I encourage everyone to give this a read. I identified with it so much it brought me to tears. The stories we tell ourselves are powerful. It may even be that the way we talk and think about what happens to us impacts us more than the events themselves. That’s why this interpretive framework—and the self-talk it engenders—is so important. We are careful to lovingly disagree whenever we hear a victim of abuse saying things like: “I’m just getting what I deserve.” “I’ve brought this on myself.” “I’m lucky I have him because I don’t deserve him.” “He only does what he does because he loves me.” “Nobody else can love me the way he loves me.” “Without him, I am nothing.” But these statements sound eerily familiar. They could have been ripped right out of a praise and worship song, or out of the prayers we were taught to pray. What in other contexts would strike us as horribly dysfunctional, Christians have learned to call “good.” That’s messed up. And if you call them on it, they’ll swear that’s not how it is. But then they get to church, or to their private devotional time, and the self-hatred begins to flow again. It’s too central to the thesis of the Christian message: You’re so bad that a guy had to die a gruesome death.* You deserved eternal suffering for who you are and what you’ve “done” (mostly in your head). You can’t tell people that and then turn around and say you encourage a healthy, positive self-image. That’s a lie, plain and simple. Read more: patheos/blogs/godlessindixie/2014/11/03/anti-humanism-how-evangelicalism-taught-me-the-art-of-self-loathing/#ixzz3I1HJ6cVf
Posted on: Mon, 03 Nov 2014 15:18:49 +0000
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