Posted by Jason on January 08, 1997 at 00:01:27:
In Reply to: Re: Bertrand Russell posted by Lynn on January 07, 1997 at 09:39:46:
: "Judge not, lest ye be judged", means that Christians are not supposed to condemn others in our hearts and decide the condition of their spiritual health. I have always found it to be true that when I become angry with someone and get all eat up over it, I start looking at their life and pointing out all that is I see that is wrong in order to prove to myself that I am the better person, therefore, I am right. Inevitably, God will show me how I have also committed those same errors in one form or another (and many others besides), and reminds me about the depths from which I have been rescued, and that I ought to be thankful that the One who forgives me is far nobler, kinder, and merciful than I was just being to that other person. This is when I am reminded of the words, "judge not lest ye be judged".
: This is not an instruction to let criminals run amuck. America is considered to be a Christian country, founded on Christian principles, at least that's what people on both sides of the God issue keep telling me. It is my understanding that we have a pretty liberal justice system compared to most countries. Have I been misinformed?
Just a comment on this part. I'm not entirely sure what you mean by "Christian" principles.
If you mean "good" as "Christian" then I don't think they can be appropriately labelled
as exclusively Christian. Many other belief systems lay claim to these values as well.
Although I'm not a US citizen (I'm a Canadian), to my knowledge the US Constitution was
written by Deists, not Christians. The principles of democracy were not conceived from
the Bible but from ancient Greek and Chinese philosophers and later by humanistic
intellectuals in the Age of Enlightenment.