The modern-day art of stone-throwing

It seems to me that it's perfectly acceptable in Christian circles nowadays to be a stone-thrower. The term stone-thrower may not mean much to non-religious folks, but in the Old Testament of the Bible, people were allowed and even obligated by religious law to throw stones at certain types of sinners until they died.

When Jesus came around, he had a very clear message for the ultra-religious who sought out sinners to stone. When the local religious leaders brought a woman who had been caught in the act of adultery to Jesus, he said, "All right, stone her. But let those who have never sinned throw the first stone." Obviously not one man standing there could pick up the first stone and throw it at the woman with a clear conscience. Every one of them walked away when it was put to them that way.

Then Jesus spoke to the woman whose life he had just saved and said, "Where are your accusers? Didn't even one of them condemn you?"

And then: "Neither do I."

Jesus made his opinion very clear that no one has the right to condemn another person because of their sins. And that he doesn't offer condemnation either?

Isn't Christianity supposed to be all about becoming like Christ? So what gives?

Why is it so acceptable to be a stone-thrower in the Christian church today? A good conservative evangelical Christian thinks nothing of throwing out words of condemnation and judgement to heap on people they believe are sinning. Unwed mothers, homosexuals, strippers, atheists, liberal democrats. The list could go on and on of people who are labeled as "sick," "lost," "gross," "fallen," "disgusting," "headed to hell," "leading others astray," "living a life of sin."

What happened to the Christian principle that all of us have fallen short of perfection, that we're all on equal ground before God? What happened to the Christian principles of love, mercy and kindness?

And why are only some of the sins listed in the Bible worthy of verbal stone-throwing by today's Christians? Jesus never condemned the sinners that he spent so much time with: Levi and his tax collector friends, the immoral woman who washed his feet with perfume, the Samaritan woman at the well who had had five different husbands. But he stated in no uncertain terms that the sins of greed, deceit, slander, pride and foolishness are vile sins that make a person unacceptable to God.

If we're going to heap judgement on the people around us, let's at least be fair about it and pile on just as many put-downs for rich people and liars as we do for teen mothers and gays. What would people think if Christians started going around telling all their rich friends that they were headed straight to hell because of their greed?

There's nothing Christ-like about being so judgmental and self-righteous that you believe you have the right to throw the first stone at another person. That's not Christianity; that's hypocrisy.