What is Meant by Judging Others?

In Scripture, Christ warns us not to judge others because if we do, God will judge us is like manner. What does He mean?  And in particular what does judging another mean in the context of Christ's warning.  Many Christians tell me that there is nothing wrong in judging others; in fact, they say, we do it all the time and it is necessary so that we avoid entanglements with evil people.  Well then, what does Christ mean by saying we should not judge others?

Suppose we see a person who looks like the type of person we would not wish to associate with for one or more varieties of reasons (of a different race, looks like a street person, looks Jewish, dressed like a rich person and we are poor, etc, etc).  The person is walking alone a street in a neighborhood in which a crime has just been committed.  We immediately call the police and report the person as possibly/definitely guilty of the crime.

If the call was made primarily because of some prejudice we have against the person, which prejudice has no basis in fact because we do not even know the person, then we have judged the person as a criminal type, without any real reason;  this type of judgement of others is very common.  Simply consider the race problems we are currently having in America . White against Black just because they are Black; Black against White just because they are White.

If a woman has an abortion, is she guilty of murder?  Many will say "yes!" automatically, without considering circumstances which might mitigate the woman's guilt.  If the woman  is very young; has been fed lies, through our education system, about sex, intercourse, pregnancy; has been told abortion just removes some tissue, not a baby; has been told her parents need not know; has been assured abortion is safe and legal;  is she guilty of murder?  I think not.

Just think of the times we condemn others simply because they annoy us and do things to us we think we would not do to them.  Ever been guilty of road rage and cursed and fought others because of it?  It is difficult not to fall into the many traps of judging others.  I have heard sorts of Christians who yell publicly on streets, to those who do not accept their religiosity, that they are condemned to hell; I have heard non-reigious people condemn Christians and others of Faith in the same manner.

But certainly we may correct others who are doing things that are detrimental to their welfare and that of others including ourselves;  this kind of judging done with love is actually a part of scripture where Christ gives us the recipe for doing it correctly through witnesses, courts and the Church.  We engage ourselves in brotherly correction as Christ directs us but at the same time he warns us that we must be sure to "remove the log from our own eye to see better the speck in our brother's eye"  Unless we do this we become guilty of judging our brother out of false pride instead of correcting him.