Why do Christians make the statement "do not judge us since you do not know all of us"?

Question

One judges christians by the evidence they present to us. If you are not like that then maybe YOU are an exception because "most" people judge you by what the majority of you have presented yourselves as. You are judged to be a violent orginization by the history of your church. You are judged to be hate filled because the leaders of your church spout hate. You judge everyone else and are suprised that you in turn are judged?
Why are you suprised by what others think when that is what we see from the majority that we meet?

Answer 1

All people should learn to treat each other the way that want to be treated. Nobody should pass judgement on anybody else no matter who they are. Does anyone really know anybody they are passing judgement on? Many Christians pass judgement on others and yet they don't like being judged, just as many non Christians from all walks of life, also tend to pass judgement & dislike being judged.

Everyone needs to stop passing judgements on each other. It's foolish nonsense and serves no worthwhile purpose except to hurt feelings, display disrespect toward anothers beliefs, & creates hostile conditions.

When anyone passes judgement on others without really knowing a person that is childish imature behavior.

Anyone, who knows in their heart , mind & spirit that they are guilty of this pattern of behavior just needs to stop it right now & never do it again. Just think about what you say before you say it. Stop what you are about to do before you do it. And walk away from anyone who does behave in negative judgemental ways. Don't bother arguing. It isn't worth the stress.

I like what wbjesusfreak says. In addition I would add: Everyone could refer to themselves as a "Believer". All of us have our own ways of believing in things whether it is creationismn or evolutionist, Wiccan, Budhism, Muslim, Jewish or Atheism, or whatever you are.

If everyone switched to refferring to themselves as a "Believer" it would encompass a multitude of beliefs

Then if anyone asked what you believed you could reply." I am a "Believer" & that is all that is necessary for you to know."

Being a "Believer" could be non-denominational all encompassing for everyone.

Atheist believe there isn't any God, Jewish faith believes that the Messiah hasn't been born yet, Hindu's, Budhists, Muslims, Islamics & Christians all believe in one sort of God or another. Wiccan's believe in the Triple Goddess.
Evolutionist believe in evolution.

Each one of us are "Believers" in our own way. We are each entitled to our own beliefs. Each of us are entitled to be treated with respect when we are respectful toward others of different faiths.

Answer 2

More grouping and mislabeling. Most Christians today would not identify with the "violent organization" of the past church. In fact, most evangelicals will maintain that there is a vast difference between protestantism and catholicism, and that the past violence committed by catholics does not represent the protestant movement at all. And that certainly doesn't represent the church today. It's a sad argument when you have to resort to the state of the church in antiquity and use that as a basis for criticizing Christians today. History is also replete with examples of atheistic states committing atrocities (Nazi Germany, Communist Russia).

Then you say the leaders of the chruch spout hate. I'm taking leaders to mean pastors and evangelists. And here too, the overwhelming majority of pastors and evangelists preach love, while maybe an isolated few have some hate message.

The point is that the majority of Christians are good people and identifying them with violence of antiquity or a few outlandish marginalized leaders today is a very poor representation of the state of the church today.

Answer 3

All yoru doing is perpetuating a stereotype, as we all know to a certain extent stereotypes are based on some kind of small factual evidence but it isn't the evidence that makes stereotypeing wrong, its the generalization, its assuming that all people of a particular faith act all in the same way and if anything it's just as bad as steroetypeing someone with Mexican or African American decent. Its so easy for non believers to look at the bad of something and assume that thats what its all about, thats the ignorant and easy way to look at things, I think if anything make your judgements based on the actual religion not on what so many have done for there own propects disquiging it as the work of the lord. I think if anything God hates its some of the things people do and justify it by saying it is Gods word. I can assure you God never told anyone to murder abortion doctors. God doesn't hurt people, people hurt people thats the magic of free will. The Bible talks about judgeing others on many occasions and radicals just decide to put there own distorted interpretation on it, we as men have no right to judge others by there sins thats gods job. A good example of religious distortion is the existance of Christian Denomination, basically what you have are uncountable churchs all deciding which parts of the Bible they want to believe and what parts they don't based on there lifestyle, people have litterally turned religion into a high school cliq rather then a faith. Unfortunately there will be no resolution to these problems and this is also stated in the Bible on many occasions, Christians will always judge non-christians rather then offering them the information in a non intruding manner and atheists will always be the hateful rebels that they have always been and this bias distinction will exist until the sky rains fire and the world is destroyed.

Answer 4

Ever heard of sterotyping? Have you never been discriminated against? Have you ever been treated unjustly? That is exactly what you are doing to us. I do not judge everyone. Thats Gods job. I do not get treated badly or judged by anyone for my beliefs anywhere except on this forum, and thats b/c all of the cowards who spout off on here are nameless and faceless, just the way they like it.
Oh, and the question works both ways- "Why do Atheists make the statement "do not judge us since you do not know all of us?"
I do not stereotype all atheists as disrespectul, sarcastic angry, hate filled, blasphemic know-it-alls, although I have encountered a few. Everyone is different- there are extremeists in every group no matter what the belief or lack there of.

Answer 5

"Why do Christians make the statement 'do not judge us since you do not know all of us'?"
I would think it would be more accurate to say "do not judge me until AFTER you've known me. I'm an individual, just like you are.
"If you are not like that then maybe YOU are an exception...."
And shouldn't exceptions be treated differently? If someone handed you a stack of 99 counterfeit $1,000 bills and 1 real one, would you consign them all to the trash or would you at least make an effort to save the real one?
"'most' people judge you by what the majority of you have presented yourselves as."
And here I thought atheists and agnostics were "freethinkers" who refused to follow the group mentality. Dare to be unlike "most people" and decide for yourself.
"You are judged to be a violent orginization by the history of your church."
First, since I wasn't personally involved in any of that, how fair is it to judge me for the actions of others? Second, many of those conflicts weren't just about religion, but power and politics as well. For example, many of those persecuted in the inquisition were often seditious as well. As for the Crusades, Christians had long refrained from attacking Muslims, despite the latter having conquered by sword a great deal of area previously controlled by Christians, such as parts of Spain, much of Northern Africa, and the Holy Lands until the Muslims closed off the Holy Lands to Christian pilgrims (indeed, some had been roughed up). This in no way excuses atrocities in either case, but it does put them in some sort of perspective.
"You are judged to be hate filled because the leaders of your church spout hate."
And just how would you know who I consider to be a leader of my church?
"You judge everyone else...."
If you mean that I judge whether their actions are right or wrong, then you are correct. However, that's nothing more or less than what you're doing as well, so it's a bit ironic that you should follow such erroneous and onerous behavior. Or maybe it's just human nature?
"you in turn are judged"
The only judgment that ultimately matters to me is that of God's.
"Why are you suprised by what others think when that is what we see from the majority that we meet?"
By such logic (which I don't agree with), Christians should judge all atheists by, say, Madalyn Murray O'Hair, despite the protestations of many atheists that we refrain from doing so.

Answer 6

There are always "exceptions to the rule". I'm not like the majority of Christians I know (I live in the South East, a lot of scary stuff down here). I don't believe a lot of the things to which they believe. I don't act like your "regular" Christian folk and am usually an outcast at church. I would rather not be associated with Christians like the ones you speak. Is that so bad? Is that so hard? I would rather you judge me on who I am, not by my label Christian, because I'm not like your "typical" Christian. I just ask to be judge fairly, based on my thoughts and my actions, not some creep from 150 years ago, not some Bible thumper on here screaming how we're all going to burn in Hell, and not by some Atheist who says I'm delusional, please. I'd simply like to be judged by my thoughts and actions. I don't think that's so hard... I'd do the same for you.

Answer 7

For any group of people, there is the part that is loud, and rude, and want to make you think they speak for anyone. And there is the part that is not as insane.

It's like this: If you meet me on the street and found out I was Christian, would you treat me any differently? If the the answer is yes, than I say you are judging me on my beliefs and not by my actions. If the answer is no, you have the ability to see that I am a whole person and can't be labeled by any one thing.

I agree, most Christians are crazy and hateful. But just don't think I'm one of them because they are the only ones you see.

Answer 8

I'm not a Christian but I know quite a few of them, and I'd say there are good ones and some not so good.

If I was a Christian I wouldn't want people to judge -me- by the actions of other people who call themselves Christians. It's true that Christianity has caused much trouble in the past, but I think it's unfair to judge individuals prejudicially. Just as you or I would want to be judged on our own individual case, not based on the several Americans in the past who were serial murderers.

Answer 9

Christians make this statement because if you take the entire set of people who might be considered 'Christian', you will find members of that set who disagree strongly with something that other members of the set do. If you then label everyone in the set according to a sub-set, you have transferred your impression of one group of people to another group, based on some external characteristic. That is called prejudice.

I am not surprised by what others think when that is what they see from the majority of Christians they meet, but I can still take the effort to correct them when they are wrong in what they think, or when they project their wrong thought to all Christians.

Answer 10

You know, that's a stupid thing to ask, really. Most of my friends are atheists, but there are quite a few Christians as well who would never judge ME on what they've heard form other atheists. If you told me I was an evil person because of my country's bloody history, then I'd be more than shocked. Generalisations are stupid, whether made by Christians, atheists, Americans, vegetarians or whatever!

Just don't judge, that's always a good thing to do!

Answer 11

The truth is, the majority of professing Christians, are not true Christians. Anybody can go to church, give money to the church, even serve in the church, and not be a true christian. It is sad to say, but true, even a large amount, ( maybe the majority ) of Preachers and Pastors are not true Christians. Jesus said, " the road to the Kingdom of God is narrow, rough, and filled with pot- holes, and few will even find it. " That is to say, the true Christian population is very small.

I am not even using the word Christian to describe the true believer, instead I use believer, I fell there should be some distinction between the true and the false.

Don't misunderstand me, there are churches of true believers. And there are some great men of God today, walking in the Spirit of the Lord, and when you find them, you will see a reflection of Jesus Christ.


God be with you,
Evangelist, William M. Butler
Grace Evangelistic Ministry