Sometimes you have to call out what is evil. It’s an act of mercy: letting someone continue to do what is stupid and dangerous is not loving or merciful. Particularly when you have done pretty much the same thing and are living with the consequences. Recently there has been a scandal of sorts about a young woman making porn to pay her college tuition: apparently she has a bill of around 60K per annum. And she’s studying something worthless.

Yeah, what’s with all the porn actress college girls majoring in Women’s Studies, anyway? Soon all the frat guys will be saying, “Oh, that chick’s a Women’s Studies major? I’ll bet she gives great – .”

Well, it’s a bit like my thoughts about the kid being frozen. If there are kids in the building, why is the outside door locked? Have a warm porch where people can shelter. For some parents are simply bad. It is the way I think: I’ve supported putting barriers on bridges. In short, I judge.

And then I consider how carefully I write discharge letters, public letters: the family could read them. And how one tries to protect the innocent — one can indicate the problem without giving details, and some details have no place in the public arena.

But that requires wisdom, and wisdom involves discernment, judgment.

I think John calls wisdom the logos, the word, God… and that he has always been with God and will always with God. For today’s passage talks about wisdom being from the beginning: it is not that great a speculation to see Jesus as God and his wisdom incarnate, and wisdom as part of the personhood of Christ.

Proverbs 8:22-36

²²The LORD created me at the beginning of his work, the first of his acts of long ago. ²³ Ages ago I was set up, at the first, before the beginning of the earth. ²⁴ When there were no depths I was brought forth, when there were no springs abounding with water. ²⁵ Before the mountains had been shaped, before the hills, I was brought forth – ²⁶ when he had not yet made earth and fields, or the world’s first bits of soil. ²⁷ When he established the heavens, I was there, when he drew a circle on the face of the deep, ²⁸ when he made firm the skies above, when he established the fountains of the deep, ²⁹ when he assigned to the sea its limit, so that the waters might not transgress his command, when he marked out the foundations of the earth, ³⁰ then I was beside him, like a master worker; and I was daily his delight, rejoicing before him always, ³¹ rejoicing in his inhabited world and delighting in the human race.

³² And now, my children, listen to me: happy are those who keep my ways. ³³ Hear instruction and be wise, and do not neglect it. ³⁴ Happy is the one who listens to me, watching daily at my gates, waiting beside my doors. ³⁵ For whoever finds me finds life and obtains favor from the LORD; ³⁶ but those who miss me injure themselves; all who hate me love death.”

John 12:20-26

²⁰Now among those who went up to worship at the festival were some Greeks. ²¹They came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, and said to him, “Sir, we wish to see Jesus.” ²²Philip went and told Andrew; then Andrew and Philip went and told Jesus. ²³Jesus answered them, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. ²⁴Very truly, I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. ²⁵Those who love their life lose it, and those who hate their life in this world will keep it for eternal life. ²⁶Whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am, there will my servant be also. Whoever serves me, the Father will honor.

Right.

Our current society says that one cannot judge, particularly if you do not have an oppression card. I’m excerpting a series of comments from the women and the dragon combox here (SSM is the moderator).

“The boundless hypocrisy of the left never ceases to amaze me.”

I am free to judge my own; but no one else is free to judge my own.

I may judge you; but you may not judge me.

I, a liberal modern, may judge everything according to whatever standards I wish; but you, a nonliberal, may not judge anything according to any standards whatsoever.

They do love to use the ‘let he who is without sin cast the first stone’ as a means to stop people being judgmental of others actions. However, in that scenario it is the act of DEATH by Stoning that Jesus is condemning, nothing else. So… in order to use it appropriately one must prove that the person you are conflating it with is about to stone someone to death.. I see girlwiththetrampstamp wasn’t able to prove that..

[ssm: Ah, you’ve sussed who the unnamed (and now banned) commenter was. She set off my “not-quite-right” radar from day 1. The rest of the comment (left in moderation), which I didn’t quote, spends a hundred odd words or so shaming and judging me, and also mentions that I’ll always be stuck with a bunch of middle-aged men for commenters because I’m so judgmental. Apparently middle-aged men are shameful creatures or something and I should be ashamed of their presence here. lol Physician heal thyself was all I could think.]

Hmpf..these middle-aged men are the part of His remnant who are being sent to speak the truth of His Law to the sons and daughters of the masses of wayward, whitewashed, and liberal Christians who go by what they “think” and “feel” as opposed to actually picking up a Bible and asking Father Yahweh to speak life to them through his Word.

Hey SSM, they’re gong to be like those people in Proverbs 5:10-14…their goods will be handed over to outsiders, they’ll be a hollering and a shouting while their flesh burns with fire, and be pissed at themselves for not listening to sound doctrine, and end up looking all silly and downcast in front of the entire community of true believers. How is THAT for shame and regret? When all they have to do is just listen, that is if they have ears. Mine are daily being cleansed from the wax of leaven, lust, and enabling of sin.

I am not sure if Christ was just referring to the execution when he said “him without sin should cast the first stone”. There is a more general issue: the measure by which you judge will be used to judge against you. Because, and this is why there is so many accusations that the Christian Tradosphere is so judgmental, the measure you choose is the measure by which you will fail. Coming back to the initial issue — the woman who is whoring and a student, quite sensibly, has a nomme du femme du jour. She knows that if she does this using her real name she will be shunned. And when the name came out (quite quickly) she is shamed, hurt… and knows that she has broken the law. For the law is hard wired in us, along with our desires, our intelligence, and all the other components of our broken human nature.

For the internet cannot condemn. There is a lot on the internet that probably should be condemned, from the Daily Kos to Islamic Rage Boy. All we can do is be like wisdom, and warn.

And without these warnings, we cannot hold a frame of authority: we are seen as weak. People forget that any parent still loves their child when they are admonishing them — as every mother of toddlers in this freezing northern winter (the summer here is gone, but that’s nothing: it is one-thermal weather, not full ski gear, and you need the latter in the US and Canada at the moment). She warns her little child because she cares, and does not want the child to get will, get hypothermia, or to find her daughter frozen.

We teach, properly, on these things. As we teach, properly, on the use of toothbrushes, handwashing, and the need for your plumbing to be to code. But we forget that we need to teach and warn about the habits of sin, and how they can entrap us. And that the cost of our fallen nature is immeasurable.