April 21, 2022

Freedom From Shame (Part 2)

So - Where does the power come from to undo shame?

Where do we get out of these destructive cycles of bad choices, shame, bad responses, returning to bad choices, etc.?

What solutions does the world offer now?
How is true freedom from shame possible?

Out Will It

We out-will our shame with clamped-down strength of choice.  If I simply catch myself before I make a bad choice, I won't feel the shame and make the bad choices.  We do this with effort, will, and sometimes with the help of others who encourage us like cheering fans along a race route. 

Go, Go, Go!  You can out will this thing - You got this! While this works for a period of time, and may even work most of our lives, it only brings weariness, pride, and eventually leaks of little failures that have to be hidden.  These people are all through the church and all through popular culture. Some success stories are scattered about, how certain people are living a victorious life through the power f their will. 

The question remains - At the end of this response to shame, who gets the credit?

Out Think or Believe It

We become seemingly intellectual and attempt to out-think our shame.  We may get ourselves into mystical thought control and all sorts of other mechanisms to trick our brains into either not making the bad choices, or not feeling the shame if we did make a bad choice.  We may spend years and years either in new-age thinking pathways, following mind-control gurus, or new-age supposed Christian teachers who are doing the same thing.  You can create with your mind a new reality and overcome your problems.  Just speak them away, out-faith them, etc.  Even some hyper-grace teachers want you to out think your shame by claiming that sins don't need to be confessed or explaining away all mistaken choices as somehow the work of external, demonic forces. 

The problem with this approach is that it leads almost always to pride and comparative snobbery.  People who seem to have "inside knowledge" as some secret that others don't yet have are hard-pressed to be humble and authentic.  Instead, spiritual and intellectual superiority are the general patterns here.  Others just don't know… 

This response has become increasingly popular and has drawn millions of people into its traps over the past 150 years, but has been a part of the church since it started.  Again - who ultimately is the one responsible for removing this shame, and living victoriously?  - The believer in whatever course of action is taken.  Bear in mind that the word "Believer" is used generously.  Many of these paths and teachings are really only empowering the "believer" themselves, instead of recognizing a lack of power on our part to deal with shame and receiving freedom from Christ. 

When the focus for freedom is placed on the ability to think correctly or have enough faith, the empowerment is in your hands.  The one only with enough faith, or enough mystical insight, or the one enough connection to power.  In all cases following this pathway, who claims the success for overcoming?

Deconstruct and Destroy It

We become intellectual about disparaging and deconstructing the belief systems that have absolute truth and consistent law.  Millions of unsuspecting people are following this path, deconstructing what they think is some sort of flawed faith system that is oppressive and abusive and causes all sorts of anxiety in people.  If a person can simply break down the foundation of the standards of behavior, then, why worry about those outdated, antiquated, simplistic, barbaric laws? 

We are evolving creatures that have intrinsic value (but from what?) and therefore can function without external belief systems that were designed for the weak minded masses to control them.  Christianity can be a part of your belief system, but it must discard the old testament and the law, and only embrace a kind of spiritual guru christ that is guide and teacher.  There is no need for salvation, except the salvation from the previously constricting law system and freedom from those oppressive religious zealots who try to impose it on others. 

The question here, though, is…If the belief system is wrong and there really is no law or no need for salvation or no reason for this outdated, un-scientific, wrong system to exist - Then why do so many seem so bent on destroying it?  Do they strike out against unreal fears for everything in their life?  Or is it perhaps that there really is some foundational truth that they can not simply ignore and in being so defensive, they expose the wound that they have that can not heal through intellectual gymnastics?  Many of these people who go down this pathway try to claim that they have moral and ethical foundations to their lives, and that love or some other force is compelling them, but seem to ignore that there has to be some basis to that morality and some power to love that comes from somewhere consistent and constant. 

Instead, they want the freedom of their own choices without any constraints. The question with this approach is whose choices are allowable and whose are not?  Is there a limit to what is allowed?  Why?  Can murder be allowed?  Lying?  Abuse?  Genocide?  Child Molestation?  At what point does the deconstruction of truth cross the line into anarchy of desires and justifications?