Today, a certain group of self-righteous bullies published a post. I fixed it for them.

Every Day, a certain select subset of the Smug Churchy Community and its supporters engage in an endlessly-long celebration of “Self-Righteous Pride Fest”, filling social media with buttoned up profile pictures, creating chevron-covered memes with 10 different fonts, and holier than thou festivals and blog posts. Support for flaunting their own obvious and superior righteousness is visible even with some of those who are members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

With self-righteous judmentalism’s smug legality (since always), like those in the Book of Mormon, we observed “that they had altered and trampled under their feet the laws … which the Lord commanded … and they saw that their laws had become corrupted” (Helaman 4:22) and “Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.”(Matthew 22:36) and “this was alarming to the people of the church, and also to all those who had not been drawn away after the persuasions” (Alma 2:3).

For after all, Some members of the Church have also been “drawn away after the persuasions” of the world and support the condemnation and cruel judgment of others. However, they may not fully recognize that their support for Judgmentalism inadvertently supports serious soul-sucking sin. These judgmental life styles are (and always will be) incompatible with the doctrine and standards of the gospel of Jesus Christ. To this point, we may be asking ourselves, “So why is this particular sin supported by more members of the Church than any other type of sin? Is there any other sin that’s supported like this one? What is it about this particular sin that many seem to be so comfortable with supporting and affirming, but not others?” The answer to these questions is sobering: judgmentalism has become a protected class of sin.

With the weight of our culture bearing down upon us, some in our wards and stakes have been convinced that lack of compassion, unkindness, rejection, and judgmentalism are somehow different and more worthy or acceptable than any other sin. By separating it from the list of more pedestrian and culturally-inappropriate sins (porn use, drug and alcohol abuse, adultery, etc.) people feel justified in accepting and even condoning it. Perhaps this is how some in the Church feel okay—perhaps even noble—about supporting the judgmentalism. People are making special allowances for this sin that they would never make for any other sin.

Judgmentalism as a protected class of sin.

Pause for a moment and consider if there is any other sin that is so widely accepted or affirmed by some members of the Church (or even other Christian faiths) as the sinful prideful self-righteous rants denying the worth and value of God’s precious children. The next time you come across an article, meme, profile picture or post in support of it, substitute “cruel and heartless judgment” with another sin in its place (LDS.org lists adultery as an example.) Substitute “cruel and ignorant judgment” with “adultery” into any post, article or conversation about judging others and see how fast it changes things. In fact, try substituting “cruel and callous judgment” with any other sin and see what happens. It’s an interesting exercise. It shows just how desensitized we have become to this particular sin. We are making special allowances for behaviors that we would never make for other ones. It’s difficult to find anything in comparison and nothing is granted so much leniency. Why is this so?

For this LDS audience, we are taught by prophets and apostles and the scriptures teach that not loving others is among the most serious sins. All sin is not created equal. Some sins are treated with more weight, some people get really wound up about sins that Jesus never once saw fit to mention, and he was crystal clear with this one, Judge not, Love they neighbor. With this issue, perhaps condoning and accepting Judgmentalism is easier and less risky than speaking truth in our wards and stakes (even if done in love.) We don’t want to come across as unkind, unloving or judgmental (even if we are), no wait . . . we don’t actually want to *be* unkind, unloving, or judgmental, because Jesus. So we may call something unloving “love” as a way to justify cruel conversations with fellow Church members. And we do so at the peril of allowing false doctrine to be accepted as truth in our families, classes or callings. We’re often unsure (or perhaps afraid) of how to teach truth with kindness.

Of this, Elder Christofferson taught:

There’s no kindness in misdirecting people and leading them into any misunderstanding about what is true, what is right, what is wrong, what leads to Christ and what leads away from Christ.

As members of the Church, we are responsible to teach the gospel of Jesus Christ and to illuminate the great blessings that flow from heeding God’s commandments as well as the inevitable consequences of ignoring them. We invite you to pray that people everywhere will have their hearts softened to the truths of the gospel.

Judgment is institutionalized sin.

Important side note before proceeding: Many quote in the Salt Lake Tribune article discussing an interview Elder Christofferson had on KUTV, indicating that it is “okay for members to support same-sex marriage”. However, they use words of an apostle to support the absolutely crucial connections to the doctrine and standards that Elder Christofferson also teaches in that same interview. He never once said that “being cruel, self-righteous, and judgmental is okay” but that there are “differing opinions” on the subject of gay-marriage. There is an eventual hope and expectation that, at some point, one will come into alignment with the teachings of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, that we will Love one Another. If we are not very careful, we will think it means we’re being given a license to support serious unloving cruelty and abusing the words of an Apostle. Let us not use this to justify unkindness, unfairness, or hostility to God’s children. Rather, let us teach true doctrine and principles in order to help change attitudes, beliefs or behavior. An accurate understanding of Church doctrine is necessary in order to remain fully grounded in the gospel while living in a society that is so deeply bad at it.

With new laws and changes in public policy bringing gay marriage to the forefront, we are seeing an increase of cruelty, rejection, and judgment within our wards and stakes (particularly within the older generation, their peers.) Herein lies the doctrinal deception and great misunderstanding by so many wonderful members of the Church: supporting and affirming cruelty is supporting and affirming something that is a serious sin and an act of apostasy. This becomes clear when viewed through the lens of doctrine, standards and eternal truths.

The Church Handbook of Instructions directs a lot of things that seem unsupported by Jesus’s number one law of loving others.

This direction and counsel should give us reason to pause and carefully examine what we support. It’s something that may be difficult to read or understand, particularly with the geriatric and elderly-adults of the Church who are immersed in cruel shame-filled judgement as part of their culture. We will need to help them to understand, ever patiently and lovingly, that warning and teaching about the sin of cruel and relentless judgmentalism is “preaching what we practice“.

In summary, a good rule of thumb for dealing with difficult issues might be this: If it’s where the Gospel of Jesus stands, then it’s where I need to stand. The Lord’s side of the line is always the right side of the line.