"Work out thine own salvation with fear and trembling..."

I recall a story that an Institute teacher told me in class one day.

"When Moses went to the mountain, the Lord gave 10 very simple commandments. When he came down, the children of Israel said 'that's to much work'. So they created over 690 really small rules, which thus became the Book of Leviticus. So minor are these laws that they range from certain hairstyles to how you use the restroom. The same is in the Utah Mormon culture. Our church has asked of its people to proclaim the gospel, do missionary work, redeem the dead, and to love others as we would ourselves. Instead, most Mormons reject those and have created their own personal Levitical list. "Do not drink Coke on Sunday"...."Do not wash your car on Sunday"...."Do not dye your hair a certain color"..."Picking up your room on the Sabbath is not holy"....who came up with this stuff? I was once told by an older member of the church that I was going to hell because I wore an Abercombie & Fitch t-shirt. She said I was not honoring God because that company endorses pornography. I simply responded, "Well Sister, most of the men at BYU are going to be joining me because they mostly wear the same style shirt from Abercrombie!"

I absolutely love this. "Who am I to judge my brother, when I walk imperfectly? Lord, may I follow thee" Hymns, #220

Where is any of this listed in the standard works? The prophets? The apostles? The answer is NOWHERE. Not one mention of it.

We have been given a precious gift: agency (Gen 3:7). We can choose for ourselves what we deem to be morally acceptable and unacceptable. The Lord said to Jeremiah, "I am thy judge...no other gods shall be put before me".



Loechner's "The Great and Dreadful Day", 1487

So why do we Christians (I mean all Christians...LDS, Baptist, Catholic, whatever) judge one another? Do we not read the Bible? If we believe that we have the right to judge others, then we are infact blasphemers. "For he had the power to heal others, not he cant help himself!" said the mockers at the cross.

By saying that we have a Biblical right to judge is to put God into a box and let him come out when we say He should. That is saying, "Ok God....I have everything under control. You can go away now and sit in the corner. If I need you, I'll ask for your help". WRONG! WRONG! WRONG!

It is in fact un-Christian to judge another. That is following the path Satan laid out. Satan saught to place himself above that of God in the Grand Beginning. Satan wanted his followers to judge another, to bring them down into a desperate state. Is that the plan we wish to follow?

“Look not on his countenance, or on the height of his stature; because I have refused him: for the Lord seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart.” (1 Sam. 16:7)

The reason that we cannot judge is obvious. We cannot see what is in the heart. We do not know motives, although we impute motives to every action we see. They may be pure while we think they are improper.

When we judge people, which we should not do, we have a great tendency to look for and take pride in finding weaknesses and faults, such as vanity, dishonesty, immorality, and intrigue. As a result, we see only the worst side of those being judged. The Prophet Joseph Smith said that the dead will be judged out of records kept on earth. We will also be judged out of the “book of life,” which is kept in heaven (see D&C 128:6–8).

By not judging, that is the only way to show real charity. It is hard to understand why we are ready to condemn our neighbors and our friends on circumstantial evidence while we are all so determined to see that every criminal has a fair and open trial. Surely we can try to eliminate pride, passion, personal feeling, prejudice, and pettiness from our minds, and show charity to those around us.

God is our only judge. The Lord told us that when He said that we will "be judged according to the holy judgment of God." (2 Nephi 9:15)

Will I be judge for being gay? Yes, but it will not be the sole reason. At the beginning of a Catholic mass, a prayer for the regret of sin is spoken. Within, it contains the words "for what I have done, and for what I have failed to do". I think this is how the Lord will judge us, by what we have done and what we have failed to do. He will examine the righteousness of our hearts, the purpose behind our doings, and the intentions behind them. Thus, there is reason to have hope.