 |
| Credit |
One of my favorite television shows is Firefly. The writing is clever, the characters are likable, and the fans of the show are madly loyal. Think wild west in space. But... not boring like I made it sound.
The outlaw Malcolm Reynolds (below right) is the captain of a small spaceship that scraps together a living among the frontier planets by thieving, smuggling, and avoiding the "feds." One of the paying passengers is Shepherd Book (above, and below left), who is a Christian clergyman.
In one memorable exchange, the Shepherd is convalescing in the ship's sick bay. He had received special emergency health care by the feds after showing them his identity card. Something from Shepherd's past had given him high-security clearance with the bad guys. Was Shepherd's history was not as idyllic as his clerical occupation suggested?
 |
| Credit |
Malcolm had expected to be arrested and wondered why they had such cooperation from the feds. He visited Sheperd in the sick bay and asked him, "What kind of ident card gets us that kind of reception and send-off?"
Book responded, "I am a shepherd. Folks like a man of God."
Shepherd answered mysteriously "I surely would... and maybe someday I will." The show's cancellation ended any further exploration of Book's secret past.
Mal's comment points to a sad fact: the guilt trip is alive and well. Christians use it. all. the. time. Liberal Christians feel guilty for driving anything other than a Prius. Conservative Christians feel guilty for thinking about sex. Orthodox Christians feel guilty for eating meat on Friday. Catholic Christians just feel guilty.
Guilt is used by Christians to motivate good thoughts and behavior and discourage bad behavior. The problem is that guilt doesn't work too well as a motivator. It tends to make us feel guilty for sin and not help us stop sinning. Instead of only suffering the ill effects of our sin, we suffer the sin and the guilt. Adding suffering to suffering drives people away from the church, and away from the medicine for sin: Christ.
The guilt trip arises from the idea that we can stop sinning if we want to and try hard enough. But this is not what Paul says. The human default is slavery to sin. Slavery. We are not strong enough or smart enough to free ourselves from this slavery. Jesus Christ redeems us from this slavery. Redemption is manumission, buying a slave out of slavery. We do not and cannot redeem ourselves. Feeling guilty about it does not help us to be free in Christ.
The guilt trip is a last gasp effort of the ego to have its way. I want to not sin, and darn it, I'm going to do it myself. To guilt trip is to pray “God, we no longer need you to care for us, since we do justice for ourselves.”
The outlaw Malcolm Reynolds cautions Christians to go easy on the guilt. It doesn't work, and is really pride in disguise. Guilt's antidote is humility. Humility is not a permissive attitude to sin. Rather, humility engenders freedom from sin.
Mal's comment points to a sad fact: the guilt trip is alive and well. Christians use it. all. the. time. Liberal Christians feel guilty for driving anything other than a Prius. Conservative Christians feel guilty for thinking about sex. Orthodox Christians feel guilty for eating meat on Friday. Catholic Christians just feel guilty.
Guilt is used by Christians to motivate good thoughts and behavior and discourage bad behavior. The problem is that guilt doesn't work too well as a motivator. It tends to make us feel guilty for sin and not help us stop sinning. Instead of only suffering the ill effects of our sin, we suffer the sin and the guilt. Adding suffering to suffering drives people away from the church, and away from the medicine for sin: Christ.
The guilt trip arises from the idea that we can stop sinning if we want to and try hard enough. But this is not what Paul says. The human default is slavery to sin. Slavery. We are not strong enough or smart enough to free ourselves from this slavery. Jesus Christ redeems us from this slavery. Redemption is manumission, buying a slave out of slavery. We do not and cannot redeem ourselves. Feeling guilty about it does not help us to be free in Christ.
The guilt trip is a last gasp effort of the ego to have its way. I want to not sin, and darn it, I'm going to do it myself. To guilt trip is to pray “God, we no longer need you to care for us, since we do justice for ourselves.”
The outlaw Malcolm Reynolds cautions Christians to go easy on the guilt. It doesn't work, and is really pride in disguise. Guilt's antidote is humility. Humility is not a permissive attitude to sin. Rather, humility engenders freedom from sin.
No comments:
Post a Comment