Sunday Musings on Judging and Apocalyptic Thinking 11.23.25
Today’s posting may seem like a collection of random thoughts – and in a way, it is. I write these postings as material for a future book (if it ever gets written), but also as self-therapy. In fact, I recently responded to the following question on the Mennonite Health Assembly Association Website, “What have you learned about yourself during the past year?”, with the following:
“I have learned that I need to write – not for others, but for myself. By organizing my thoughts that I share with others, it forces me to create a lucid narrative that helps me to understand why I hold certain world views. And why others may may hold different world views. It also helps me to understand and process my own feelings. Both outcomes help me to offer more grace to myself and to others.”
This past Thursday night I awoke and could not go back to sleep. This happens to most of us on occasion – to some more than others. I can usually listen to a podcast and fall back to sleep quickly. But after listening to three different podcasts in a row that included topics on James Garfield, the partition of India in the 20th century and Shakespeare’s life, I decided to get out of bed. And I decided to write on two topics that have been swimming inside my head since last weekend.
I frequently comment on needing community. But as today’s Foresight blog articulates, what we all crave is meaningful human connection – and community provides that. And my church community provides meaningful human connection in many ways – one of which is to provide me, with the help of fellow parishioners, pathways to being a better person. So, today’s subjects surfaced while attending two church activities last weekend. And both are very topical.
Observing versus Judging
The first, “Observing versus Judging” was the topic at our Christ Church Men’s breakfast on Saturday. And given the current polarization in our society, this is extremely topical.
Our brains are hard wired to judge, and to judge quickly. For example, when we see a dark thin object in our path in the woods, our brain thinks “Snake” right away. We are immediately coming to a judgement. And we should. This is what keeps us alive and safe. However, after a few moments, we “observe” that the thing in our path is not actually a snake, but a long thin stick. So, we move on.
The problem is that we stay in judgement mode too often. And again, our brains are hardwired for this, especially when we identify with tribes. Jonathan Haidt in his book “The Righteous Mind” does a great job of articulating our need to identify with and protect our tribes. And those tribes can be our family, our community, our church, our sports teams, our schools, our race and our class. And some of our most important tribes can be our religions affiliation, our political party and our country. And we have a natural inclination to judge those who do not belong to our tribes. Again, this was a survival mechanism that has served us well. So, we are constantly judging instead of observing. However, if we can learn to observe instead of judge, we are less likely to become emotional, less likely to ignore facts, and more likely to listen. And more likely to have less unhealthy disagreement.
An exercise that Michael, who led the discussion, had us participate in was to look at words on pieces of paper and to decide whether that word was more of a “judgement word” or an “observation word”. For example, it was easy to agree that the word “ugly” was a judgement word. It was also easy to agree that “tall” was most likely an observation word. The point was to understand that the words you choose to describe matter.
I have a great example of this from by recent trip to Boston. And I relayed this example to two of my fellow Men’s Breakfast participants after our breakfast. While in Boston, I was sitting in a very large auditorium about to hear one of the conference keynote speakers – David Brooks. David Brooks is a self-described moderate who leans to the political right. But his topic that day was to recap his most recent book, “How to Know a Person”, a very inspiring book. The book describes how to become an “Illuminator”, the kind of person who uplifts others. Illuminators tend to be observers instead of judgers. In fact, Jesus was the ultimate illuminator, especially to those who were marginalized by society.
So, as I sat there waiting for Mr. Brooks to speak, a former client, who is the CEO of a large senior living services organization in St. Louis, came up to me. He is a wonderful person and he and I were genuinely happy to see each other after not seeing each other for almost five years. After a quick hello I mentioned that I was very excited to hear David speak and that he was a sort of a hero to me. Without missing a beat, this individual said, “You know that he is a pseudo-conservative, don’t you?” I was taken aback not only by how abruptly the tone of the conversation changed, but how certain he was of his description of David Brooks. Remember, the words we choose to describe matter. I only said, “Well, I believe he considers himself a moderate with conservative leanings. But I asked myself why would someone use the word pseudo-conservative? And I would have teased that out of my former client, but he had to go back to his seat and so we had to end our conversation.
When I relayed this exchange, one of my fellow breakfast companions was so amused that he started laughing. After recovering himself, he asked if it really happened the way I described. I said It really did happen. This exchange I had in Boston is a classic example of the righteous mind that Haidt describes in his book. It also illustrates that we like assign things, events and especially people with simple labels. By doing so, it makes life easier to understand.
But herein lies the problem. Life is NOT BLACK AND WHITE. It is gray. Things, events and people do not fit into nice boxes or fall into exact labels. Life itself and people are complicated. Last night, after watching another episode of “Slow Horses” on Netflix, Elizabeth said that the characters are really complicated. And she was right. But what makes it obvious that they are complicated is how they must deal with the extreme circumstances they are put in. We are no different. Each of us is complicated and a walking contradiction. And when we recognize that trait in ourselves and learn to accept that, and in doing so, still love and respect ourselves, the more likely we can love and accept others without immediately judging each person by putting a label on them.
Is David Brooks a snake we see in our path? For my former client, he seems be something that many people find difficult to understand – accepting some things that conservatives believe in and rejecting others while accepting some things that liberals believe in while rejecting others. However, my former client wants to put everyone into a box. Maybe he needed to see either a snake or stick in his path. And maybe David Brooks is a cane. But why would a cane be in his path? So, he sees David Brooks as a pseudo-stick. And if that thing is not a stick, it must be a threat. And so, somehow Mr. Brooks becomes another type of snake. And that is how we begin to ignore facts and start to judge instead of observing.
Let me be clear, I not asking all conservatives and all liberals to become moderates. But even conservatives do not agree on all issues. We are seeing that play out right now. And liberals do not agree on everything. I remember telling a friend while attending a youth ministry volunteer get-together years ago that everyone in the room has a different theology. She looked at me funny. And I explained that even though we all might have the same core beliefs, all of us have different ways in which we live out those core beliefs, hence we have different theologies. The same is true with our poitical beliefs.
It is more productive to understand others by observing and to not immediately judge a person because he or she has a different viewpoint. Others have every right to their opinion as we have to ours. The trick is to get others to disclose why they hold certain opinions and beliefs. But you must observe and not judge for this to happen. And that is very difficult for all of us. But if you can master that skill as described in “How to Know a Person”, the magic of illumination begins. And even if you still disagree with that person’s opinion, YOU will be more informed. YOU will have less judgement. And YOU will be more pleasant to be around!
Apocalyptic Thinking
The second topic, Apocalyptic thinking, was discussed last Sunday during “Formation in the Parlor”. This session occurs between the 9 a.m. and 11 a.m. services and creates an opportunity to do a deeper dive into that Sunday’s scripture reading. It is designed to help with Christian Formation by forming a deeper understanding of what Scripture is saying, the context in which the Scripture is written and how we can apply it to our lives today. The scripture we studied last Sunday was Luke 21: 5-19.
Upon an initial reading of that passage, Luke seems to suggest that Jesus’ message was apocalyptic, especially when he describes how the temple in Jerusalem will be destroyed, nation will rise against nation, and persons will be betrayed, even by family. And there is context to this passage. There was heavy Roman persecution of Jews at the time because of the “Jewish Uprising”. And by the time this passage was written the temple in Jerusalem may have already been destroyed, which would have been around 70 A.D. And remember, Christianity at this point is still considered a Jewish Sect. So, many Christians were beginning to believe that every day could be the last day. And for many Christian Jews, every day may have been a crisis. But treating every event like it is the final event or every day like it is the last day creates a mindset of crisis management. This is obviously not a good way to live.
This form of thinking is also known as Apocalyptic thinking. Apocalyptic thinking is living your life in constant stress – treating most micro events and macro events as if they were emergencies that must be addressed right away. In his short essay titled “Every Day is Not the Last Day” , Mark Ramsey suggest that this is a very dangerous mindset for many reasons. “When we treat every moment as the last moment, we risk losing something essential.” We risk losing hope and we run the risk of sinking into hopeless despair.
When we read the passage from Mark more closely, Jesus also gives us hope. He tells us, “Not to worry”, “I will give you wisdom and words”, and finally, “not a hair on your head will perish. Stand firm, and you will win life.” And this is consistent with the rest of the New Testament where he tells us to plan, to continue to plant seeds.
The following email from a participant sums up our Formation in the Parlor discussion nicely. “Thanks for sharing this with us. I found it very powerful. Several lines stood out to me considering our group discussion on Sunday. ‘Jesus lived with urgency AND long-term vision. This is the fundamental tension of Christian hope……The urgency of today’s work exists because of tomorrow’s promise, not despite it. This is a durable hope. It takes the present seriously without collapsing the future into it.’”
As we live our lives, we do the best we can. This is all we can do. How do you change the world for the better? You do this the same way you eat an elephant – one bite at a time. Do not let the enormity of the task deflate you of hope. Keep at it. Humanity has faced worse.
If we all do our part, one relationship at a time, there is hope and there will be progress to a better place. Apocalyptic thinking leads us to pursue short-cuts, which do not work, saps our emotional energy, leading to burnout, and takes us away from playing the long game and that is to “win life”. But here is the final reason to avoid Apocalyptic thinking. By avoiding Apocalyptic thinking, we send a message to the next generation that they do have a future, and we equip them with the understanding and wisdom that will serve them across decades. This allows them to play the long game, which is the only game worth playing. Peace be with you.
