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TechnoratiCP: Another legend – Christians shouldn’t judge. Is this a view that Christians hold more or that more non-Christians have?
Osborne: I think it really goes into two extremes. There’s a whole branch of Christianity that’s very judgmental. But if you were to take the man on the street who’s not a Christian and the man or woman who is a Christian but not part of a more extreme political viewpoint, they tend to say live and let live and that somehow it’s wrong to judge anybody. Clearly, we’re not allowed to condemn, that’s God’s prerogative. But in the very passage that people use ‘didn’t Jesus say judge not?’ they forget that he goes on and he didn’t say don’t judge, he said here’s how to judge. Make sure you don’t judge where you have a problem. In fact he follows it immediately with don’t give your pearls to swine. How can I decide whether someone’s swine or not, spiritually, if I’m not judging. In the very next verse he says here’s how to determine a true and a false prophet by their fruit. Well I got to judge to do that. And obviously, Jesus did quite a bit of judging.
The idea that we are not to judge period is a partial truth. The classic example of well let’s read the rest of it. Do not judge when you have the same problem, do not put our Christian judgment on non-believers. But we can’t go through life without making judgment.
< strong>CP: You also say in your book don’t judge if God hasn’t spoken clearly. In the area of homosexuality, for example, some believe the Bible doesn’t address homosexuality specifically. How should Christians approach this issue then?
Osborne: To me I always want to use the scriptures as my measuring guide. I don’t like to put myself in a position where I’m saying God said that but that’s not really what He meant. Or somehow the writers of the New Testament or Jesus himself said things that don’t fit anymore because they were acquiescing to the culture – we’ve all heard that one. They were just fitting in with the culture. That’s ridiculous because if anybody knew how to offend people it was Jesus and the apostles. They were equal opportunity offenders. Any time I look at something and I say in my mind well that was giving in to the culture then because they wouldn’t understand, I go “excuse me, he was killed for not giving into the culture and their legalism and their concepts of the Sabbath.” Same with the apostles.
CP: So would you say Christians do too little judging or too much?
Osborne: I’d say it’s two extremes. We haven’t found a happy middle. There’s an arrogant judgment that’s caused the world to not equate Christians with loving people. And there’s a whole other group of us who’ve misunderstood tolerance because biblical tolerance you have the freedom to be wrong, but we’ve interpreted it to mean everybody’s right. So I see an absence in the happy middle and two extremes, very judgmental and people who were afraid to even agree with Jesus when he calls something sin.
< strong>CP: Next legend – God causes everything that happens. Usually this is a problem with nonbelievers because they blame God for all the suffering in the world. But this is also a widely held belief by Christians?Continue »
