I pride myself on my unfusiness. But it’s an unsustainable state to be in. Plans go sideways and life gets hectic and complaints happen— more often than they should. And then you’re not unfussy anymore because smiling makes you feel like a fraud. I’ve realized that I’m not the only one who prides myself on being unfussy however. In fact there seems to be a movement of easygoing-ness sweeping through my generation. Our holy language gets reduced to trite sayings and encounters with God that send shivers down our spines are described as “fun”, and meals are as “great” as are mountains, and God.

I feel like this wave of easygoing-ness that’s sweeping through our generation is supposed to be an affront to the judgmentalism we associate with all “religiosity” and regulation. We hate litanies and sacraments and so we’re willing to throw out babies with the dirty bathwater and our message becomes all about the “love of God”.

This topic has been put on my radar because I was recently confronted for not being easygoing enough. What do you know, I’m a harbinger of darkness and doom because I don’t mind making a case for tacos when asked to decide between Indian and Mexican food. I should say “I’m fine with whatever.” Because that’s the will of God for my life— indecisiveness. It’s all silly until we realize that we’ve confused any type of assertiveness for the kind of rigidity that calls to mind the dystopian fundamentalism shown in the Handmaid’s Tale. We’re afraid to make a case for our faith and we pray that people will never question our stand on controversial topics because then we’ll have to actually make a stand.

It’s an irony because in making the decision to flee from a certain kind of perceived dogma, we actually make the judgement that a) anything that appears remotely [fill in the blank] must certainly be dogmatic and b) we make the judgment that that kind of dogmatism is not worthy of our time.

What Does The Bible Say?

We’re called to exercise good judgment everyday (1 Corinthians 2:15). We can’t expose ourselves to everything under the sun in the name of “open-mindedness” because then we put ourselves on the slippery slope to temptation and sin. Not everything is good and we should learn to discern, and not be afraid to follow the right path even when it contradicts popular belief. We’re also called to refrain from judging others(Matthew 7:1-3), and it’s in moments like this that I wish I knew Hebrew so that I could distinguish between the words used in the different instances.

When We're Not Called to Judge

Jon Bloom has written about this topic on Desiringgod.com and in his words:

"We must not judge “the hidden . . . purposes of the heart” of other Christians based on their decisions, actions, perspectives, words, or personality that concern us if those things themselves are not explicitly sinful (1 Corinthians 4:5). We must not assume sin if we suspect sin, given how biased our suspicions can be."

We’re called to not pass judgement based on appearances(John 7:24). We all have a tendency to see more into others’ actions than we should. Someone’s reserved nature might be mistaken for haughtiness and their discomfort around crowds has to mean they don’t like people. People who only eat vegetables must surely think they’re better than those who eat meat, and those who listen to non-mainstream music must think they’ve seen the face of God. That’s not your call to make.

When We’re Called to Judge

When we see a believer walking in sin, we’re called to correct them(1 Corinthians 5:12 & 1 Corinthians 5:3). “But we’re all sinners” you might say, yes we’re all sinners, who should understand the magnitude of our calling to live holy lives(1 Peter 1:15). If we find ourselves in habitual sin and excuse ourselves by saying that we’re not perfect, we fail to understand what Jesus did in dying for us on the cross. It means we’re comfortable with nailing him to the cross everyday and holding him up to contempt (Romans 6:2 & Hebrews 6:4-6).

We're Not to Condemn

We must walk the careful line between judging rightfully and condemning others. We’re to call others out for their sin, so that they may be saved from eternal damnation. As James says in James 5:19-20, a person who’s corrected from wandering from the truth is saved from death and covered from a multitude of sins. We’re not called, however, to make the decision that only God can make on the judgment day in deciding who’ll spend eternity with him and who’ll spend eternity in hell. So let’s be slow to pass judgment but let’s not withhold truth out of fear of offending others. When we do that we show that we fear man more than we fear God.