Judge not?

Today I saw someone saying that we should go easy on religious people because even if they don't always do the right thing in practice, the ideals they're trying to live up to are at least good ones such as "Judge not, lest ye be judged".

You know what, though? As an atheist, I no longer have to pretend it's a virtue to not judge people and ideas and movements that cause active harm. The rest of the verse goes "By the measure you use, you will be measured." And I'm okay with being measured by my own standard.

Because my standard is: Don't harm people. REALLY don't harm people who are already struggling. And if you have the resources to help people who've been harmed, do that to the extent that you can without harming yourself.

I do all that shit. I measure up to that standard.

And every religion, everywhere, talks about that standard, but in practice brings about the opposite result.

We've already heard everything that religious people have to say. They've been saying it for millennia. But we've also seen what they actually DO. 

Religious people SAY a lot about peace and non-violence, but what they actually DO is turn the Middle East into a continual war zone for centuries. They SAY a lot about love and acceptance, but what they actually DO the minute they get any political power, anywhere, is try to take away the rights, or even lives, of LGBTQ people because of who they love. Religious people SAY a lot about being non-judgmental, but what they actually DO is ostracize not only irreligious people and people of other religions, but even people who believe the same religion they do but not in exactly the same way. Religious people SAY a lot about feeding the hungry, housing the homeless, taking care of the sick and the elderly and the orphan, but what they actually DO is fight tooth and nail to defund programs that do all those things. Religious people SAY a lot about how they're on the side of the powerless, but what they actually DO is support the existing power structures that have disempowered the powerless.

Religious people can have some respect from the rest of us when they stop trying to convince the rest of us to believe what they do, and start acting as if THEY believe it.

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