Christian Living

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Should a person be judged by what he says in the privacy of his home or in the confidence of another? Do people have the right to think a certain way? Is it wrong to express negative thoughts in the confines of a private setting? How about prejudicial viewpoints that are expressed privately to another with no thought of public exposure? Whenever one is judged for violating ethics, his right to think and express his view has been severely invaded. If an individual expresses his viewpoints publically, then he should be held accountable. Some of us are aware of the debacle concerning the owner of a professional basketball team who voiced derogatory remarks about those of a different race. His remarks were secretly recorded and then released for public scrutiny. It caused such a firestorm, fanned by the media, that sensors were leveled against him to the point of demanding the forfeiture of his ties to his team. The ultimate goal is to force him to sell the team or experience a hostile take over. (Is this the new America?) What the owner of those remarks said was ethically and morally unacceptable, but to attack his right to express his views to a confidant in private is to tread on the right of an individual to think whatever he chooses. If he had publicly ventilated those racial tirades, there would have been a justification to take appropriate actions, but to take a private conversation and make it public is just as morally and ethically wrong as it is to publically express racial slander.

One day, Jesus was confronted by a group of self righteous men who had brought to Him a woman caught in adultery. They wanted to see if Jesus would enforce the Biblical law which defined the punishment for adultery as stoning. Jesus simply responded that whoever was without sin should throw the first stone. The only throwing that day was of the stones thrown to the ground. (John 8:3-11) How many of us today would be able to stand before the Lord innocent of thought violations? If people were honest, it would be difficult for anyone to judge another’s private thoughts and actions without exposing their own inconsistencies. The window to our heart is exposed through our thoughts and private communications. What keeps people from a changed heart is unchanged thoughts. If what we say or think in private were made public, I wonder how many people would be able to stand without fear of prejudicial scrutiny.


We all have a right to entertain our feelings and even our prejudices, but we also have a responsibility to keep them to ourselves until the Holy Spirit helps us to remove our biases and negative thoughts. If this great country of ours can force people to relinquish control of their own materialistic enterprises as a result of simply hearing expressions of negativity ventilated to a “Judas,” it may not be too long before the Church will also experience scrutiny with consequential censorship when what it proclaims within its walls will be misrepresented to the fault seeking world.

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