In his recent letter, Alan Hebertson states: “It’s ironic when non-Christians have to tell ‘Christians’ what Jesus actually taught.” It is ironic but not surprising. Some of our nation’s most influential and politically active “Christians” evidence little commitment to Christ’s teachings concerning human dignity and the demands of social justice.
It is lamentable that these “Christians” fail to understand that “Love your neighbor as yourself” (Mark 12:31) presupposes a humble and humane sense of self and an empathetic and expansive sense of neighbor — the senses of self and neighbor conveyed in the “Parable of the Good Samaritan” (Luke 10:25-37).
Such “Christians” fail to recognize:
1. The opposite of love is not hate; it is the narcissistic self-love that reduces the sufferings, hopes and fears of others to insignificance.
2. The opposite of faith is not atheism; it is the self-deification of those who demand adulation and regard others as mere pawns in their own self-serving games.
Self-deceived and self-idolatrous ideologues, both religious and secular, are convinced their own world-views are superior to all others. As agents of absolute truth, they feel no need to understand other points of view. As uncompromising zealots, they often employ the coercive power of the state to impose their own views on nonbelievers.
Self-deception and self-idolatry are succinctly expressed in the words John Milton ascribes to Satan (Paradise Lost, Book I):
The mind is its own place, and in itself
Can make a Heav’n of Hell, a Hell of Heav’n…
To reign is worth ambition though in Hell:
Better to reign in Hell, then serve in Heav’n.
Those who believe they can convert private fantasies into public realities dwell in self-delusion. Those who stoke self-serving ambition and lord it over others promote Hell on Earth.
Andrew Bjelland, Salt Lake City
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