Monday, May 3, 2021

WHY WE HATE THOSE CLOSEST TO US

 



 

 

Before Charles Manson had moved to LA where collected his band who murdered on his behalf, he stayed with my roommate and I in Berkeley, Ca. Bob had met Charlie on the Berkeley campus one night for an impromptu jam session. Bob played his guitar and Charlie found a can for his drum. At the end, Charlie asked Bob, “Do you have a place where I can crash?” We had a couch in our living room, and so Bob invited him back.
 
Charlie was a talker, and we were glad to listen. He seemed to be quite “evolved,” so we thought he was cool. He talked about dropping acid and dancing with the energy of the surrounding trees. He also talked about killing cops, but that was what the “aware” folks were also talking about, and so we enthusiastically listened. He never showed any interest in us or in what we were thinking, but why should he!
 
We never thought of him as a psychopath. One night, Bob slipped into my room to excitedly ask me, “Who does Charlie remind you of?” I told him I didn’t know. Bob continued, “Doesn’t he remind you of Jesus Christ?” Annoyed, I answered, “Bob, I’m Jewish, and Jesus doesn’t trigger any image for me.”
 
How were we not able to see Charlie as the psychopath he evidently was? And how was his group of women unable to see the encroaching tragedy? We were possessed with the zeitgeist of the sixties, and the past and its lessons were no longer relevant for us. Similarly, we also ask how the cult leader, Jim Jones, succeeded in luring almost 1000 idealists to commit suicide. And how was Adolph Hitler able to take control of the minds of a highly educated nation, perhaps the most educated nation in the world? It seems that even “education” is no a defense against the insanity of our age.
 
The Manson girls had been in denial as they were knifing to death their innocent victims. Is it possible that we too can be similarly blinded by our social context?
 
Even now, educated Westerners are celebrating Shariah Law, which seeks to undermine the human rights that Westerners value, and seeks to even destroy the West? This too is insanity.
 
How do we understand this? Historically, Christianity has stood against social experimentation. It understood that the evils could not be eliminated but just held in check. There are no perfect societies because there are no perfect people. We are the source of our own evil, which arises in every society and utopian experiment. However, it has always been more convenient to blame society, even our families, than to blame ourselves.
 
One reason for this is that we are more sensitive to the criticism of those who are close to us. Consequently, we feel more judged by our own society than by others, and therefore seek to destroy it. No matter how benign our society might be, we are inclined to undermine and deconstruct its authority. Why? Because we feel judged and undermined by it, even though it has nurtured and protected us.
 
Not everyone feels this way. I no longer do. Why not? I no longer seek its approval. Nor do I have to rebel against the influence of my parents. Why not? I have found a better source of validation in my Savior Jesus who loved me so much that He died for me:
 
·       God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. (Romans 5:8–10)
 
Jesus has bought and won my heart. It is He who decisively defines who I am and not society. Jesus has set us free (John 8:31-32) from the controlling need for social approval. No longer dependent on its affirmations, we are now free to not hate and destroy society when it fails to give us what we demand.

 

 

 

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