“Ezekiel 25:17.”
Five minutes later it’s dropping f-bombs left and right while complaining about how horrible life is.
One minute it’s, “God is good,” and the next it’s, “My parents should rot in hell.”
Seen separately, these tweets barely register to me.
But seen posted by the same person, and I can’t help but be baffled.
I’m baffled at the massive contradiction taking place.
I’m baffled that someone would put their faith on display for the world — or their few hundred followers — to see and then defile it a few moments later.
When I see these tweets, it opens the door for me to examine my own judgemental qualities and those same qualities held by everyone.
This is not me making a statement on religion, those who are religious or those who lack religion.
This is not an assault on profanity or coarse language of any kind. I use it more than I care to admit. Profanity does not, in any sense, make you a “bad” person, nor should it. It’s just hard for me to see a person claim one thing and then do or say another.
But at the same time, we all do that. Religion calls it sin, and everyone else calls it a mistake. We all “fall short,” whether that comes from a religious standpoint or a simple moral one.
No, this is an assault on hypocrisy, an assault that might just be inherently hypocritical in itself. This is also, perhaps, an embrace of my own hypocrisy.
When I judge the previously mentioned user on Twitter, I am being a hypocrite.
But is that wrong?
Well, me writing these words is probably wrong. I know I don’t deserve to judge others, but I do it anyway.
We are predisposed to judge. Since that’s true, then we should embrace it, to a degree.
We lie every time we condemn those who judge. OK, we don’t lie, but we subject ourselves to a massive state of blissful hypocrisy. We all judge.
As soon as man could think, he judged.
I judge, and you judge. We tell ourselves to accept others, fearing that if we don’t we’ll be lumped with the racists, homophobes and bigots.
We want to be with the seemingly progressive America, where lifestyles of all kinds are accepted, for the most part.
In short, we don’t want to miss the boat.
But deep down, we are all looking at others, and think- ing things we would never say to their face. We all do it.
Some hide it, or make it less apparent to their peers. Some actually do it less, and might be nearly perfect when it comes to avoiding passing judgement.
But since we all do it, that has to bring every one of us to a conclusion, a realization of sorts.
We have to realize that, no matter what we do, our words and actions will, in some way, be perceived in a way that is negative.
And as much we can tell ourselves that it doesn’t affect us, it will irk us somehow.
The sooner we realize this, the sooner we can minimize how the judgment of other people bothers us.
In the end, we need to embrace that judgment is part of life. There is a time to share our opinions on other people, and there is a time to suppress them, forgetting they exist.
So I believe I’m allowed to judge the hypocrite on Twit- ter, and that hypocrite is allowed to not care.
I also believe that, in this case, I’m allowed to share my somewhat brutally honest opinion about that person.
Here goes.
Quote scripture. Profanely tell us about your horrendous day. But don’t do both. It’s confusing.
Five minutes later it’s dropping f-bombs left and right while complaining about how horrible life is.
One minute it’s, “God is good,” and the next it’s, “My parents should rot in hell.”
Seen separately, these tweets barely register to me.
But seen posted by the same person, and I can’t help but be baffled.
I’m baffled at the massive contradiction taking place.
I’m baffled that someone would put their faith on display for the world — or their few hundred followers — to see and then defile it a few moments later.
When I see these tweets, it opens the door for me to examine my own judgemental qualities and those same qualities held by everyone.
This is not me making a statement on religion, those who are religious or those who lack religion.
This is not an assault on profanity or coarse language of any kind. I use it more than I care to admit. Profanity does not, in any sense, make you a “bad” person, nor should it. It’s just hard for me to see a person claim one thing and then do or say another.
But at the same time, we all do that. Religion calls it sin, and everyone else calls it a mistake. We all “fall short,” whether that comes from a religious standpoint or a simple moral one.
No, this is an assault on hypocrisy, an assault that might just be inherently hypocritical in itself. This is also, perhaps, an embrace of my own hypocrisy.
When I judge the previously mentioned user on Twitter, I am being a hypocrite.
But is that wrong?
Well, me writing these words is probably wrong. I know I don’t deserve to judge others, but I do it anyway.
We are predisposed to judge. Since that’s true, then we should embrace it, to a degree.
We lie every time we condemn those who judge. OK, we don’t lie, but we subject ourselves to a massive state of blissful hypocrisy. We all judge.
As soon as man could think, he judged.
I judge, and you judge. We tell ourselves to accept others, fearing that if we don’t we’ll be lumped with the racists, homophobes and bigots.
We want to be with the seemingly progressive America, where lifestyles of all kinds are accepted, for the most part.
In short, we don’t want to miss the boat.
But deep down, we are all looking at others, and think- ing things we would never say to their face. We all do it.
Some hide it, or make it less apparent to their peers. Some actually do it less, and might be nearly perfect when it comes to avoiding passing judgement.
But since we all do it, that has to bring every one of us to a conclusion, a realization of sorts.
We have to realize that, no matter what we do, our words and actions will, in some way, be perceived in a way that is negative.
And as much we can tell ourselves that it doesn’t affect us, it will irk us somehow.
The sooner we realize this, the sooner we can minimize how the judgment of other people bothers us.
In the end, we need to embrace that judgment is part of life. There is a time to share our opinions on other people, and there is a time to suppress them, forgetting they exist.
So I believe I’m allowed to judge the hypocrite on Twit- ter, and that hypocrite is allowed to not care.
I also believe that, in this case, I’m allowed to share my somewhat brutally honest opinion about that person.
Here goes.
Quote scripture. Profanely tell us about your horrendous day. But don’t do both. It’s confusing.
