Why are the most religious people often the most judgmental?
"Oh, don’t worry; we wouldn’t dare say that we are as wonderful as these other men who tell you how important they are! But they are only comparing themselves with each other, using themselves as the standard of measurement. How ignorant!" ~ 2 Corinthians 10:12 (NLT)
"Morality as a badge of attainment breeds the deadliest state of mind - a delusion of absolute autonomy." ~ Ravi Zacharias, "The Lotus and the Cross".
I have often wondered why it seems like the more religious a person is, the more there is the tendency to be judgmental and the less the tendency to show compassion. I have not only seen this in the life of others, but also in my own life. It is often said that the thing that we battle with the most is what we tend to despise the most in others, and I know that "self-righteousness" is one of those things that I tend to struggle with - maybe that explains why I write so much about God's grace, because I am reminded every day by my own conscious how far I fall short and yet how much I am blessed.
And yet, what I have realized is that the most religious amongst us usually struggle with the concept of God's grace, because grace levels the playing field of fallibility. Grace says that you cannot fool God with the petty comparisons where you set yourself on a pedestal at the expense of someone else's struggles or sins. The common argument that I hear to justify this phenomenon (of self-righteousness) is that just because we are Christians does not mean we should not point out sin when we see it, after all God wants us to stay away from sin and live pure lives. My comeback to that statement would be this: if we say that we are sanctified (or made pure and acceptable to God) based on he the gracious sacrifice that Jesus paid for us, and if we say that apart from this gift of love, we are all in the same boat - sinners in need of a Savior - then how can we even have the audacity to even condemn others to hell for things that we are all capable of doing ourselves given similar circumstances?
It is a weird that the very people who often need the grace of God are often the last people thinking about going to church, mainly because they don't think they will find compassion or understanding there. To be fair, it would be wrong to generalize all "churches" or religious persons and say that they're all this way..This would be an unfair caricature. But it is fair to say that the main reason why being very religious tends to increase one sense of condemnation is because religion by its very definition places self on a moral pedestal at the expense of other people's flaws. In other words, as long as I base my righteousness on how much morally better I perceive myself to be compared to someone else, this condemnation madness continues. It is a trick that always works, as long as I can see enough fault in someone else that makes me look better, then I feel good about myself. Is it no wonder that we are fascinated with tabloid gossip and reality shows that highlight the drama in other people's lives? We salivate over the drama, and the more salacious the drama, the bigger the ratings or sales for that show or publication.
This is how self-righteous works in practice: Here are a few examples: the person without tattoos or piercings decries those who do as defiling their bodies; the person who may tell white lies, says "at least I did not commit perjury"; the person who hates, says "at least I am not a murderer like Hitler", the "petty" thief says, "at least I am not Bernie Madoff", arguably the most hated man in America right now; there is always some "other" whom we think we are not as bad as, in an attempt to make ourselves feel better about ourselves and gauge our sense of self and righteousness. But the fact is that these tricks only perpetuate an illusion which fosters arrogance and prevent compassion from flowing towards others...The flip side of this type of self-righteous behavior occurs when we always assume that others are not as "fortunate" as us because they did not always follow the right rules like we did. We never really know the depths of real compassion until we see the depths of our own fallibility and the need we all have for God's grace.
Happy Independence Day Weekend!!
Go Venus Williams & Roger Federer!!!
"Oh, don’t worry; we wouldn’t dare say that we are as wonderful as these other men who tell you how important they are! But they are only comparing themselves with each other, using themselves as the standard of measurement. How ignorant!" ~ 2 Corinthians 10:12 (NLT)
"Morality as a badge of attainment breeds the deadliest state of mind - a delusion of absolute autonomy." ~ Ravi Zacharias, "The Lotus and the Cross".
I have often wondered why it seems like the more religious a person is, the more there is the tendency to be judgmental and the less the tendency to show compassion. I have not only seen this in the life of others, but also in my own life. It is often said that the thing that we battle with the most is what we tend to despise the most in others, and I know that "self-righteousness" is one of those things that I tend to struggle with - maybe that explains why I write so much about God's grace, because I am reminded every day by my own conscious how far I fall short and yet how much I am blessed.
And yet, what I have realized is that the most religious amongst us usually struggle with the concept of God's grace, because grace levels the playing field of fallibility. Grace says that you cannot fool God with the petty comparisons where you set yourself on a pedestal at the expense of someone else's struggles or sins. The common argument that I hear to justify this phenomenon (of self-righteousness) is that just because we are Christians does not mean we should not point out sin when we see it, after all God wants us to stay away from sin and live pure lives. My comeback to that statement would be this: if we say that we are sanctified (or made pure and acceptable to God) based on he the gracious sacrifice that Jesus paid for us, and if we say that apart from this gift of love, we are all in the same boat - sinners in need of a Savior - then how can we even have the audacity to even condemn others to hell for things that we are all capable of doing ourselves given similar circumstances?
It is a weird that the very people who often need the grace of God are often the last people thinking about going to church, mainly because they don't think they will find compassion or understanding there. To be fair, it would be wrong to generalize all "churches" or religious persons and say that they're all this way..This would be an unfair caricature. But it is fair to say that the main reason why being very religious tends to increase one sense of condemnation is because religion by its very definition places self on a moral pedestal at the expense of other people's flaws. In other words, as long as I base my righteousness on how much morally better I perceive myself to be compared to someone else, this condemnation madness continues. It is a trick that always works, as long as I can see enough fault in someone else that makes me look better, then I feel good about myself. Is it no wonder that we are fascinated with tabloid gossip and reality shows that highlight the drama in other people's lives? We salivate over the drama, and the more salacious the drama, the bigger the ratings or sales for that show or publication.
This is how self-righteous works in practice: Here are a few examples: the person without tattoos or piercings decries those who do as defiling their bodies; the person who may tell white lies, says "at least I did not commit perjury"; the person who hates, says "at least I am not a murderer like Hitler", the "petty" thief says, "at least I am not Bernie Madoff", arguably the most hated man in America right now; there is always some "other" whom we think we are not as bad as, in an attempt to make ourselves feel better about ourselves and gauge our sense of self and righteousness. But the fact is that these tricks only perpetuate an illusion which fosters arrogance and prevent compassion from flowing towards others...The flip side of this type of self-righteous behavior occurs when we always assume that others are not as "fortunate" as us because they did not always follow the right rules like we did. We never really know the depths of real compassion until we see the depths of our own fallibility and the need we all have for God's grace.
Happy Independence Day Weekend!!
Go Venus Williams & Roger Federer!!!
posted by Stephen O. | 12:05 PM
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