No, we are told over and over to judge behavior, we are told not to judge another's soul. Jesus saved the woman about to be stoned because at that point, He called her to Him and saved her. She was at that point, repentent and He said, "Now go and sin no more..."
From the link above.
The new most oft-quoted verse in the Bible (and it ain't John 3:16)
6/21/2005 7:03:00 PM by Jill Stanek -
www.jillstanek.comChicago Sun-Times columnist Carol Marin began her June 17 screed against pro-lifers by quoting from Jesus' "judge not lest ye be judged" speech in Matthew 7:1-5.
Marin was ticked that the American Life League publicly called Catholic Church leadership into account for handing pseudo-Catholic US Sen. Dick Durbin his communion wafer on Sunday after he voted against the partial birth abortion ban the Friday before... and the Unborn Victims of Violence Act the Friday before that... etc., etc., etc. ALL took out a full-page ad in the June 16 Sun-Times.
Fellow CWA-er Mary Lynn Ferkaluk has submitted a great rebuttal to Marin's piece, which follows.
Related:
"How the most misquoted Bible verse is destroying America," 6-20-05
[Photo is of Carol Marin from the Chicago Sun-Times website.]
Letter to Carol Marin of the Chicago Sun-Times
by Mary Lynn Ferkaluk
Hickory Hills, IL
In "Abortion foes should look within," you criticized the American Life League's ad in the June 16 Sun-Times, which states: "Senator Durbin, you CAN'T be Catholic and pro-abortion."
You responded, "I don't know anyone, not anyone, who is PRO-abortion. Abortion is always a tragedy. But then, so are rape and incest."
Carol, you can't be that naive. Dozens of national and global organizations exist solely - and profit from - ensuring that abortion remains legal and available 24/7/365.
Rape and incest are tragedies, but because one's father is a sex offender is no reason to kill him or her.
You continued, "But worse than the liberty taken with the language is the willingness on the part of the American Life League to take it upon themselves to decide if Durbin is, in fact, 'Catholic' or entitled to receive communion." And, "Exactly what kind of true believers are so bereft of humility, charity or self-doubt that they can presume to look into someone else's soul?"
If I were to take a journalist's position at the Sun-Times under false pretenses, and were eventually caught for lying about my education and published works, would Marin consider the newspaper "bereft of humility, charity or self-doubt" for calling me into account? Of course not. In fact, Sun-Times reporters and columnists alike publicly condemned one Jayson Blair.
This is righteous judgment. In the Sermon on the Mount, Christ was speaking against unrighteous, hypocritical judgment.
The Bible states one can and must judge other Christians by their actions, behavior and what comes out of their mouths in order to correct them and return them to fellowship. Our justice system is based on this principle.
Of course "true believers" cannot and do not judge another's soul, but are called to judge another's actions. Durbin's pro-abortion votes are public actions that require public correction. A person who legalizes, accommodates and simplifies the murder of the innocent is subject to be judged by others who truly know The Lord, and we can say with confidence that abortion/murder is the eclipsing line that God Himself drew thousands of years ago in the book of Genesis when He instituted the death penalty.
Later, you stated, "For some reason, abortion has become the defining issue of American politics, eclipsing many other wrenching issues that speak to the human condition. Senator Durbin said Thursday from Washington, "'It is interesting where they draw the line. Some who are so certain about abortion have nothing to say on the issue of the death penalty or helping the poor. They think those votes don't count. They think there is only one issue that drives Catholics.'"
Murder is and should be the primary issue that drives not only Catholics, but non-Catholic Christians, "Jews, Muslims, atheists and agnostics among us" as well. Anyone who condones the murder of the innocent is not likely to care much about "other wrenching issues that speak to the human condition." A survey of history reveals the millions slaughtered by Hitler, Stalin, Pol Pot, and others. Pol Pot did not help the poor left after millions of their countrymen were murdered. Stalin did not hesitate imposing the death penalty on enemies of the state.
Durbin said "...Some who are so certain about abortion have nothing to say on the issue of the death penalty or helping the poor..." He is wrong. Anybody against abortion would have plenty to argue on those other issues.
Studying the whole Bible (not cherry picking the verses that tickle the ears) shows that God loves justice, and He himself handed down the responsibility of capital punishment to the government, which, by the way, was never rescinded by Christ nor any of the Apostles in the New Testament Church.
There is a difference between the capital killing of convicted murderers and the murder of innocent babies through abortion. The original Hebrew uses two different words to describe two different ways to end a life.
In response to your and Dick Durbin's misunderstanding of God, God's character, and the Bible, I would say that people who are not followers of Christ, (as their actions, behavior and rhetoric show) who quote scripture and attempt to apply it inappropriately to retrofit their non-Biblical positions are offensive to God. "Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain" does not just apply to pairing the name of God with a four-letter word, but also to call on Him or invoke scripture unrighteously when you aren't reconciled to Him by Christ's death and through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.
True Christians can tell the difference between a real believer and a pretender. Is that a splinter in your eye? Hold still while I remove it.
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In a human society, people need to be punished the way that is precribed by law. If we were to take those passages in the distorted way you seem to be interpreting them, we couldn't keep child molesters or killers behind bars, either.
When Forgiveness Is a Sin
By Dennis Prager
The bodies of the three teen-age girls shot dead last December by a fellow student at Heath High School in West Paducah, Ky., were not yet cold before some of their schoolmates hung a sign announcing, "We forgive you, Mike!" They were referring to Michael Carneal, 14, the killer.
This immediate and automatic forgiveness is not surprising. Over the past generation, many Christians have adopted the idea that they should forgive everyone who commits evil against anyone, no matter how great and cruel and whether or not the evildoer repents.
The number of examples is almost as large as the number of heinous crimes. Last August, for instance, the preacher at a Martha's Vineyard church service attended by the vacationing President Clinton announced that the duty of all Christians was to forgive Timothy McVeigh, the Oklahoma City bomber who murdered 168 Americans. "Can each of you look at a picture of Timothy McVeigh and forgive him?" the Rev. John Miller asked. "I have, and I invite you to do the same."
Though I am a Jew, I believe that a vibrant Christianity is essential if America's moral decline is to be reversed. And despite theological differences, Christianity and Judaism have served as the bedrock of American civilization. And I am appalled and frightened by this feel-good doctrine of automatic forgiveness.
This doctrine advances the amoral notion that no matter how much you hurt others, millions of your fellow citizens will forgive you. It destroys Christianity's central moral tenets about forgiveness. Even by God, forgiveness is contingent on the sinner repenting, and it can be given only by the one sinned against.
" And if your brother sins against you, rebuke him; and if he repents, forgive him," reads Luke 17:3-4. "And if seven times of the day he sins against you, and seven times of the day turns to you saying, I repent, you shall forgive him."
These days one often hears that "It is the Christian's duty to forgive, just as Jesus forgave those who crucified him." Of course, Jesus asked God to forgive those who crucified him. But Jesus never asked God to forgive those who had crucified thousands of other innocent people. Presumably he recognized that no one has the moral right to forgive evil done to others.
You and I have no right, religiously or morally, to forgive Timothy McVeigh or Michael Carneal; only those they sinned against have that right, If we are automatically forgiven no matter what we do, why repent? In fact, if we forgive everybody for all the evil they do, God and his forgiveness are unnecessary. We have substituted ourselves for God.
I host a talk-radio show, and when confronted with such arguments, some callers offered another defense: "The students were not forgiving Carneal for murdering the three students. They were forgiving him for the pain he caused them." Such self centered thinking masquerading as a religious ideal is a good example of the moral disarray in much of religious life.
Some people have a more sophisticated defense of the forgive-every-one-everything doctrine: doing so is psychologically healthy. It brings "closure." This is therapy masquerading as idealism: "I forgive you because I want to feel better."
Until West Paducah, I believed that Christians will lead America's moral renaissance. Though I still believe that, the day those students, with the support of their school administration, hung out that sign I became less sanguine. If young Christians have inherited more values from the '60s culture than from their religion, where can we look for help?
www.dennisprager.com/forgiveness.html 
? By the way I'm new. Glad to met you all ;D
? By the way I'm new. Glad to met you all ;D
