To Judge or Not to Judge?

I will begin this essay with these five quotes:

1. Judge not, ye be judged. The line from the Bible often used by people who don't believe in the Bible.
2. I hate Christians! They are so judgmental! I can't attribute this quote to anyone in particular for I have heard it so often. The last time I heard someone say this was on a radio phone-in show I was listening to via podcast.
3. Judge not, ye be judged judgmental. Writer Florence King's take on people using the line from the Bible to support that their contention that it is bad to be judgmental – the modern sin.
4. They say you shouldn't be judgmental. Well, I say I am fucking judging! Comedian Adam Carolla during a rant about the irresponsibility of parents whose children are on public school lunch and breakfast programs.
5. "One sin I have never had to confess is that I judged anybody." Mother Teresa.

The following encapsulate all the thoughts I can think of about judging. I agree with three out of the five. My initial instincts are not to agree with Quotes #2 and #5.

Quote #2 is easy to dismiss because it is illogical. In saying other people are judgmental, you are making a logical error, because saying someone is judgmental is a judgment and thus being judgmental. Yes, it is judgmental to say someone else is judgmental.

Easily dismissed as you can see, but to be fair, I will try to restate what the many people who say Quote #2 in fact mean. Basically, they disagree with the judgments that Christians make. Fine and Dandy to say so, but the question of whether their basis for making judgments is correct or not is beyond that scope of this essay, though I will admit that I find myself to be more and more in agreement with the judgments Christians make.

But then how is it that I disagree with Quote #5 which is attributed to Mother Teresa? As I said, my instinct would be to disagree with Quote #5. If you asked what I would have said if I didn't know that quote #5 was made by Mother Teresa, I am pretty sure I would have said that quote #5 was balderdash and was probably made by someone who was anti-Christian. How can you not go through life without judging? I would have said and I would have had an accompanying visceral thrill talking like Adam Carolla in quote number #4. I would further have added that the meaning of quote #1 was that if you judge, you must expect that you will be judged yourself, not that you shouldn't judge. And of course, you should operate at a high moral level to be more qualified to judge, but that doesn't mean that your judgment is necessarily wrong. For as clocks are right twice a day, children can see obvious things that adults can't, and we can agree with fools if they happen to be right, we can judge, as long as we are willing to accept the consequences.

Still, I can't disagree with a Saint and go along with a shock jock. I will have to think through my thoughts on judging in light of the Mother Teresa quote.

So! Here I go! Catholics like to say they have the truth on their side. That is, like the great biblical prophets who shouted the truth, Catholics, like Mother Teresa, are supposed to do the same. Catholics also talk of love, and how we must love others. The truth should be said with love.

Now, we live in an era where saying the simple truths can get one in trouble and even get one accused of being judgmental. Adam Carolla is right to say that there is something wrong with parents having to rely on the public school system to feed their children – parents who do are clearly abdicating their responsibilities and really don't love their children. Likewise, Mother Teresa was right to oppose abortion – it is clearly murder of the innocent. Both of Carolla and the Mother would clearly anger some constituency by telling their truths.

But then I must continue on about Carolla. He is a wealthy man who feels that his wealth and his life experiences give him the right to judge others. He does get all holier-than-thou at times, and I believe he is an atheist. He respects hard work and enterprise, which is fine, but he also worships money, and sees it as a pulpit from which he can preach. He will lambast people, judging them as it were, for the pettiest of reasons like on a podcast of his I recently listened to where he discussed encountering a woman who proudly boasted to him that she had a '68 Mustang that she had driven since 1968 and had driven it over 800,000 miles. Why, he said, would he, who owned so many nice cars, want to listen to someone who had a very common car? He mentioned that other people with him at the time were rolling their eyes acknowledging that the woman was slightly monomaniacal bonkers – I suppose this justified making fun of the lady on his show.

Come on! I would say to Carolla. Be nice in the spirit of Mother Teresa! (Though I am sure he would lambast me with many rejoinders that I couldn't quickly respond to.) Clearly there is something not quite right about Carolla's manner of judging. Now that I think about it, he uses the fact of his correct judgments as a means of justifying his mean-spirited ones. And what I suppose initially appealed to me about his judging those delinquent parents so much was that it was unrestrained. We love to just let ourselves screech without guilt, to be loudly and proudly self-righteous. Sometimes, I wish I could be that way, but I so aware of my own failings and weaknesses, and can never forget my pathetic moments and inconsistencies, as well as the fact that I have a small bank account.

So here I am judging Carolla, as I try show that he is a fucking douchebag in comparison to Mother Teresa!

Maybe I should just try to tell the stories of these two people, and just let the stories speak for themselves.

So! To judge or not to judge? Be careful is all I say. Be a truth-teller without destroying anyone personally.

That was to be the essay till I came upon the following aphorism by Don Colcaho, a.k.a. Nicolás Gómez Dávila. The South American sage said the following:

To judge correctly, one must lack principles.

What the heck does that mean? And do I agree with it? It is paradoxical in the Chesterton way, so that leads me to think it must be true. One could argue that Adam Carolla is proof, but let me try to figure out what it means.

Principles, when it comes to behavior, when had, may in fact cause us to act in ways that are against our earthly interests. The principle of admitting we are wrong or that we erred may cause one to lost face and social advantage. How many times have you seen politicians do everything but admit they screwed up? e.g. the Clintons. Well that couple seems to have earned many an advantage and the wife may even become president herself. They took cover and saved their political asses by correctly pointing out that the other side, the Republicans, were seeking political advantage from their troubles. They judged correctly but didn't resign as a principled person in their shoes should have.

Thinking about this, I see how Mother Teresa was correct in her not judging. She could have walked away from many a dying person living in the gutter and said they lived dissolute lives and deserved their fate, but she didn't judge and followed her principle of Loving the person.

But can everyone be a Saint and not judge? I am afraid not. As Colacho implies, it is better to have principles and make incorrect judgments. Love, to employ the cliché, is blind and thus will make all sorts of wrong judgments. The world looked at in a stark light is a place teeming with guilt and sin, and it would be so easy to take advantage of that fact for our earthly advancement.

I conclude by saying that I haven't solved the problem of making judgments for myself and any rare reader who has bothered to read this essay from start to here. Alas, it is paradox that only Love can transcend.