Virtue, Not Hate Crimes

            I don’t generally choose to announce my private faith in public forums.  It seems, however, that someone ought to stand in defense of faith, charity, and virtue.

            I am a devoted Christian.  I believe in a divine and eternal Father in Heaven who loves us as children and plans for us to become our best selves, just as mortal parents hope for their mortal children.  I believe in a savior, Jesus Christ, who lived to show us what to aspire to and died to atone for our imperfections and shortcomings, paving the way for us to return to our Heavenly Home if we choose to try to be like Him.  I believe in a Holy Ghost sent by our Father to provide comfort and guidance while we are blind to spiritual and divine truths in our mortal state, revealing the will of our Father through the guidance and direction of prophets and teachers authorized to show us the true path back Home.

            Matthew the New Testament writer, one of Christ’s apostles and personal friends, warned, “Judge not, that ye be not judged.”  Matthew receives lots of attention for this sentence.  People often use this sentence to protest other injunctions from prophets or scriptorians.  “How dare you judge what I’m doing?  Doesn’t your Bible tell you not to judge?”  Our Bible does indeed warn us to be cautious of judging fellow travelers in this mortal existence.  Matthew himself declared, “For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again.”  The direction is clear, the consequences dire.  We will be judged the same way we judge our neighbors.  I prefer to appear after death at the judgment seat of a benevolent, loving God, willing to look at the intentions and desires of my heart as well as the sometimes horrible things I say and do.  Therefore, I am required to look at others with a compassionate heart, knowing that I can never truly know what’s in their hearts and minds, and cannot judge their true selves by only what few things I see.  Charity demands that I presume good intentions, and offer mercy in my words and compassion in my behavior.

            No biblical author ever suggested that I ignore directives from Heavenly Father.  Strict guidelines are laid out clearly in Christian scripture: don’t kill people; don’t take stuff that isn’t yours; don’t resent your neighbor if they have a nicer car than you; respect your parents and grandparents even when you’re a teenager and you know everything; don’t lie about people; and the list goes on.   Obviously I must make judgments about my own behavior all the time.  I choose what I say and do, and I will be held accountable for those choices.  A call to repentance from my ecclesiastical leaders is a judgment of my behavior and my choices.  I often need correcting and guidance, even discipline, just as a child needs from adoring parents.  These calls are not intended to be personal attacks, they simply point out the error in my decisions and a way to fix the problem.  A call to repentance is not a withdrawal of divine affection any more than grounding a preteen means his parents stopped loving him.

            In my home, I require a certain minimum standard of virtue in language and behavior.  I do not require perfection in people, but I do judge the entertainment and environment that comes into my home.  Even some minor vices in behavior are tolerated in my home in the interest of survival—Diet Coke is permitted, cocaine is not, for example.  Overall, Jesus’ example of treating people nicely is the standard here, but even Jesus did not ignore outrageous crimes—the irreverence and disrespect of moneychangers in the temple inspired righteous indignation even in Christ, the most charitable of all.  Similarly, outrageous crimes of disrespect and rudeness to me or my faith and standards, will not be tolerated in my home.

            In short, judging behavior is not the same as judging people.  A call to repentance by an ecclesiastical leader at a religious pulpit is not the same as random people hurling hateful invectives at passersby.  Faith, charity, and virtue are not the same as forced religion, meanness, and hate crimes.  Please be cautious not to mistake one of these for its opposite.