- Apr 30, 2013
- 30,679
- 18,559
- Country
- United States
- Faith
- United Ch. of Christ
- Politics
- US-Democrat
I worry that this is a somewhat unbalanced approach to the reality of sin. There have been comments in this thread about Christianity creating a toxic environment for people who struggle with self-acceptance, and while I disagree that the problem is the doctrine of sin itself (I think there are good reasons to hold that self-hatred is a particularly pernicious form of pride, and thus a manifestation of sin as well, see for example: Self-hatred, the forgotten human condition - Anthony Bradley), I am concerned that certain approaches to sin are just exacerbating the problem.
What would you say to someone who struggles with self-hatred? Hopefully not "your self-hatred is sinful and you deserve to be punished for it."
The answer to such "pride" or self-absorbtion need not be a cosmic savior, it could just as easily be mindfulness. This isn't just theoretical, mindfulness has been validated through scientific research to be an effective approach for depression and anxiety, with much higher long term effectiveness than pharmaceuticals.
I myself started focusing on mindfulness again because I have dealt with low grade depression, dysthymia, and anxiety my entire life- and I was not finding evangelical religion in a somewhat traditional Lutheran context to be all that helpful (if anything, it was robbing my motivation of even being religiously engaged in a meaningful sense). If anything, it created new, strange anxieties in response to religious stimuli.
Inasmuch as faith in Jesus or God could help a person achieve some detachment from destructive passions, perhaps that is useful. But when it starts becoming about denigration and the need for punishing oneself or other people for perceived transgressions (especially ones that actually harm no one, such as homosexuality), then I think its not unreasonable to object to that sort of thing as pernicious superstition.
Anthony Bradley closes his blog on pride by asking why conservative Christian pastors don't address self-hatred. The answer is relatively simple, because self-hatred is the "collateral damage" in the pursuit of perceived necessary ends (typically, the glorification of God). And it's not seen as particularly problematic to the working of the religious system, particularly if that collateral damage greatly impacts the perceived enemies of the religion. The punitive mentality flows deep in this sort of religion, after all.
Last edited:
Upvote
0