You don't know me

Since I have been in Norman, I have gone to the same church the last two Sundays. (I've been here a total of 5 Sundays.) I am going to join a small group at this church and it's very likely that I will continue going to this church for a while. Now, the church that I am attending is cutting edge, high production value, good use of multi-media, and worship music that is very well done. It's definitely way ahead of your so-called "contemporary" style of church. Most of the people that attend this church are young families and college students. I haven't seen many people over 40 years old in service. What is the main reason that I began attending this church - it starts at 12:30, and because I'm on a jacked-up sleeping schedule, 12:30 is a good time for worship service.

Right now the pastor is going through a series FAQ (yes, it stands for Frequently Asked Questions). Last week questions were such as: Do I need to get baptized again if I've been baptized as an infant? Why do bad things happen to good people? This week (today), some of the questions asked included: Is it ok for a Christian to get plastic surgery? Will Catholics go to heaven? Why am I supposed to tithe? So the questions are pretty basic, and the pastor will then go on to explain the biblical answer to the questions. During the discussion concerning plastic surgery, some interesting points were made by the pastor. First off, the paster said that he received more questions about plastic surgery than anything else, specifically concerning breast implants. He had some biblical reasons to see cases where plastic surgery would be acceptable and other cases where plastic surgery would not be acceptable. Then he said, don't judge people for haveing cosmetic, you don't know where they've been. He then went on to quote a passage from the Bible which discussed motivation. (I really think he meant don't assume that you know someone's motivations.) This topic caused much thought on my part.

What I think the pastor meant was, don't assume that someone who opts for plastic surgery, does so for the wrong reasons. Which if this is what I meant, I'm in complete agreement. But I couldn't help thinking of Joel Osteen and his claim, don't judge me, you don't know me, and you don't know what I've been through. (I will need to dedicate a post later on to this process of judging and the usually incoherent claims that are made by Joel Osteen when he asserts this.) I'll opt for the charitable interpretation of the pastor today, but what if he did mean something like what Joel Osteen said. Does this mean that my friends shouldn't claim that I ought not to have sex before marriage, because then, they judge me? What if I decide that I want to evangelize the porn industry and they only way to do this is to become a porn producer and make porn movies while sharing the gospel with the actors that I hire, should someone tell me that I ought not to do this? No, because they don't know me and they don't know where I came from. Don't judge me for making porn movies - the Bible says "don't judge." I can make porn movies and be a good Christian - as long as I tithe 10% of the profits I make from my movies to God.

Since my brother died, I have become somewhat apathetic towards God and have tended to hold to a theological determinism. Last week I had a friend somewhat chastise me for what I was doing and told me I needed to pray more. What if I told this friend, "don't judge me, you don't know what I've been through" (which is true) this friend has never lost a sibling, but that doesn't mean that my friend can't share Scripture with me, or that my friend is judging me. I am worried that most Christians are asserting when they say don't judge is really a form of relativism, that all truths are equal. Because if we are not to judge, then we cannot tell someone that Jesus is the only way for salvation, because we then are judging this person's theology and that this person's theology is wrong. Now, I don't think that all Christians believe this and what they really mean when they assert "don't judge" is to approach other people with an attitude of love. Yet, this attitude of don't judge, descends quickly into the slipperly slope of relativism if one holds to the same attitude of Joel Osteen. Now, I'll just repeat myself, I don't think the pastor today ought to be equated with Joel Osteen, but he did set off a chain of thoughts in my mind. Which in turn got me to think more about the person and being of God, and isn't that the job of the preacher after everything is said and done?