Gosh, Darn -- Charles Barkley Doesn't Like Me.

Sir Charles Barkley has decided to weigh in on religion. Not sure what qualifies him to make this kind of pronouncement, but nobody asked me, and so he did. We're not real Christians, we conservatives, because we judge others. We're too judgmental.

The Reformed Chicks who babble over at Beliefnet made an interesting point. Sir Charles quoted Matthew 7:1-2. He doesn't seem to have read verse 3.

Jesus is trying to give us a warning -- don't judge the motivations of others. Don't you decide why someone is doing what they're doing. And we're all guilty of this, but one of the things that always bothers me when people use this passage against Christians is that the folks doing the quoting are doing some judging, too. By invoking this verse against anyone, you are violating it. That's why we're told to get rid of the log in our own eyes before we go after the speck that's in our brothers' eye.

When I preach and teach against sin, I'm not judging anyone. Judgment will be passed by God, and it will be passed based on what each of us has done with Christ. When I preach against sin, I do it to show God's salvation to everyone. Because until someone realizes that they're lost, they don't know they need a savior. So as Christians we do an extreme disservice to people when we simply let them go along the way they have been, without letting them know of the danger they're putting themselves in. Was Noah being intolerant or judgmental when he told everyone to get into the ark? Was Jesus being judgmental and intolerant when he told the woman caught in adultery "Go, and sin no more"? I'd love to ask Sir Charles those questions, but he probably won't talk to me.

After all, I'm too judgmental.