I just finished the book, Making Judgments Without Being Judgmental by Terry D. Cooper. I’m not going to do a typical review of this book, as it’s not exactly a page-turner, but it does have some great info in it that I will be sharing in the next few blogs.
Have you ever been accused of being judgmental and found yourself wondering if you were? Weren’t you just trying to help? Have you caught yourself in the act of a quick assessment of someone based on very little information? On the other hand, have you been incensed when someone “put you in a box”?
The Bible says,”Judge not lest you be judged,” (Matt. 7:1) but it also says, “It’s time for judgment to begin with the family of God” (I Pet. 4:17) and “whoever turns a sinner from the error or his ways will save him from death and cover over a multitude of sins.” (James 5:20) There can be no saving from error unless we first make a judgment that an error has been committed.
Cooper begins to unknot our confusion on this issue with first pointing out that there is a difference between making judgments and being judgmental. “Many of us confuse the difference between making judgments and being judgmental. Yet the two mental processes are not at all the same. It is perfectly appropriate to negatively evaluate actions and behavior that bring hurt, damage or pain to another person. In fact, to not react to such a behavior is to have a numbed sense of conscience. A world without judgments would be a world without conviction, principles and ethical concerns…Yet this focus on behaviors must be kept separate from a denouncement of entire people.”
Ah, the light begins to dawn.
Next time: the seven distinctions, according to Cooper, between making judgments and being judgmental.
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