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Shame and Self-Loathing in the Name of God

December 30, 2020 By Dr. Terri Daniel, CT, CCTP

I recently discovered this excellent article on how Christianity — as it is understood, taught and practiced by most Christians — encourages shame and self-loathing. Many thanks to Neil Carter for his insight and wisdom on this topic.

Here’s an excerpt:

“In order to need a savior, you have to feel there is something you need saving from, and that means you have to believe that somehow you are in really, really bad shape. You have to feel that you need saving in the first place. And that means taking whatever your current view of yourself happens to be—no matter how low it already is—and lowering it even further.

At a bare minimum, you have to believe that your flaws, taken together with the flaws of the rest of humanity, are so egregious and offensive to God that someone had to be tortured and killed in your place. The most widely accepted versions additionally maintain that an eternal conscious torment remains for anyone who doesn’t properly come to terms with whatever it was they did that provoked God to do what he did to Jesus on your behalf. You must really be one messed up character.”

 

Click here for the full article:  https://www.patheos.com/blogs/godlessindixie/2016/04/03/so-long-self/

Filed Under: Grief, Spirituality and Religion

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