Friday, September 16, 2005
An Important Lesson from Albert Ellis
Albert Ellis was well-known pscyhologist (and atheist) who made several scathing comments regarding Christianity:
"Religion (Christianity), by positing absolute, god-given standards of conduct, tends to make you feel self-deprecating and dehumanized when you err; and also encourages you to despise and dehumanize others when they act unethically. Since self-deprecation is the main cause of anxiety, overweening guilt, and depression, and since damning others is probably the chief source of hostility, rage and violence, religious moralism patently produces or abets enormous amounts of severe emotional disturbance"
In a short, but valuable article in TheOoze, Mark Karris responds to this quote by honestly examining the path Christianity has taken:
It seems that modernity has molded Christianity into everything that it was not meant to be: An individualistic, consumeristic, hedonistic, moralistic, mechanistic, humanistic and other harmful “istics” which are contrary to love, community, relationships and “others-centric” instead of “me-centric” living.
Modernity’s focus on the exterior of the well oiled machines and it’s products unfortunately brain washed the church (not the church as a whole but enough of it) into thinking if we can use our hegemonic language to persuade people to not sin and keep the outside of the cup clean then we have accomplished the means of Christianity.
Again, Christianity as a religion has often moved very far from the way of Jesus, but is sadly unaware of how it has sold its soul.
