Christian Fundamentalism's Exploitation Of Struggling Egos.
In reply. one member expressed confusion;
asking what that meme is even supposed to mean.
I then explained what the OP was referring to:
"A religion that says we aught to be so self-loathing that we can hardly wait to be "washed clean", hollowed out, and replaced with some radiant God-stuff.
They go through life with a particular set of vulnerabilities
that are vulnerable only to
particular conceptualizations of "God".
With that in mind, there are many people in our world who gravitate towards an idea of God that provides relief for their troubled sense of self.
Some of those people have a horrible or blank sense of identity and worth.
Some of those people also feel so stained by mistakes and failings that they desperately want a clean slate and a total replacement for their sense of who they are.
To accommodate those interests,
various versions of popular religious themes (ie. Christianity, as a theme) have developed multi-layered ego-wound-healing and ego-replacement concepts;
such as:
"without God, I am nothing",
"all human virtues are like filthy rags",
being "washed clean in the blood of the lamb",
being forgiven for the moral crime of imperfection,
"dying to our former selves",
being "born anew" or "born again", and "a new creature",
being "filled with" God (or Jesus, or the Holy Spirit),
etc..
Basically, the idea is that true human worth comes from:
seeking (that) God,
emulating (that) God,
being validated by (that) God.
From there, carrying his radiant glory within us;
like dung-clay vessels carrying liquid gold.
If we really examine their lists of God-approved traits vs sin-traits,
we might notice:
The only God-approved traits are:
"godly" traits.
"Godly" means "like (that) God".
If we examine what those peoples' concept of "heaven" is, we might notice:
Only godly traits will exist in heaven.
So then everything that makes us meaningfully different than "God" is something that must be done away with;
as a final condition and transformation
for entering Heaven.
So then, all people in that kingdom will be mirrors of: only the things that God likes about himself.
Even Jesus himself is only seen as fit and perfect to connect and dwell fully with God because he is a perfect "reflection" of that God's glorious nature and attributes.
[Although, Trinitarians might haggle over the best way to word their sameness]
Some unimportant differences are allowed; such a different name, different job duties, etc.. But
basically that "God" only wants to be around perfection.
In fact, those texts say he doesn't even like look upon imperfection.
He regards himself (everything about himself) as the standard of what defines perfection. So then that's the standard we all "fall short of" and need to eventually be transformed into;
-at least to whatever extent is possible for finite beings.
So then his "true followers" may not reflect his omni-traits. But they'll reflect the finite version of those traits.
And they'll do so "perfectly" (completely) once they're in Heaven.
As a result, nobody in Heaven will ever be even *capable* of having an un-approved/non-godly character-trait, thought, feeling, impulse, or action ever again; for ever and ever.
--
Those versions of Christianity tend to the fundamentalist "evangelizing" factions.
When they do "outreach" ministries,
they specifically focus-target extra-vulnerable people (especially ego-vulnerable people).
Because that's who the fundamentalist ideology is designed for. And so those are the people it works on.
So then we have people like "Ray Comfort" who stands in the middle of big and busy college campuses.
He targets the youngest students. And he focuses most of that effort on the students who have a body language that signals low social confidence.
He then tries to embarrass them in front of all passersby, by loudly asking them questions that expose their insecurities. Most of that pertains to mistakes they've made in the past and their own personal shortcomings.
With that, he pushes the idea that the student is permanently "sin"-stained.
He's hoping they have not matured enough via life-experience to realize:
Responsible adults
EARN
their own self-respect;
by taking honest personal inventory,
identifying our failings,
suffering the pain inherent to owning it,
and doing the WORK to clean our own slates.
Once I am no longer "the guy" who would ever do X, Y, or Z,
and so long as I've made myself available for "restorative justice",
there is no remaining moral debt for however yesterday's actions might have affected other people.
Ray comfort (and the rest of his sick sociopolitical cult) tries to create, find and worsen any possible points of shame. Why?
Because Christian-fundamentalism's offer to relieve *shame (*as obviously a bad thing),
requires that they must first crush you under as much shame as they can first.
The gambit is this:
Find or cause,
and then worsen
a common burden (in fact, the only burden) that afflicts the ego.
Why?
Because controlling a person's narrative of identity is the key to mental enslavement.
Just as Christianity must destroy reason before it can introduce faith,
so it must destroy happiness before it can introduce salvation.
So must they seek out and worsen people's failing relationship with their own SELF
before offering to replace and upgrade that person's narrative of identity,
Create a terrible shame.
And then
offer to RELIEVE that shame;
for a very steep price.
It is a form of psychological violence.
To accomplish that,
they must get us to measure ourselves against the rather nebulous but wholly unattainable standard of "perfection".
Within that context,
we'll fall far far short,
feel rightly condemned,
and then begin frantically seeking relief.
2. A larger financial pool of regular economic donations (private donors, tithing, collection plates, etc).
3. a larger social pool of people keeping each other in line with "the will of God" (which is really only the will of the men whom falsely claim to speak for God).
4. A larger field of sheep
offering daily ego-validating praises for prominent religious figures (especially for those who recruited them) within their network.
But it has been "grandfathered in".
It's so deeply engrained into our culture
that our laws will always exempt fundamentalist Christian-religions from the same legal obligations that all other citizens and agencies must abide by.
Although, even if we did try to hold those religions to the same legal standards everyone else is held to,
it would be political suicide in most countries for whoever sponsored and supporters such a bill.
Meanwhile, those religions would become quickly violent under the banner of "persecution".
However,
there is a solution.
That form of exploitation only works on people whom are: a.) sufficiently ego-vulnerable and whom b.) haven't been forewarned and adequately educated about the scam.
Thus, the healthier, safer, and more educated we can help our societies become
[link],
the less of a breeding ground our societies will be for that form (and many other forms) of exploitation.
asking what that meme is even supposed to mean.
I then explained what the OP was referring to:
"A religion that says we aught to be so self-loathing that we can hardly wait to be "washed clean", hollowed out, and replaced with some radiant God-stuff.
-
A "God" who can only love himself
And so he compromises by holding a "guess the true religion" lottery.
The winners (according to the grifting cults who invented that whole scam) get replaced with some of himself. So that he can look upon (that) and say "I love you".
In reply,
a Christian fundamentalist (Gavin Knight) was so instantly triggered
that he laugh-emoji'd.
If some entirely-other religion,
such as "Wicca", had been implicated instead,
we can rest assured Gavin would have either liked my comment or else ignore it.
He realized we had to be talking about his religion.
No other religion fits that description.
Another responded to say no such religion exists.
The person who was initially confused by the OP then thanked the person whose only contribution to the discussion was 'James is wrong'.
In further contribution,
I offer this:
They go through life with a particular set of vulnerabilities
that are vulnerable only to
particular conceptualizations of "God".
With that in mind, there are many people in our world who gravitate towards an idea of God that provides relief for their troubled sense of self.
Some of those people have a horrible or blank sense of identity and worth.
Some of those people also feel so stained by mistakes and failings that they desperately want a clean slate and a total replacement for their sense of who they are.
To accommodate those interests,
various versions of popular religious themes (ie. Christianity, as a theme) have developed multi-layered ego-wound-healing and ego-replacement concepts;
such as:
"without God, I am nothing",
"all human virtues are like filthy rags",
being "washed clean in the blood of the lamb",
being forgiven for the moral crime of imperfection,
"dying to our former selves",
being "born anew" or "born again", and "a new creature",
being "filled with" God (or Jesus, or the Holy Spirit),
etc..
Basically, the idea is that true human worth comes from:
seeking (that) God,
emulating (that) God,
being validated by (that) God.
From there, carrying his radiant glory within us;
like dung-clay vessels carrying liquid gold.
If we really examine their lists of God-approved traits vs sin-traits,
we might notice:
The only God-approved traits are:
"godly" traits.
"Godly" means "like (that) God".
If we examine what those peoples' concept of "heaven" is, we might notice:
Only godly traits will exist in heaven.
So then everything that makes us meaningfully different than "God" is something that must be done away with;
as a final condition and transformation
for entering Heaven.
So then, all people in that kingdom will be mirrors of: only the things that God likes about himself.
Even Jesus himself is only seen as fit and perfect to connect and dwell fully with God because he is a perfect "reflection" of that God's glorious nature and attributes.
[Although, Trinitarians might haggle over the best way to word their sameness]
Some unimportant differences are allowed; such a different name, different job duties, etc.. But
basically that "God" only wants to be around perfection.
In fact, those texts say he doesn't even like look upon imperfection.
He regards himself (everything about himself) as the standard of what defines perfection. So then that's the standard we all "fall short of" and need to eventually be transformed into;
-at least to whatever extent is possible for finite beings.
So then his "true followers" may not reflect his omni-traits. But they'll reflect the finite version of those traits.
And they'll do so "perfectly" (completely) once they're in Heaven.
As a result, nobody in Heaven will ever be even *capable* of having an un-approved/non-godly character-trait, thought, feeling, impulse, or action ever again; for ever and ever.
--
Those versions of Christianity tend to the fundamentalist "evangelizing" factions.
When they do "outreach" ministries,
they specifically focus-target extra-vulnerable people (especially ego-vulnerable people).
Because that's who the fundamentalist ideology is designed for. And so those are the people it works on.
So then we have people like "Ray Comfort" who stands in the middle of big and busy college campuses.
He targets the youngest students. And he focuses most of that effort on the students who have a body language that signals low social confidence.
He then tries to embarrass them in front of all passersby, by loudly asking them questions that expose their insecurities. Most of that pertains to mistakes they've made in the past and their own personal shortcomings.
With that, he pushes the idea that the student is permanently "sin"-stained.
He's hoping they have not matured enough via life-experience to realize:
Responsible adults
EARN
their own self-respect;
by taking honest personal inventory,
identifying our failings,
suffering the pain inherent to owning it,
and doing the WORK to clean our own slates.
Once I am no longer "the guy" who would ever do X, Y, or Z,
and so long as I've made myself available for "restorative justice",
there is no remaining moral debt for however yesterday's actions might have affected other people.
Ray comfort (and the rest of his sick sociopolitical cult) tries to create, find and worsen any possible points of shame. Why?
Because Christian-fundamentalism's offer to relieve *shame (*as obviously a bad thing),
requires that they must first crush you under as much shame as they can first.
The gambit is this:
Find or cause,
and then worsen
a common burden (in fact, the only burden) that afflicts the ego.
Why?
Because controlling a person's narrative of identity is the key to mental enslavement.
so it must destroy happiness before it can introduce salvation.
So must they seek out and worsen people's failing relationship with their own SELF
before offering to replace and upgrade that person's narrative of identity,
Create a terrible shame.
And then
offer to RELIEVE that shame;
for a very steep price.
It is a form of psychological violence.
To accomplish that,
they must get us to measure ourselves against the rather nebulous but wholly unattainable standard of "perfection".
Within that context,
we'll fall far far short,
feel rightly condemned,
and then begin frantically seeking relief.
It's an even worse version of the same thing "Beauty Magazines" do to girls and women.
He then maneuvers them from *there* to:
the offer to help them get "forgiven", "washed clean", and "born anew" as someone else;
a new and spiritual creature that "Father" will finally and forever approve-of.
Mistakes and failings will still happen. But now they won't leave a mental and social stain.
The whole ploy is one big mind-Fuck.
It's wholly predatory and really aught to be illegal.
Hell, the entire grift is literally a Racketeering scheme.
The more often it succeeds,
the greater the pool of "sheep"-herded people
will be indoctrinated into the evangelizer's social and political ideologies.
With that, comes:
1. A larger pool of coopted votes.
This helps those churches push for theocratically-motivated laws.
Increasing member-base also equates to a stronger force for influencing a society's common values.
Those coopted votes also help keep fellow-religious politicians in power.
He then maneuvers them from *there* to:
the offer to help them get "forgiven", "washed clean", and "born anew" as someone else;
a new and spiritual creature that "Father" will finally and forever approve-of.
Mistakes and failings will still happen. But now they won't leave a mental and social stain.
The whole ploy is one big mind-Fuck.
It's wholly predatory and really aught to be illegal.
Hell, the entire grift is literally a Racketeering scheme.
The more often it succeeds,
the greater the pool of "sheep"-herded people
will be indoctrinated into the evangelizer's social and political ideologies.
With that, comes:
1. A larger pool of coopted votes.
This helps those churches push for theocratically-motivated laws.
Increasing member-base also equates to a stronger force for influencing a society's common values.
Those coopted votes also help keep fellow-religious politicians in power.
2. A larger financial pool of regular economic donations (private donors, tithing, collection plates, etc).
3. a larger social pool of people keeping each other in line with "the will of God" (which is really only the will of the men whom falsely claim to speak for God).
4. A larger field of sheep
offering daily ego-validating praises for prominent religious figures (especially for those who recruited them) within their network.
But it has been "grandfathered in".
It's so deeply engrained into our culture
that our laws will always exempt fundamentalist Christian-religions from the same legal obligations that all other citizens and agencies must abide by.
Although, even if we did try to hold those religions to the same legal standards everyone else is held to,
it would be political suicide in most countries for whoever sponsored and supporters such a bill.
Meanwhile, those religions would become quickly violent under the banner of "persecution".
However,
there is a solution.
That form of exploitation only works on people whom are: a.) sufficiently ego-vulnerable and whom b.) haven't been forewarned and adequately educated about the scam.
Thus, the healthier, safer, and more educated we can help our societies become
[link],
the less of a breeding ground our societies will be for that form (and many other forms) of exploitation.
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