Posted by
Michael Scotto on Tuesday, February 27, 2007 3:43:09 PM
The Chickens Are Coming Home to Roost Hotair.com is featuring a story about the ill-effects of two decades of the disease known as "self-esteem" (i.e. "self-conceit" Webster's). The word "self" should sound alarms! That's Christianity 101... "self" is the
problem, not the solution.
Many of us have been warning that this day was coming. The most troubling aspect of this psycho-babble is that its greatest champions come from within the Evangelical Christian community. If
any group should understand the inherent evil in man, it should be us.
I used to write to Dobson's "Focus on the Family" ministry. I stopped writing a few years ago because no matter the topic this cut-and-paste seemed to find its way into every response:
"Dr. Dobson is neither a theologian nor a Bible teacher."Great. America's "foremost expert on the family" (an institution created by God) claims to be an authority on the subject because he has a degree from a godless institution where he sat at the feet of godless men studying the musings of other godless men.
Lovely. Apparently it's more important to study Pavlov than it is to study Paul. What on earth did the church do for 1800 years before Freud came along to interpret the mind of man for us?
The cult of self has infiltrated most of the church. I can't count how many conversations I've had with other Evangelicals in which they parrot the nonsense that "
we can't love others unless we love ourselves" (thus butchering a well-known verse of scripture). Truth be told, most people who say "I hate myself" are so wrapped up in themselves that they are the ones who love themselves the most!
If you
really hate yourself, you'd be
glad that you're fat and have no friends! Who wants the people he hates to be popular and attractive?
We're supposed to strive to love others
as we love ourselves because WE ALREADY LOVE OURSELVES. If that were not the case, the instruction would be meaningless. You don't make a comparative based on a wavering premise. And according to the self-esteem cult, since most of us don't have enough self-esteem, the comparative really lacks
any sense.
The witness of scripture cannot be made to support any new interpretation of that verse (sorry, Sigmund).
Self is the problem. Self is the disease. Self must die with Christ.
Here are some scripture quotes from some soon-to-be-released Bibles:
"Cain, thou canst love thy brother Abel for thou lovest not thyself! Thy lack of self-esteem manifests itself in hate for thy brother... and Lamech said unto his wives, I have a slain a man because I don't get enough love from my family and I consequently don't love myself enough. If Cain was self-loathing, I self-loathe seventy and seven times!" - Genesis (King James Dobson Version)
"Nebchadnezzer, you have been weighed and found wanting... by that I mean you don't love yourself enough which means that you can't really love others the way you should. Your kingdom shall be taken from you and given to one with a higher concept of self." - Daniel (Colorado Springs translation)
"Alas for you lawyers and Pharisees, hypocrites! You tell others to love God , yet you don't even love yourselves enough! You cannot love God until you love yourselves. How much longer should I suffer this people who just don't have a high enough opinion of themselves? This generation of self-haters shall bear the guilt of it all!" - Luke (Colorado Springs translation)
"Esteem yourself better than others and think more highly of yourselves than you ought. If I didn't instruct you, you would be in grave danger of caring too much for the needs of others. Let this mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus, who being in the form of God, grasped onto it with all His strength, demanded people cater to His needs and exalted Himself." - Philippians (Peales's Dynamic Equivalency)
You can pre-order these versions at Focus on the Family.By the way... do you know what populations have the highest levels of self-esteem? Criminals and gang members.