Do Not Judge People; Love Them.

Do not Judge People; Love them.

By Ogiri John Ogiri.

Photo Credit: strivingforeternity.org

In our world today, many people are living in abject frustrations arising from the prevailing high levels of poverty, wars, lack and deprivations occasioned by unfair and unjust government’s political, social and economic policies that tend to favour the rich more than they favour the poor and vulnerable. As consequences, our society has continued to witness increasing crime rates expressed and operationalized through prostitution, armed robbery, frauds and terrorism in all its ramifications just to mention a few. Perpetrators of these social vices are those we label criminals or undesirable social elements. This situation has, thus, placed a huge social and moral burden on us to restore their lives and destinies to them. How then, do you we solve it? Is judging and condemning  them enough?

As a way out, governments of many countries around the world on their parts have continued to invest in the establishment of more prison facilities where these ‘scums of the society’, or ‘the wretched of the earth’  (as Frantz Fanon sympathetically described them) are confined to undergo a process of re-socialization. Unfortunately, some return to the society worse than they were before they were arrested, tried and convicted. In a sense, the government seems to be more interested in treating the symptoms than they are in treating the diseases that cause the symptoms to manifest in the first place. Treating a disease’s symptoms without killing the disease itself amounts to no treatment.  For instance, killing robbers instead of killing those factors that motivate robbery does not solve the problem of robbery. Therefore, arresting, detaining, trying and convicting or executing prostitutes, armed bandits, drug traffickers, terrorists, fraudsters instead of arresting and killing those factors that encourage prostitution in prostitutes; robbery in armed robbers; drug trafficking in drug traffickers; terrorism in terrorists and fraud in fraudsters respectively, will produce a more effective and an enduring end than doing otherwise. In the developed societies of western Europe and North America,  governments are doing their best in initiating and executing some people-oriented programmes. Some countries in Africa are equally replicating the gesture of providing public goods through human-faced public policy initiation, design and implementation directed towards people empowerment and employment. And in all fairness, the various people empowerment initiatives of the Nigerian government under the nomenclature of ‘Social Investment Programmes’ namely Npower Programme, GEEP, Anchor Borrowers Programme, School Feeding programme et cetera all aimed at ameliorating the harsh economic plights of the less privileged is highly commendable. It should be sustained. But we must not lose memory of the fact that several millions are still wallowing in abject situations that expose and predispose them to crime and criminal tendencies. Efforts should be intensified more vigorously to show everyone love in practical terms- through empowerment and employment.

In our individual capacities, we all try to offer solutions. The truth, however, is that, most of our solutions are usually nauseating and discouraging to offenders and victims of social injustices. Whenever, we encounter the sinners, we suddenly become judgemental and condemning instead of understanding, loving and helping them to become better to the extent that they do not have to see any more reason to remain in their criminal or sinful conditions. Judging and condemning them is not a solution; it merely fuels the heat for them. It only aggravates their pains, making them to want to continue more in their criminal or sinful acts than they will want to change for good. We are  more inclined to judging people than we are to loving and helping them. We do not solve problems; we analyze them. We do not help situations even when we can; we judge and condemn situations. We are all too religious to love. For instance, a relatively descent young woman sees another woman who survives as a prostitute, the next idea that comes to her mind is to judge the prostitute vociferously quoting relevant sections of the holy book that condemns prostitution. The question is, is the first lady justified in judging the second one (the prostitute)? Refrain from judging her. See if you can help her find a job or assist her learn a trade. Love and help her instead and she may abandon prostitution without you having to remind her that her trade is condemnable by the Bible or the Qur’an and our present society. Do you think a prostitute does not know that the profession she has chosen is sinful? In fact, many people who ply the trades of prostitution, robbery etc are aware they are doing something bad. Otherwise, they would not be taking drugs to give them the false boldness to do such things. This is why we should not be quick to judge them. And unless you are a virgin, you have no moral justification to refer to any lady as a prostitute (and I do not expect you to judge anyone even if you are a virgin or a saint, for nothing truly lasts forever). That you do not go to stand on the road at night is not sufficient to prove your innocence. A Prostitute demands for money from her client; you too ask for money from your so-called 'boyfriend(s)'. You see, it is just two different sides of the same coin. But this is not to argue in favour of prostitution. It is my believe, however, that love will help her change and heal faster than judgement and criticism. What about that young man without a job? Why not try to hear his story, find him a job or assist him to learn a trade? It is the same way we should treat criminals- love them. Help them more. And I make bold to say that the best way to judge people is to love them. Show them whatever talent they have but which they are not aware of. Inspire and encourage them to discover and  maximize their talents. 

Stop judging people. You will never have sufficient time to love people if you keep judging them all the time. What the world needs is love, not judgement. Only God truly judges. Genuine conversion of a sinner (and we are all sinners) is achievable only with love. Love people anyway and whatever negative attitude they may have in them will be taken care of. You do not need to disturb anyone with your preaching, you do not need to walk about in the street with fliers and a megaphone asking people to come to your church or to repent and accept Jesus as their lord and personal saviour; they have been receiving fliers; they already know who Jesus is. What they do not know yet is how much love you have for them. Just love them. Live out the Bible. Show them love and they will naturally become the message of the love of God in the world, for it is only love that can truly heal the world and make it go round

Photo credit: medium.com

( culled from “How To Achieve Real Happiness in Life” by Ogiri John Ogiri.)
Visit www.ogirijohn.blogspot.com for more.