Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of the Emerald Coast
“Judge Not: The Need for Accountability”
Rev. Rod Debs
November 9, 2003
When you point your finger at another person,
there are three fingers pointing back at you.
–folk wisdom
Storytime: I have two short stories to tell you about finger-pointing. Sometimes when I was young, often when your older, someone will point their finger and say, “You’re not doing right!” Or someone will point their finger and say, “I’m doing a better job than you are!”
Finger-pointing is when somebody passes judgment on somebody else. But you may have heard that when you’re pointing your finger at somebody else, there are three fingers pointing back at you. What that means is that you are three times more likely to do things wrong yourself when you point at somebody else. Here’s the first story, from Buddhist Tales (retold by Sherab Chodzen & Alexandra Kohn, 1997), entitled “Learning to Be Silent”:
“A group of four friends were all studying meditation. They decided, in order to clear their minds, to take a vow of silence and not talk for seven days. The first day, they meditated all day without saying a word. But when night fell and the oil lamps in the meditation hall grew dim, one of the friends whispered to a servant, ‘Take care of those lamps.`
“One of the others, shocked to hear his friend speaking, said, `You are not supposed to be talking!’
“The third one was overcome with irritation. `You idiots!’ he said. `Why did you talk?’
“The fourth friend, smiling proudly said, `I am the only one who hasn’t talked!’”
The second story, adapted from Tolstoy (Fables and Folktales, 1985) is about “The Donkey and the Horse”:
“A (traveler) had a donkey and a horse, both going along the same road. At one point, the donkey who was very tired, begged the horse for help. `I can’t stand up anymore. Please take part of my burden.’
“But the horse refused. Exhausted, the poor donkey (eventually) fell to the ground. The (traveler) then loaded the donkey’s burden onto the horse. On top of that he loaded the poor, tired donkey.
“`I brought this on myself,’ cried the horse. `A little while ago I refused to share the donkey’s load. Now I must carry not only its entire burden, but the donkey as well!’”
What I learn from these stories is that when I’m pointing my fingers at other people for making mistakes, I’m probably making mistakes at the same time! I also learn that if I just point my finger rather than helping out people who are having a hard time, it will get a lot worse for me in the end. The horse ended up carrying the whole load AND the broken-down donkey as well. Finger-pointing isn’t a very good idea.
Message: The topic I chose one month ago for today is “Our Great Commandment: Inherent Worth.” Last week, in speaking about “Religious Freedom and Integrity,” unfortunately I stole my own thunder on today’s topic. So this morning, I will speak to both positive and negative aspects of our great commandment: first, our covenant to affirm inherent worth, and second, the other side of the coin, the command that we “judge not,” but rather attend to our own accountability.
First, “Our Great Commandment: Inherent Worth.” For those of you who are not familiar with Hebrew or Christian traditions, the Hebrews had Ten Commandments and hundreds of rules on how to implement them, known as The Law. In the Christian Scripture, Jesus was asked by a Hebrew teacher of The Law what was the greatest commandment. The account in the Gospel of Matthew (22.37-40) reads:
“And (Jesus) said to him, `You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it, You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the law and the prophets.’”
If you were to ask what is the great commandment of Unitarian Universalism, I would turn to our covenant, our Statement of Principles, and to the last and the first of those Principles. The greatest promise we make to one another is “to affirm and promote respect for the interdependent web of all existence of which we are a part.” The second greatest promise focuses in on one particular part of the web of existence, humanity. We promise “to affirm and promote the inherent worth and dignity of every person.” So it seems to me that the one single great commandment of our faith is to respect the inherent worth of the web of life including every rock and vine, every animal and human being. We covenant to respect the web of life and every expression of it as having inherent worth.
There are those who would criticize Unitarian Universalists because we have no standardized beliefs, no dogmatic creed, no clear-cut Ten Commandments that we are compelled by mercy to impose upon every hell-bound sinner on the globe. Without such eternal truths to live by and to teach our children, there are good-hearted souls, some of our own family and friends, who fear we are wishy-washy, that we believe anything we want. They fear that we invite others down the path of least resistance to self-indulgence, degradation and damnation.
How do we answer them? Is it true that we give religious cover of respectability to anything-goes self-indulgence? Do we have any clear guidelines we can teach our children?
Last Sunday, I shared our belief that “we need not think alike to love alike,” the words of Unitarian martyr Francis David of the 16th century. UUs covenant to respect each person’s right of conscience. It is our determined promise to be a safe place for religious integrity, a place of mutual trust and support, not simply tolerating diversity, but enriched and ennobled by the pluralism of our religious sentiments.
Though we do not have uniform beliefs, we do have clear guidelines that we teach our children, our covenant Principles printed on the back of the Order of Service. Evangelicals may exercise illegal methods to impose their religion, for example, through legislation regarding private medical decisions, through Christian prayer in public schools and by enshrining The Commandments in courthouses. But I am convinced that our covenant Principles are superior by far to The Ten Commandments. Our first Principle, our promise “to affirm and promote the inherent worth and dignity of every person,” is far more challenging than the commandments simply not to lie or kill, steal or fornicate. The Ten Commandments set a very low bar. The promise “to affirm and promote the inherent worth and dignity of every person” is clear and noble and worthy of our lifespan religious aspiration.
When it comes to beliefs, we just don’t twist anyone’s arm. That’s what it means to honor the right of conscience. We welcome plural perspectives whether you believe in God, goddess or nature, whether you practice prayer, silence or gardening, vegetarian, omnivore or Pritiken, liberal social policies or fiscal conservatism, cohabitation or abstinence, corporate deregulation or environmentally responsible business practices, tax-breaks for the rich or universal health care, education, and a living wage, whether defense, pacifism or budget-busting fascist world domination. Sounds like I have a distinct preference here, doesn’t it. I do. But even if we have strong personal beliefs, our promise is to honor the right of conscience and to be a safe place where we respectfully engage issues and encourage spiritual growth in an enriching and inspiring pluralistic community.
Now let me turn to the other side of the coin, personal accountability rather than judging others. In Christian Scripture we read a collection of wisdom sayings attributed to Jesus called “The Sermon on the Plain.” One of those wisdom sayings (Luke 6.37) reads:
“`Judge not, and you will not be judged; condemn not, and you will not be condemned; forgive, and you will be forgiven….’” (RSV)
The common sense is that without judgment, there is no accountability. It seems that we have to judge, we have to pass judgment in order to discriminate between good and evil, between effective and ineffective, between right and wrong. Without judgment, anything goes. That much seems common sense.
It seems that contrary to the Christian prohibition, judgment is something which life teaches is simply necessary for discriminating a responsible life. So we make watered down interpretations. `Judge not’ seems to make more sense meaning: Don’t prejudge someone before you have all the facts; but after you have the facts, then you can pass judgment.
Another interpretation is to read `Judge not’ as meaning that we should not pass judgment on a person’s whole life. Along this line, some say that God alone can judge between the righteous and evil-doers. Yet when it comes to specific actions, we feel that social order requires that we judge, not persons, but specific actions, whether kind or hurtful, whether legal or illegal. If we make no discrimination between kindness and cruelty, how can we act to restrain the evil that might come our way? It’s common sense. We must judge the acts of persons and sanction or reward deeds with social consequences appropriate to the offense or kindness as the case may be. So we water-down the prohibition, `Judge not,’ as either referring to specific acts, not the person, or as a prohibition against prejudgment. Subsequently feeling it’s OK to judge, our imagined harmless judgment creates discrimination, alienation and polarization. It creates condemnation and punishment and revenge and preemptive punishment out of fear of possible future offense.
We would do well to differentiate the meanings of `judgment’ and `accountability.’ To judge another’s behavior is something totally different from taking responsibility and giving an account of our own behavior. To reflect on our own behavior and motivations, to live thoughtfully, examining our own lives is essential to responsible living. Socrates is reported by Plato as saying, “The unexamined life is not worth living.” There is even a modern term for the life practice of action and reflection leading to adjusted action and further reflection. `Praxis’ means the life process of action and reflection, leading to further action.
This concept of reflection is also a community affair. When a community is reflective, when a group of people take action and then gather to reflect on the results, make a new plan, and then implement adjusted action and further group reflection, and on and on, it is called “shared praxis.” Accountability is the practice of reflecting on our life activity, and being able to give account, to ourselves at least, of the hope, the intent and relative effectiveness of our actions.
“Judgment” is something totally different. It is to praise or condemn the behavior of the other—or of our own behavior—without explanation, without understanding, without the generosity of gracious benefit-of-the-doubt. Judgment is conclusion. Accountability is a process of renewal. Accountability has to do with rather matter-of-fact observation of how our thoughts and actions are panning out—no praise or condemnation, simply observing and understanding how it’s going whether for us or for another person. If the results are not what we want, then we change the plan of action that has led to the current outcomes. Accountability is simply non-judgmental reassessment that leads to renewal, tweaking the plan, corrective action without punishment or guilt. The question is always, how do we want to go on from here?
I grew up in an Evangelical Christian faith that had way too much guilt, that terrible internalized judgment. I knew that I always fell short of righteous perfection. It was very painful. So I have become belligerently open-hearted in my inner life, striving to simply observe the dynamics within myself, whether kind or cruel, how well it’s working for me in relation with the world, with myself, with other people. Sometimes those old tapes of guilt and condemnation and shame rise up within me when I feel I have somehow missed the mark of my aspirations. It is a spiritual discipline for me to simply keep account of how I’m doing without judgment or feeling guilty.
The temptation to judge the behavior of others is just as hard if not harder to resist. It’s hard to simply observe the causal effects of how others’ behaviors pan out, leaving judgment out of it. The spiritual discipline to give account without judgment, is one of the differences between liberal religion and doctrinal traditions. Religious liberals have our hands full with accountability, observing the patterns of behaviors, and after reflection, searching our collective religious imaginations to come up with a corrective plan of action. Judgment and condemnation are not helpful.
Liberal social accountability, constantly trying to understand the cycles of dysfunctional behavior, trying to understand how elements of poverty and abuse are statistically related to anti-social activity, is a lot of work. Nancy Reagan cut through all our calls for drug treatment and decriminalization with the national slogan, “Just Say No!” But her simple message, “Just Say NO!” was offered as an ultimatum, backed up by no drug treatment or drug education, but instead by throwing lots of money into military interdiction and prisons for those who don’t “Just Say NO!” It was really only window-dressing for Judgment. Lock ‘em up.
Problem is, if you look at the effectiveness of enhanced criminal penalties, harsher and harsher judgment on criminal behavior, it just doesn’t work. If you stop and give an account, what does work is drug treatment and decriminalization. Prison doesn’t work. We need accountability, not judgment.
Years ago when I was working at Amphenol in upstate New York, workers took a chartered bus somewhere—I don’t even remember where we went—but I do remember a conversation I had with the middle-aged friend of a co-worker. He was a Kurd, a school teacher who had fled for his life from the mountains of northern Iraq. I have talked with a number of Muslims over the years who have accommodated to our Western economic system, and none have explained Islam the way this Kurdish refugee did. This is what he said.
He said that according to Islam, if a hungry person steals bread, he has not committed a crime. The crime is laid at the feet of those with resources who allow hunger and deprivation to continue. This turns criminal justice on its head! Further, he explained that if a person owns land in another area which that land-owner does not personally work, then it is a crime to take any of the product of a tenant’s labor. Islam’s condemnation of usury means that rent, interest payments, capital gains are all prohibited. Through the process of Westernization, Muslim teachings prohibiting usury have been reinterpreted as prohibition of excessive rent, excessive interest and excessive capital gains. Muslims have become integrated into our Western economic system, watering down their traditional teaching of the responsibilities of wealth. What strikes me about traditional Islam is that the wealthy are to hold themselves accountable for the desperate circumstances of those whose behavior we would judge criminal. What a novel idea!
Our prisons and streets are full of people who have made bad choices, committed crimes. We pass judgment and send them to jail, confined at our expense. Prison populations in the United States are the highest per capita in the world. We need greater accountability, not simplistic judgment. There are unanswered questions we need to be asking:
- Why do so many people make so many bad choices repeatedly?
- What is life like for them such that criminal behavior or self-destructive behaviors feel like reasonable options?
- What exactly would it take for people to make better choices?
- Is there anything we could do with our power and wealth to alter the conditions that are the contexts for repeated bad choices, criminal choices?
The lazy way is to pronounce an ultimatum: “Just say no to crime!” The lazy way is to pass judgment and lock ‘em up, or bomb ‘em. It is we, the privileged who don’t need to steal bread, who are not holding ourselves accountable for what is in our hands to do in breaking the cycles of crime.
It’s simple playground wisdom: Whenever we point our fingers in blame, there are three pointing back at us.
May we hold ourselves accountable, resisting judgment and blame. May we do what is in our power to do in order to affirm the inherent worth of all beings, our great commandment.