If we look back at Jesus and his disciples we can create an analogy with how groups are being judged today. One of the most famous disciples was Judas. Even non-Christians can often tell you who Judas was because of his actions.

As I look at today’s society, I see the level of judgement pronounced by people increasing. The police officers in the United States have been painted with a brush of corruption, brutality, and a lack of caring for the average citizen. Many other groups have gotten the same broad strokes added to them as well. Protesters supporting causes have been pegged as looters and rioters because buildings and businesses are being destroyed.

Based on Judas, we know that the disciples were willing to sell out Jesus. We know that the disciples were willing to put a few (about 30) silver over friendship and loyalty. We know the disciples were willing to sell out Christ while pretending to have great care for their leader. We know that there was a level of vileness in the disciples that would lead to Jesus’ death.

Right?

At this point, I imagine you are saying “wait a minute”! The actions of one man, who betrayed Christ with a kiss does not define the entire group of disciples. You might be saying it is unfair to judge a group of a dozen men by the actions of just one man.

Yet, when many people see hundreds of police officers committing vile acts, they are quick to judge the entire group of over 686,000* police officers in the United States. When people see looters breaking into building after peaceful protesting has occurred, they are quick to blame the entire protest movement and the groups that organized the protests.

Just as Judas did not represent what was in the heart and souls of all of the disciples, we need to to make sure we don’t look at the few bad components of other groups and reflect their actions on to the entire group.

This is not to say there aren’t groups that are entirely bad, but we should make sure we don’t paint with broad strokes without doing the due diligence to make sure that it is a majority of the group and not just a Judas or two. After all, Judas was not a reflection of the other disciples and is definitely not the model for their behavior.

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* number based on Statistica 2018 data.