It is perhaps impossible to write without sounding judgmental about others’ judgment of judgmentalism; pointing out the falsely grounded and smug self-assuredness of those who condemn smugness may also render any critic himself smug–but here goes.
I am self aware enough to know that most of the many songs I have written are silly, sentimental, pathetic, boring, sub-clever, sappy, preachy, and probably ridiculous. That said, when listening to folk music I often pull remaining hairs from my head.
Last night we listened to a “live performance radio” program on which a folk musician was introduced with a glowing review of her latest album, a gospel-genre celebration of agnosticism. This singer, in songs that could have been written by any overly introspective college student, gloatingly protested all that is in fact wrong with “Christians,” namely judgmentalism and that the “Christian” heaven is “too small.”
But here was the catch, I realized not long after my annoyance at her mis-characterization of Christianity had turned into chuckles at the inevitable irony of her own judgmentalism: Her ardent denunciation of these traits of certain religious factions placed her not in some camp diametrically opposed to Christianity, but in bed with Christ himself! That is, even while she delighted in revealing the missteps of that certain “Christian” faction, her very rejection of those downfalls–and they truly are unfortunate–affirmed her even deeper, maybe even subconscious, agreement with that which Jesus taught.
During the program, we played Scrabble. With N’s help, M beat me by three points:
