On Not Punching Down--March 2, 2022

On Not Punching Down--March 2, 2022

"Do not speak evil against one another, brothers and sisters.  Whoever speaks evil against another or judges another, speaks evil against the law and judges the law; but if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge.  There is one lawgiver and judge who is able to save and to destroy. So who, then, are you to judge your neighbor?" [James 4:11-12]

There's a long-standing rule among comedians that's meant to keep them from becoming bullies with microphones (which is really more of a talk-radio-host or celebrity podcaster sort of a thing, right?).  It's short and sweet and it goes like this:  don't punch down.  That's it.  

In other words, don't use your platform to pick on someone who is struggling, someone who is at a disadvantage, someone who is without power, or someone without the same platform, position, or resources that you have.  That's what keeps comedy, satire, and comic ridicule from becoming merely meanness or empty insult.  Like the court jesters of an earlier era, good comedians know they can poke fun at the powerful, but they aren't supposed to turn their target sights on people who are just struggling to get along.  Just like you don't kick someone when they're down, you don't punch "down" either.  The kings, moguls, celebrities, and CEOs need people who will deflate their puffed-up egos, and the ones who wield power need to have people who will hold up their actions to the light and, where appropriate, expose what's wrong with them.  But you don't mock someone for what is already clearly a struggle or a challenge for them.  That's basic human decency.

And I think James has something along the same lines in mind here.  He's not giving advice to budding comedians, but he is instructing disciples who are trying to grow in their faith.  And even though James has had plenty of strong words for the folks he saw entangled in hypocrisy, greed, or crookedness, he has been vigilant not to "punch down" at people. He doesn't prop himself up by belittling others and he doesn't launch mean personal attacks to denigrate others.  He can criticize behaviors, actions, and attitudes without humiliating people by name, and he doesn't hit people where they are already hurting.  And that's what he's modeling for us as well.

It can be really difficult to know how to take the New Testament's repeated warnings not to judge or condemn others, especially knowing that sometimes Jesus or the apostles will have sharp criticism for people they disagree with--and we're left wondering, "Well, are we supposed to do that, too, or not?  And where's the line between correcting one another and holding one another accountable, which the New Testament calls us to do, and judging others?"  If we're not supposed to judge others, do we just give a pass to the cruelty and rottenness all around us?  On the other hand, if we're given free rein to nitpick everybody else's choices around us, we'll end up telling people they're going to hell for matters of personal preference--and there are plenty of folks who have been burned by Respectable Religious People telling them they are under nothing but condemnation.  The Church has collectively earned that reputation for being judgmental rather than gracious, and that's something we need to repent of, too.  So what's the deal here?  Where are we supposed to speak up, and where are we supposed to be silent?  What counts as "judging" and what counts as helpful "correction"?

In all honesty, I think this is where the old comedians' rule is helpful: if we are aiming our attacks "down" at someone--trying to push someone else down, attack them personally, or belittle them, in order to push ourselves up, we are in dangerous territory. James recognizes that's when we're putting ourselves in the role of "judge" and "lawgiver," and those two roles are only for God.  So when our words and actions have the thrust of pushing ourselves up, inflating ourselves, or putting someone else lower than we are, we're judging.  It's about claiming power and authority for ourselves that we don't have, and using the appearance of having that power to make someone else feel rotten and us to feel good by comparison.  And that's really just being a stinky human being.  It's true whether a talking head does it on television or the radio, whether it's someone posting crude garbage on social media, or coming out of your or my mouth.  That's punching down, and that's what James warns us against.

But that also means that there's a place for helping to hold one another accountable, or for speaking and acting as advocates on behalf of those who are most suffering, struggling, or under attack.  When a bully is beating someone up for their lunch money, it's not right to say, "Well, I'm not supposed to judge whether this is good or bad, so I'll look the other way."  And it's also a cop-out to say, "That guy who is getting beaten up probably did something bad once, so what about that?  Maybe this is justified."  It's easy to mangle the idea of tolerance for others into nihilism that says, "I can't speak up against evil, because who am I to judge?"  There has to be a way, for example, to look at the Russian invasion of Ukraine and say, "No--this is not OK, and we need to find appropriate ways to stand against it." And while there's certainly room for criticism to come back at ourselves and say, "Haven't there been times when our country has been the empire seeking to justify doing unsavory things, too?" that doesn't preclude also saying a clear "No" to a column of invading tanks and incoming missiles to civilians in, say, Kyiv.  We aren't supposed to punch down in judgment, but we aren't allowed to let ourselves off the hook for standing with those who are oppressed, in danger, and hurting.  Jesus, after all, simultaneously refuses to condemn the woman "caught in adultery" in the story from John 8, but he sure does shame the angry mob of bullies who were trying to goad him into stoning her to death.  Jesus doesn't "punch down" at a woman who is in a vulnerable position, but he sure does disarm the ones who are threatening her.  And that's the key, I think.  We are called to speak for and stand with the ones who are threatened in the world, but not to attack others as a way of making ourselves feel more important or powerful.

Are we going to get this wrong sometimes?  Yes.  That's also part of the beauty of being open to mutual correction and accountability.  Where you catch me stepping out of line and have to help me see that I'm out of step with Jesus, that can be helpful--and part of what keeps that from becoming judgmentalism is when the flow can go both ways, and we can each give and receive feedback.  When I get it wrong--either saying too little or going too far--I need other people who can help me recognize that and to recalibrate.  We do this together.  That's what James' role is in all this, too--he's not stepping into the role of judge to condemn us to hell if we overstep our bounds sometime or are slow to speak up sometime when we should.  He's here to guide us along the way as a fellow follower of Jesus, subject to the same God who is the rightful judge and lawgiver alongside of us.  He's one more trusted voice listening to us and telling us, when we need the reminder, "Don't punch down."

It's good to have honest friends like that--even if they lived twenty centuries ago.

Lord God, keep us from weaponizing our words and puffing ourselves up, and keep putting people in our lives who will help us to speak and act in love.