Plank-Eyed Judges

I'm not even sure what they were talking about. I think I heard something about ,"people who were 'afraid' to challenge the claims of the Bible."

We were in a little bookstore in Great Barrington (a particularly "liberalish" little town in south western Massachusetts) that I overheard this young couple in conversation. Try as I might I couldn't quite "overhear" exactly what they were saying (darned 52 year old ears...) but this phrase I did hear, "Well... you'd have to be either mentally unstable or just brainwashed."

How did I respond (in my head, anyway)? "Man... these liberal (aka 'open-minded') folk can really be incredibly judgemental of those of us who are not quite so 'open-minded'." (Ironic, ain't it?) But, the irony went on... because right on the heels of that reaction came a new response... this time from the Spirit of God. I heard, "Don't you do that very same thing? Don't you readily and quickly draw conclusions (make judgements) about others... their beliefs and actions?"

And it's true... without really knowing anything about someone (and without having one whit of authority to do so) I become the great diagnostician of their "condition" (their guilt... error... mental instability... level of brain-washedness...)

Maybe I should try to 'overhear' Jesus a little more... something about, "taking the plank out of your own eye so that you can see clearly to remove the speck out of theirs".