Last semester, much was printed in this paper about a perceived lukewarmness in the student body.  This semester, I have started to realize that a lukewarmness is there.  But the lukewarmness I see is not that which can be defined by how many devotional books one has gone through, but by those who would take the easy alternative to showing love - judgment.

        During the portion of the Sermon on the Mount recorded in the seventh chapter of Matthew, Jesus uses an analogy of someone trying to remove a speck from his brother's eye, while ignoring the log in his own. In Romans 14:1, Paul states, "Accept him whose faith is weak, without passing judgment on disputable matters." And Paul continues to provide an excellent discourse on this subject for the rest of the 14th chapter.

        However, we as a campus body seem to be in a race to declare each other non-Christian.  Why do we do this?  Have the rules for Christianity been replaced with the rules for Monopoly?  Do we gain more divine brownie points by proving that our brother or sister has less?  I hope not.  There is only one person in this universe who has the qualifications to judge us and none of us want that to be fair judgment.

        This article is not simply a response to articles that appeared in this publication last semester, but it is a response to this general attitude.  James Bryan Smith, January 31st's Chapel speaker, offered the analogy of a dive-bombing attack. We simply fly in, leave our put-down, our free "advice" or sarcastic remark and fly off, knowing our mission is complete.

        Christ did not do this.  Often the Pharisees tried to accuse him of guilt by association, citing the fact that he was associating with tax collectors, prostitutes, and other sinners and that is what has to occur. Before we pass judgment on people from our wonderful, perfect Christian (sarcasm) perspectives, we have to get to know them, walk where they walk, find out where they come from.  We have to truly know them, and occassionally realize there was a possibility that correction was not needed.

        I am not perfect. There are areas in my life that need improvement, which is why the Bible urges fellowship in the first place. But we need to be gently correcting, in love and in humility.  To simply judge and move on is much easier.  No one ever said that to live the Christian's life was easy.  But to grow as Christians, we need to abandon spiritual bullyism and truly accept others as equals, as brothers, sisters and parts of the same body.