Here are three ways we may be judging others without fully realizing it.
When I talk with my non-member or less-active friends and ask them how they feel about the Church, I often get the same reply: “I feel judged.” But most of the members I know are not judgmental people. So I had to dig a bit deeper to figure out what we were doing that caused people to feel judged. I realized there are at least three ways we are judging others without realizing it.
1. We Label People
Everyone in our world is divided into groups, Democrats or Republicans, BYU fans or Utah fans, members or non-members, active vs. less-active. If we see people as they truly are then it is hard to hate them. But when we group them together it is easy to question motives and even vilify them. I saw this last election, people began to hate friends because they were voting for the other person, they saw them as a group and inferred the most nefarious of motives, when in reality most people are genuinely good.
We see this in the dialog between King Lamoni and his father in Alma chapter 20.