“You’re just unattractive inside. I really despise you.” Those were some of Serena Williams’s words to the chair umpire during the US Open Final. The judge made a controversial call at a critical moment of the game. Emotions were running high. Did the judge follow the exact letter of the rule? It would appear so. Had Stosur not gotten her racket on the ball would any call have been made? That’s tougher to say.
Even with all of that being equal, those are some harsh words from Serena. It’s a snap judgment, based on one event. One call and Serena can look into the soul of the umpire? Why are we so fast to judge?
In many cases, they do one thing that we see as a slight and all of a sudden they are among the worst people in the world. One mis-deed and we consider them worthy of our condemnation. Or sometimes we just disagree and choose to vilify the other person. We do it in arguments, debates, politics, etc. “How can they believe such a thing? They must be a bad person.”
Unfairly, the same thing is being done to Serena. She gets labeled as hot-headed, angry, mean-spirited etc. Sports writers and announcers are having a field day going after her. I worried myself about walking the line where I’m not judging her. Using her words as a negative example, how much am I adding to the story?
We judge people all the time. I have a confession to make. I have a strong tendency to judge those that I feel unfairly judge others. As soon as I hear about someone casting judgment on another, they drop a peg or two in my book. There’s something there about the log in your own eye but that’s another post.
Judgments are easy to make but they are lazy and dangerous. We forget the complex nature inside each of us that makes us individual. We forget that we’re all children, all made in God’s image. We do violence in our hearts, as bad or worse than anything physical. Violence that cuts into not only the heart and spirit of another, but also our own. Violence that wounds the heart of the one who made us and loves us.
An interesting assessment, though you have to admit that judgment is completely unavoidable. What about Judgment Day and God judging us? Not to mention in order to live our own lives to the best and happiest of our ability we have to judge others in one way or another- when we choose spouses, pick colleges, or even decide on which church to become a member of (on the congregation’s part, not the pastor’s) we are judging the unchosen ones. The latter two are especially prone to “snap” judgment as you visit a school usually only once or twice and a church the same- these are only small snapshots of the actual peopel and places but we depend upon them. I’m not saying all judgments are good or bad- just that it is completely unavoidable, necessary, and there is quite the religious precendent there (see first question).
Well Judgment Day is a whole different subject with a lot of baggage and history. While I believe that God judges, I’m less clear on a capital J capital D “Judgment Day.” Also, that’s between God and humanity. What I’m talking about in the post is between individuals. Judging another person is often a dangerous enterprise in Scripture.
I think I might draw a distinction between decisions and judgments. Decisions don’t have to include judgments in my mind. For instance, picking a college because it feels like a better fit for you I would label a decision. Picking a college because you think your host is an *******, I would label a judgment. From my perspective then, judgments aren’t necessary or unavoidable.
I think I would just chalk this up to one of those specific sins that we know will happen again and again and again and while we can try to minimize it, any judgments made should be based on a substantial amount of interaction with a person, not a snap judgment (such as the sports case you cited). Our society adheres to the, “You only get one chance to make a first impression” way of thinking, and those are important given that you probably pick a college because you think it’s a better fit BECAUSE your host was an *******. So I’d like to say I do agree with you that judgments are probably unncessary- but I do think they are unavoidable.
That being said- we should all try a lot harder to not go around judging others, especially when we ourselves have so much to work to do. I agree.