Adrian+L’s+2015+OpEd+Article

(If you do not know where this is from you can read it [|here] John 8:1-11)

All my life I have grown up in a Christian home with family members who are very devoted Christians, because of this I have learned what it is to be a "true" or "good" Christian, I have learned that all sin is the same in God's eyes, I have learned that we do not have the right to judge others because everyone has sinned, I have learned that you need to love others to fulfill God's law, so on and so forth.

Last week we had someone speak at our Youthgroup, Wayne Rich an Ex-drug addict, who has gone through a lot and made a bad habit of cussing. Our pastor who is close friends with Wayne warned us about this and said if we did not want to hear it or if we are sensitive to cussing then we should not go, but judging by the reactions of some of the people there they did not listen to our pastor's advice. This made me quit infuriated because our pastor specifically told us not to go if we did not want to hear it. Something that really pissed me off is that he was being himself and he us who he really was, from which I learned a lot, yet people were mad when he dropped a few F-bombs, something that most people probably hear everyday. I know for a fact that our pastor is not who he always says he is when he is on stage, which to me is worse then letting a few curse words slip while speaking, but ultimately it is the same in God's eyes which some people do not understand. These people did not make the connection that we are all sinners, and they did not have the right to judge and get mad at Wayne for cussing. No one is perfect, we all make mistakes and do things that are wrong, just because you hear someone say things that he shouldn't when he is talking to highschoolers, does not justify being mad with him for showing his true colors in front of others, which is something that takes courage. It takes courage because being yourself shows your flaws, something that people do not want others to see, but he showed us his flaws and told us about his mistakes to teach us, he put his ego down to show us that taking a path similar to the one he took is not worth it, and he let us into his life to show us his regrets and imperfections out of hope that one person would take something from his talk and turn their life around for the better. Instead of everyone being thankful and appreciating what he did, people who were upset with his cursing made him feel so bad, that he came to us with tears in his eyes, apologizing, begging for our forgiveness, saying that he blew it. He, in no way, should have been apologizing to us.

I know that me writing this is also wrong, because I am criticizing these people, but it is just not right to make a soon to be 57 year old man come crying for forgiveness, because they were judging him for his cussing. Out of all the positive things that came from Wayne talking to us, like how he taught us how drugs pull you away from God, he showed us his true self, he gave us the opportunity to learn about the mistakes he made to prevent us from doing the same thing, and more, people were focusing on the one negative part of him speaking. All of what I have written essentially comes down to this: The staff and parents had no right to judge Wayne because he sins or makes mistakes “differently” from them, no one is perfect, which is why these people had no right to judge Wayne. "You, therefore, have no excuse, you who pass judgment on someone else, for at whatever point you judge another, you are condemning yourself, because you who pass judgment do the same things." – Romans 2:1