Don't Judge Doesn't Mean Don't Judge

I don't know about the rest of you, but we Catholics have absolutely fetishized Matthew 7:1-3.

“Stop judging, that you may not be judged. For as you judge, so will you be judged, and the measure with which you measure will be measured out to you. Why do you notice the splinter in your brother’s eye, but do not perceive the wooden beam in your own eye?"

Our ultra-feminized Church now interprets that in the strictest possible sense out of concern for others' feelings. When combined with our other favorites, "God is love" and "Be nice," we end up where we are with Toddler Catholicism.

However, get a load of Matthew 18:15-17:

“If your brother sins [against you], go and tell him his fault between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have won over your brother. If he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, so that ‘every fact may be established on the testimony of two or three witnesses.’ If he refuses to listen to them, tell the church. If he refuses to listen even to the church, then treat him as you would a Gentile or a tax collector."

Wait just one Jerusalem minute there, proconsul! How can we do that if we're not judging?

Then there's the problem of the woman caught in adultery in John 8:1-11.

Then the scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery and made her stand in the middle. They said to him, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the very act of committing adultery. Now in the law, Moses commanded us to stone such women. So what do you say?”

They said this to test him, so that they could have some charge to bring against him. Jesus bent down and began to write on the ground with his finger. But when they continued asking him, he straightened up and said to them, “Let the one among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.”

Again he bent down and wrote on the ground. And in response, they went away one by one, beginning with the elders. So he was left alone with the woman before him. Then Jesus straightened up and said to her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?”

She replied, “No one, sir.” 

Then Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you. Go, and from now on do not sin any more.”

If the Lord God is right there in the flesh next to me and tells me not to sin any more, I'm going to take advantage of the moment and ask for some clarification. For all I know, the heavenly demerit records might be like the IRS tax code. I'd ask for some help identifying what is and isn't a sin. What's Jesus going to say, "I don't judge, everyone needs to listen to their heart and understand right and wrong for themselves?"

If we can't judge and if there are no moral absolutes, how can we help each other avoid sin? Once a week I get together with 3 other superstitious primitives for breakfast and after we finish worshipping a statue of Mary, we discuss Jesus and other hallucinatory things. Sometimes, we'll mention a sin or two that bedevils us and the others weigh in with suggestions on how to avoid wearing Azalea Trail Maid gowns while doing lines of coke and betting on marmot races in Tijuana.

Hmm. That might have been TMI. Oh well.

In our modern Church, none of this is actually possible. We can't help each other because we can't judge.

None of it makes a lick of sense.

We've embraced Barbie Catholicism, a variation of or perhaps a waypoint on the road to Toddler Catholicism.

Logic is hard, let's affirm everyone!