13-5:6) The truth, for James, is that those who fail to do the word, who fail to persevere in blessing everyone made in the image of God, are those who've "condemned and murdered the righteous one, who does not resist you."

How many pastors have been partial to the wealthy over the elderly, the poor, the widows, and the lonely? Whom have they been serving?

the effects of denying the wrongs

Penny Coleman, in her book Flashback on PTSD, suicide and war, noted that the veterans of war and their families would have benefited had the military and their caring arms acknowledged the correlations other countries have begun admitting already (e.g., Australia & the UK). The families of vets who'd committed suicide could have dealt with the aftermath of their loved one's death. "Instead of compassion in our time of grief, we got the bottom line. A simple public acknowledgment when the patterns began to be observed, when the numbers started coming in, that suicide is often a direct result of combat PTSD, would have profoundly changed our expectations, our inclination to seek help, and the load of guilt and failure we have lugged around ever since. ...We thought we were alone. We were exhausted. We had no proof." (p. 146) Fear of being inundated with claims for service which would tax the physical & mental health system overrode honesty and integrity in medical and psychological studies of combat veterans.

From the perspective of the Christian faith, institutional obfuscation is clearly a failure to confess the truth. As most victims of corporate or institutional wrongdoing know, the first "wrong" or error is often not as painful as the ongoing denial of complicity, culpability or responsibility by leaders or others in that corporate group. What would happen had a leader clearly stated the obvious, for instance, that Agent Orange caused a host of physical illnesses in vets who were exposed to it in Vietnam? or, that higher rates of suicide and PTSD have been linked in combat vets? Even the UN has noted that their own peacekeeping forces are at higher risk in both short and long term (Coleman, 146).

Does fear of the cost prevent us from loving and serving our neighbor with the truth? As individuals, and as groups and systems? How small our trust in God is when we let the potential cost determine our commitment to God and neighbor! Perhaps, too, the admission of mistakes or poor judgment might very well lower the end cost. There will always be people who try to litigate, of course, but the very non-admission of wrongdoing or guilt is what frequently inspires people to litigate. Litigants, not infrequently, simply want to force the confession that hasn't been simply profferred. What costs more, one wonders: cover-up, denial, and litigation? or, acceptance, apology, and reasonable redress?

In terms of trust in the greater system, the latter can inspire hope and cooperation, a sense of relief and acceptance, a willingness to work for solutions. Making excuses, rationalizing, and covering-up errors of commission, omission and ignorance, on the other hand, divides us from one another and also divides us within ourselves. The mental costs to the sufferer can be very high, and, our Christian faith proclaims, the spiritual costs to the wrong-doer escalate and snowball, too, to themselves, their families, and their communities. (cf. Psalm 73)

Perhaps one of the most profound lessons veterans teach us is how vulnerable and fragile we are, ultimately, despite all our armor, impervious masks, weaponry, power to destroy, or money. Love and truth walk hand in hand, confessing and healing.

paradoxical myths in vets

I've another book to add to my lengthy list of books to read: Recalling our Own Stories: Spiritual Renewal for Religious Caregivers, by Edward Wimberly. Wimberly discusses the myths that we bring from our families and experiences into our vocation. In our cohort's discussion of Wimberly's material, I realized there is a commonality in the myths revealed in veterans' stories and the literature on PTSD. Two myths, especially, seem to be dialectically related in stories I hear:
1) as one would expect in a volunteer-based military, particularly one that markets itself to young men and women, there is a myth of invulnerability. Many of these young people, and the military establishment itself, act on a belief that being vulnerable is a liability. Vulnerability is associated with weakness and imperfection. The very admission of psychic wounds is an admission of vulnerability that runs counter to the promotional ladder, and not uncommonly will knock one off that ladder altogether. Bravado is applauded and rewarded, and it manifests differently in men and women. The cultivation and utilization of anger to fuel bravado and action is frequently present in military activity.

2) on the other hand, there is a myth of powerlessness that is manifested in the top-down hierarchy of many organizations, and which is exemplified by military structure. The men and women express little control over their coming and going, their destination, their missions, and the outcomes of those missions. For the vet whose PTSD manifests in anger or intermittent rage that makes it difficult to hold down a job in the civilian marketplace, there may be the option of ongoing employment with some branch of the military -- at the "price" of staying in the reserves, and the "risk" of being re-deployed. For the national guardswo/man whose trauma and fear manifest in magical thinking, the coping mechanism may be a "religious" avoidance of certain places on base that are identified with higher risk of being mortared. (unguided weapons) Another person on that same base may ignore all the sirens and take-cover warnings, revealing by inaction an operating belief that the ignoring wards off the danger. There's an innate passivity in each of these soldiers to their experiences of powerlessness over themselves and their situations, coupled with a methodology of coping that is implausible, illogical, &/or incapable of personal agency.

In the context of pastoral care, the first myth is certainly an obstacle, although some vets may reveal to a chaplain what they may not confide in a mental health worker (or vice versa). Exposing either myth carelessly might unbalance someone who is already fragile, even though that myth ultimately isn't serving the person well.

I noted a startling disconnection in a presentation that compared Compassion Fatigue and PTSD. A primary indicator of risk for CF is the lack of control over one's environment; gaining a sense of control over the caregiving environment is also a primary factor for preventing CF.

The high incidence of PTSD in the Vietnam War vets has been directly attributed by psychiatrists and care-givers to the powerlessness that many soldiers felt over their missions, their placement in combat units without integration or training with fellow soldiers, and their distance from officers, among other factors. The breakdown of military command structures in Vietnam, the fragging of officers, and the increasing incidence of military "refusal" (i.e., mutiny) contributed as much or more to the US withdrawal than the anti-war movement in the US.

Should the military not anticipate PTSD as "normal" rather than "abnormal"? Military order always risks increasing powerlessness down the lines of command. I'd surmise that it's the rare commanding officer who gives authority and agency to his/her subordinates. Would that even be taught? It's rare enough that the medical caregivers attending the seminar wondered what increasing "control over the caregiving environment" might look like in practice.

This is no different than the typical corporate command structure, many ecclesiastical orders, churches, and families too, by the way!

Humans seem to be born with another myth; I'd name this myth the myth of control. That myth would reveal itself in the constant domination/manipulation, ruling/submitting, that characterizes most human interactions. In the military setting, it manifests in blinkered following of orders, regardless of what those orders may comprise. It manifests in the coping mechanisms mentioned above on the base under fire; avoiding certain areas gives one person a sense of control, just as ignoring the sirens gives the other person that same sense. In churches, it manifests in biblical ignorance and idol-creation. (Note: I'm using idol so as not to offend any polity more than another!) Idols are the infallible church leaders who may be present in every type of church polity, whether that be an episcopal, presbyterian, congregational, or independent church polity. The followers believe this myth, and the leader nurtures it by fear, intimidation, charisma, or power-abuse. It looks like this in action: Our leader always speaks with the voice of "god." Do not question him/her. Their position, alone, makes biblical authority irrelevant. Their actions and knowledge are above us, unaccountable to us, unquestionable by us, and they always know better. They hear god "better" than we can (so many of us don't even talk/listen to god). If you dare to question them, or if you dare to point out something inconsistent between profession and action (hypocrisy!), you will be penalized, perhaps even crucified. If you note the hypocrisy of the leader, the only appropriate action, according to this dysfunctional system, is to shut up and go along, or disappear out of the system.

An African friend, today, told me of a myth that manifests in his culture in a similar way: older men are never wrong, never questioned, and never confronted. To tell an older man that he lied, erred or deceived in some manner may bring civil penalties of a fine, or possibly a jail sentence to the younger person. Some families in this country manifest that same myth, and the enforcing of this myth is accomplished through verbal abuse and domestic violence.

Does your family or church or workplace offer value and worth in their affirmation of you? Do they grant you an atypical sense of participatory "control" by their welcome of you and your unique talents, experiences, and contributions in that structure? If you feel powerless, what might you do or say constructively to promote change?

the name change

It didn't take a week for me to change the name of the blog! There were three reasons: first, I was still trying to figure out how this blog page sets up; second, I realized there are a lot of folks who have the "muse"; and third, my commitment to Jesus Christ is evidenced in my commitment to the church - which is the Body of Christ. The Body of Christ is where we experience what it means to serve and love God and neighbor, where we become truly human, and our soul is restored.

It's not an overstatement to say that the church is "called out" of the world to be the community of the reconciled and the reconciling. We are reconciled to God in Christ, and we should experience reconciliation to one another under the Word in the church. Yet, I'm sure that most Christians, if not all of us, would raise our hands if asked whether we had not experienced reconciliation and restoration of our souls in one or more institutions called "churches." In my work as a chaplain, I frequently hear the words, "I'm a Christian [or "I'm spiritual"] but I don't/ won't go to any church, because _[insert story of abuse, gossip, deceit, petty cliques, money-grubbing (real or perceived), betrayal or political machinations here]__."

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, in his book, Life Together, noted that this behavior reveals the absence of community gathered by the Holy Spirit in genuine spiritual love.
"Human love has little regard for the truth. It makes the truth relative, since nothing, not even the truth, must come between it and the beloved person. Human love desires the other person, his company, his answering love, but it does not serve him. On the contrary, it continues to desire even when it seems to be serving. ...Human love cannot tolerate the dissolution of a fellowship that has become false for the sake of genuine fellowship, and human love cannot love an enemy, that is, one who seriously and stubbornly resists it. Both spring from the same source: human love is by its very nature desire - desire for human community. So long as it can satisfy this desire in some way, it will not give it up, even for the sake of truth, even for the sake of genuine love for others. But where it can no longer expect its desire to be fulfilled, there it stops short - namely, in the face of an enemy. There it turns into hatred, contempt, and calumny.
"Right here is the point where spiritual love begins. This is why human love becomes personal hatred when it encounters genuine spiritual love, which does not desire but serves..." (pp. 34-35)

Our churches should be offering hope, healing, restoration and reconciliation to God and one another by the power of the Holy Spirit, the presence of Christ in our midst. We certainly can't offer this only with our human nature and abilities!