WILL THE KNOWLEDGE OF OUR PAST FREE US FROM THE PRESENT?

Does understanding our past relieve us of its influence? A male complained that he had consistently taken abuse from friends and acquaintances. He didn’t feel that he had the right to assert himself against their abuse. However, through psychotherapy, he saw that this had been the way he had been treated by his caregivers. He then “understood” that not speaking up for his welfare and setting boundaries were behaviors and a self-concept he had inherited and that they no longer had to dictate his life. He therefore began to set needful boundaries with his friends and acquaintances.

We don’t like seeing anyone abused, so we regard this as a “success story,” but is it? There are two problems here. For one thing, our memories can be either distorted or highly selective. Therefore, this male might not be connecting the right dots in his analysis of his past and how it impacts his present.

However, we might think, “Well, it doesn’t matter. What matters is that he is now finding relief from his feelings of unworthiness and is now setting necessary boundaries.”

This might be true, but he is left with a problem that will eventually resurface. Even if he has correctly assessed that his failure to set boundaries was a product of his past, it still fails to give him the rationale he needs to resist victimization.

Let me try to illustrate this point. If we realize that our past “nurturing” inculcated us with the idea that we should tolerate abuse, all this realization tells us is that we need not be led by our past. However, it fails to tell us what we should be led by or to give us an objective standard of behavioral and cognitive rightness. It doesn’t tell us why we shouldn’t tolerate abuse.

It is like the girl who was taught that it is wrong to abuse others. While this might help her to understand her disdain for abuse, it does not answer the question, “Is it wrong to abuse?” It would therefore be absurd for her to begin to abuse others, because she now understands that her disdain for abuse had come from her parents.

It is not enough for us to merely connect the dots and to understand our present inclinations from the perspective of the past. Instead, it is more important to have an objective standard for right behavior.

When I first began going to church, I felt strongly that everyone who came to shake my hand was a hypocrite. However, I found that it is more important to live by the guidance of the objective truths of Scripture and love others than it was to understand why I felt this way. When I began to treat others with love, miraculously my opinions of them changed.

It wasn’t enough for me to know that my feelings of self-loathing came from the way I had been treated as a child. Instead, I needed to know that I was lovable and had value. This was something that I was unable to obtain through psychotherapy. Nor did it seem to matter how many times the psychotherapist would assure me that I am a “good person.” My deeply ingrained feelings of self-loathing would just laugh at these reassurances.

What could assure me that I had value? The psychotherapist’s words were only his opinions and were unable to penetrate to the depths where my feelings were preaching their life-controlling messages.

It was only Jesus who was able to break through my deadly waves of self-loathing. I became assured that if He loved me so much that He had died for me, while I was His enemy, He would love me all the more once I became His friend (Romans 5:8-10).

This awareness didn’t come overnight. Since I had not known love as a child, it was hard for me to believe/feel that God now loved me. I had hated myself and therefore projected that everyone else, including God, hated me. And I felt sure of this. I was also sure that I had to produce a steady stream of successes in order to be worthy of anyone’s love. This, of course, caused me to envy and even hate those who had more success.

However, Scripture began to rewrite my own script. I began to experience the “love of God that passes all understanding” (Ephesians 3:19) and the assurance that He would never leave me (Romans 8:38-39). Even through suffering, the words of my Savior became more real to me:

·       “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” (Matthew 11:28-30)

Jesus does give us a “yoke” and a “burden,” but these can become the instruments of freedom from many of the things that oppress us.

THE WAY UP TO PEACE IS THE WAY DOWN

Much of what Augustine had written in his Confessions does not resonate with a generation convinced that they have to learn how to believe in and to like themselves:

• By confessing our own miserable state and acknowledging your mercy towards us, we open our hearts to you, so that you may free us wholly, as you have already begun to do. Then we shall no longer be miserable in ourselves but will find true happiness in you (Book XI:1).

Augustine represents what is pejoratively called “dirty rotten sinner” religion. Instead of building himself up so that he could feel good about himself, it seems that Augustine was doing the very opposite thing – groveling in his “miserable state.”

However, according to Augustine, the way down was really the way up to finding “true happiness.”

How can this be? When we humble ourselves to make a complete confession of our sins, it is like lancing a festering sore, squeezing out the puss, and exposing it to the light, The festering sore cannot simply be covered with some positive affirmations like, “I am not going to worry about it. It will go away on its own.” Instead, it must be cleansed.

Our relationship with our Savior must also be regularly cleansed, or it too will fester and possibly poison our entire spirit. The Psalmist wrote about this cleansing:

·       For when I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long. For day and night your hand was heavy upon me; my strength was dried up as by the heat of summer. I acknowledged my sin to you, and I did not cover my iniquity; I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the LORD,” and you forgave the iniquity of my sin. (Psalm 32:3-5; ESV)

Any form of healing must address the underlying problem. In the case of our relationship with God, it always begins by going to the root of our alienation from our Healer by confessing our sins.

GEORGE YANCY: BLACK RAGE AND WHITE GUILT

George Yancy is a professor of philosophy at Emory University and a Black male. In a New York Times essay/letter entitled “Dear White America,” he argues that all White males (whatever they are) are racist and need to get over it.

To make his point, he admits that he is a recovering sexist (and if he can confess his sexism, we should be able to confess our racism):

• This doesn’t mean that I intentionally hate women or that I desire to oppress them. It means that despite my best intentions, I perpetuate sexism every day of my life.

Of what does his sexism consist?

• As a sexist, I have failed women. I have failed to speak out when I should have. I have failed to engage critically and extensively their pain and suffering in my writing. I have failed to transcend the rigidity of gender roles in my own life. I have failed to challenge those poisonous assumptions that women are “inferior” to men or to speak out loudly in the company of male philosophers who believe that feminist philosophy is just a nonphilosophical fad. I have been complicit with, and have allowed myself to be seduced by a country that makes billions of dollars from sexually objectifying women, from pornography, commercials, video games, to Hollywood movies. I am not innocent.

After reading this, it is hard to know which sins are being confessed. Is it sexist to hold doors for women? Is it sexist to think or make any generalizations about them – that they are better with children or that they are less physically strong or even that they are more beautiful than males? However, I would agree that watching porn is a road to sexism – viewing woman as mere sexual objects.

Is Yancy merely confessing that he has sexual thoughts regarding women, and does this make him a sexist? This raises the all-important question – What is sexism and when are we guilty of it? And are women just as guilty of reverse-sexism? Are we therefore all sexists, and if we are, is this category at all useful? Perhaps, instead, we have to be more specific about the destructive forms of sexism in which we partake.

Anyway, how do we apply these questions to the area of racism? Yancy pivots now to his main point:

• If you are white, and you are reading this letter, I ask that you don’t run to seek shelter from your own racism. Don’t hide from your responsibility. Rather, begin, right now, to practice being vulnerable. Being neither a “good” white person nor a liberal white person will get you off the proverbial hook… After all, it is painful to let go of your “white innocence,” to use this letter as a mirror, one that refuses to show you what you want to see, one that demands that you look at the lies that you tell yourself so that you don’t feel the weight of responsibility for those who live under the yoke of whiteness, your whiteness.

I can resonate with a part of what Yancy writes. As a Christian, I believe in the need to confess and to engage in painful self-examination, but it’s something we all need to do. However, for Yancy, it seems that this is only something that Whites need to do. According to him, there is a “yoke of whiteness,” but he doesn’t seem willing to acknowledge a comparable “yoke of blackness”:

• I am asking you to enter into battle with your white self. I’m asking that you open yourself up; to speak to, to admit to, the racist poison that is inside of you.

It seems that only the Whites have “racist poison,” while the Blacks are given a free pass. Is this one-sided critique the way to build a better world? Should we fight racism – something that seems to be growing at an alarming rate – with more racist rhetoric? Besides, is this what our Black brethren need to find healing? I don’t think so. Instead of bringing the races together, this serves to simply separate us further. Besides, White mea-culpa can also serve as a cloak for condescension and paternalism.  What then will elevate us? To treat our brethren from different races as moral equals, each accountable before God for our own moral failures! Therefore, James instructed the Church:

• My brothers, show no partiality as you hold the faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory. For if a man wearing a gold ring and fine clothing comes into your assembly, and a poor man in shabby clothing also comes in, and if you pay attention to the one who wears the fine clothing and say, “You sit here in a good place,” while you say to the poor man, “You stand over there,” or, “Sit down at my feet,” have you not then made distinctions among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts? Listen, my beloved brothers, has not God chosen those who are poor in the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom, which he has promised to those who love him? But you have dishonored the poor man. (James 2:1-7)

When there are specific crimes that Whites continue to commit, then these need to be addressed. However, Yancy feels that it is enough to call Whites “racists” simply because they are part of a society that has favored Whites and seems to systemically favor them today:

• You are part of a system that allows you to walk into stores where you are not followed, where you get to go for a bank loan and your skin does not count against you, where you don’t need to engage in “the talk” that black people and people of color must tell their children when they are confronted by white police officers.

Yes, I do think that we have to face up to certain realities of racial profiling. Honest Black people continue to endure the degradation of suspicion. However, it does not seem likely that this results from any plot or systemic program to degrade Blacks. Instead, Blacks commit crimes at a much higher rate than other racial groups, and I don’t think that Yancy’s victimization rhetoric is helpful here. Instead, it affirms erroneous Black suspicions that Whites still hate them and want to suppress and exclude them. Instead, this is a proven formula to produce more criminality and to increase the division. Therefore, I would hope that Black leadership would be teaching their community:

• Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them… Live in harmony with one another. Do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly. Never be wise in your own sight. Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all. If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay [also through the criminal justice system – Romans 13:4], says the Lord”… Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. (Romans 12:14-21)

And this is also what Whites should be teaching! No double-standards here! However, Yancy is one-sided throughout:

• As you reap comfort from being white, we suffer for being black and people of color.

Although Blacks continue to suffer in terms of employment and poverty, they also have freedoms and benefits that Whites are denied. For example, a White could not dream about publishing a letter in the Times inveighing against Black racism. They could even lose their jobs for doing so. Meanwhile, one Black professor at Union Theological Seminary has received 19 honorary PHDs despite his ubiquitous racist diatribes. And we find this double-standard systemically enforced across “White” America.

Yet Yancy doesn’t show any appreciation of the fact that there are no longer racist laws on the books, apart from those that favor Blacks through “affirmative action.” Instead, in light of all the progress, Yancy refuses to hold his own racial group in any way responsible:

• I assure you that so many black people suffering from poverty and joblessness, which is linked to high levels of crime, are painfully aware of the existential toll that they have had to face because they are black and, as [James] Baldwin adds, “for no other reason.” 

While this was true in Baldwin’s day, it is no longer true today. Nevertheless, Yancy and many Black people sincerely believe that they are suffering for “no other reason” but White racism, and this is understandable. Blacks had experienced sustained and appalling racism and degradation in our nation for 200 years, and they are still suffering. But why? Is it because of a sinister, hidden, and systemic racism, or are there other reasons for this?  

Shelby Steele, a Black professor, thinks that there are. As a panelist at a conference on racism, he was asked what an ideal America would look like. He writes:

• I said that what I wanted most for America was an end to white guilt... the terror of being seen as racist—terror that has caused whites to act guiltily toward minorities even when they feel no actual guilt. My point was that this terror— and the lust it has inspired in whites to show themselves innocent of racism— has spawned a new white paternalism toward minorities since the 1960s that, among other things, has damaged the black family more profoundly than segregation ever did. I also pleaded especially for an end to the condescension of affirmative action... the benevolent paternalism of white guilt, I said, had injured the self- esteem, if not the souls, of minorities in ways that the malevolent paternalism of white racism never had. Post-1960s welfare policies, the proliferation of “identity politics” and group preferences, and all the grandiose social interventions of the War on Poverty and the Great Society— all this was meant to redeem the nation from its bigoted past, but paradoxically, it also invited minorities to make an identity and a politics out of grievance and inferiority... their entitlement and that protest politics was the best way to cash in on that entitlement. (Shame: How America's Past Sins have Polarized the Country)

Steele believes that White guilt is now more destructive to the Black community than White racism. He argues that the very programs intended to help Blacks were not simply ineffective but actually damaged the Black community:

• White guilt was a smothering and distracting kindness that enmeshed minorities more in the struggle for white redemption than in their own struggle to develop as individuals capable of competing with all others.

White guilt expresses itself in many destructive ways. It places all of the guilt for the present-day Black problems on White racism. Consequently, the Blacks are given a free moral pass. But this freedom from blame and conscience is a bondage that perpetuates a blame mentality, dependency, and the resulting criminality. Instead of bringing the races together, it has further polarized them. It also disdains those Whites who understandably want to treat their Black brethren as equals.

According to Steele, White guilt and the “benevolent paternalism” of “affirmative action… has injured the self- esteem, if not the souls, of minorities.”

However, Yancy has embraced the opposite approach – to promote White guilt:

• What I’m asking is that you first accept the racism within yourself, accept all of the truth about what it means for you to be white in a society that was created for you. I’m asking for you to trace the binds that tie you to forms of domination that you would rather not see.

And there are many Whites who condescendingly embrace this message, while most entirely reject it. In either case, alienation is intensified with negative effects for all of us, and this grieves me so!

Instead, the Christian is required to walk in love and unity, each examining themselves, each a sinner who is totally dependent on his Savior. We are to embrace, not racial distinctions, but our common unity and humanity, as our Lord had prayed:

• "That all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one: I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.” (John 17:20-23) 

Let this also be our prayer! The unity we so desire will not be brought about by using race to heal racial problems but by Christian love.

Five Reasons Why I Read the Bible Daily

By Robert Peters, June 2012

[Bob gave this testimony at the church he and his wife attend]

Like many in my generation (the “boomers”) I grew up “believing” that the Bible was the Word of God; but other than reading a passage now and then in Sunday school and hearing it at a worship service, I didn’t read the Bible on my own.   Like many in my generation, I also fell away from the Lord while in college.    After coming back to the Lord in 1972-1973 while in law school, I again “believed” the Bible to be the Word of God, but still didn’t read it on my own and didn’t see any need to!

That changed not long after I began going to a Christian coffee house in Greenwich Village run by Teen Challenge.   The young Christian adults who helped out there soon “got after me” about not reading the Bible on my own.   I didn’t see the need to do that, and I told them so!  But when I was home during summer vacation in 1974, I decided to begin reading the New Testament; and to my surprise, I got interested in it – interested enough to read the NT through almost three times before going back to school in the fall.   I should add that I used three different translations for that.    

Despite finding the Bible to be exciting, I stopped reading the Bible when I went back to law school in the fall.   Thankfully, that was soon to change.   Not long after I began attending a Bible study at the law school, another law student talked about the importance of having a quiet time in the morning to read the Bible and pray.  I must say that I did not find it easy getting up earlier so that I could begin each morning with a brief Bible reading and an even briefer prayer.   But my fellow law student was persuasive, and I gave it a try.  Going on 38 years later, I still begin almost every day of my life by spending about an hour or so mostly reading the Bible but also praying. 

Now, for those reasons why I read the Bible and read it daily:

1)   It is through faith that we are saved, and faith “comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God” (Romans 10:17).   Faith, however, isn’t just something we exercise or experience when we are “born again.”  We “walk by faith” (2 Cor. 5:7); and if you doubt the importance of faith in a Christian’s daily walk (life), open a Concordance to the word “faith” and begin reading the passages where that word is found in the Bible.   And as you read, remember that faith comes by hearing, and hearing by God’s Word.

2)   I find the Bible to be a great source of comfort, encouragement, wisdom, correction and faith (trust) when a trial(s) comes my way.  The place I usually go to in the Bible when a trial(s) comes my way is the Psalms; and what I do is read them, over and over if necessary, until the burden (whatever it is) lifts.   Above all else, what the Psalms remind me to do is to trust in the Lord and “hope in his mercy” (Psalm 147:11).  They also help me to pray as the Psalmists prayed.  Not long ago I turned to the Psalms when a trial came my wife’s way, and I prayed the Psalms for her.   The Psalms also remind me of my own sin and of my need to confess that sin and obey God’s word.  

In conjunction with this point, Sam [Bob’s Pastor] asked me to mention that I had a “nervous breakdown” at the beginning of my second year of law school in 1973; and a key part of my getting through that awful experience was the help I got from reading the Bible.   I hasten to add that reading the Bible is not a “talisman” – as in, “If I just spend enough time reading and memorizing the Bible, my problem will disappear.”   But for me, Psalm 119:92-93 in particular became a reality: “Unless your law had become my delight, I would have perished in my affliction.   I will never forget your precepts: for with them you have quickened me (given me life).”

3)  There is a wealth of truth, understanding, wisdom, counsel, and instruction in the Bible that helps us along life’s way and helps us to know more about God.  One of my favorites is Psalm 119:105, “Your word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my way.”   But also see, Psalms 119: 97-100, Eph. 1:15-23 and 4:13 and II Peter 1:19-21.

4)  A fourth reason that I read the Bible daily is because doing so reminds me of my foolishness and sin.  As the Psalmist wrote (119:11) and Robert Peters embellished, “Your word have I hid in my heart that I might not sign against you, too much!”  Those of you who read the Bible know that the words “too much” are not in the original.  But there have been many times when reading the Bible has helped me to turn away from a course of action that was foolish, sinful, hurtful, etc.; and one good reason for reading the Bible daily is that doing so helps one not to go astray too often or too far.  I hasten to add that I do not recommend Psalm 119:11, as Peters embellished it.  We need to press forward towards the perfect mark as Paul admonished in Philippians 3:7-15. 

5)  A fifth reason that I read the Bible is because I find it to be an awe-inspiring, captivating, credible, exciting, and inspiring read.   In this respect I am like David in Psalm 19, who saw both in God’s creation and in His word means by which God reveals Himself to us.  To put it another way, one reason that I am a believer is because I don’t think life as we know it on Earth is the product of endless random happenings; another reason I am a believer is because I don’t think the Bible is the product of lies, serial delusions, and literary imaginations.  This doesn’t mean that I never have a question or doubt.   Nor does it mean that reading the Bible is always a joy.  But for me reading the Bible usually is a joy, and I find it a wonderful way to begin almost every day of my life.  When reading the Bible begins to become a dry experience, I either pray, asking God to quicken His word to me again, or I turn to one of my favorite parts of the Bible – namely, the Psalms, Proverbs and short Epistles – which always come alive to me.  

Self-Esteem, Rubbish, and Road-Rage

I am a man of many weaknesses and failings, but I’ve learned to boast of them. Nevertheless, I’d love to be rid of them, but at the same time, I know that they are my faithful tutors (Gal. 3:22-24).

As an anxious, irritable, impatient, and angry male, I hate to drive in a car. Every yellow light becomes a personal challenge; every red light becomes a personal rebuke. Needless to say, I receive many “rebukes” in the course of a trip, and my response differs little from road-rage. When the traffic is backed up in front of me, every car is a mortal enemy.

I am a Bible teacher, and my reactions are a great embarrassment to me. I have been on the phone, while surrounded by such “enemies.” My reaction has often caused me to forget that I had been talking on the phone, as I lapsed into profanity. How humbling!

I wish I could say that I am making great strides against my sins. However, my humiliation is compounded as I pray to the One who can deliver me. Even with Him on the “phone,” within seconds, I lapse, convinced that I am the world’s greatest spiritual failure. I cannot “keep watch” for a minute.

Consequently, Paul’s prayer has become very real to me:

·        What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God--through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God's law, but in the sinful nature a slave to the law of sin. (Romans 7:24-25)

How true! In my sinful nature (“flesh;” NASB) I am a slave to sin, while Jesus is my only hope. But isn’t there deliverance in Jesus? Wasn’t it Jesus who promised deliverance?

·        To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, "If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free." (John 8:31-32)

However, He also said:

·        “No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.” (John 15:4-5)

Okay, I get the point. I know that it’s all about Jesus, and He has His own timing. But where’s my deliverance? I am tormented by my sins and failings. However, Paul was also tormented by a “messenger of Satan,” even after he walked faithfully with his Lord for many years. However, he came to understand that this torment was necessary to keep him humble:

·        To keep me from becoming conceited because of these surpassingly great revelations, there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong. (2 Cor. 12:7-10)

I too have learned to delight in my weaknesses, convinced that I need these horrid afflictions. I even counteract the shame with transparency, boasting that He has created great strength through them. King David confessed:

·        Before I was afflicted I went astray, but now I obey your word. You are good, and what you do is good; teach me your decrees…It was good for me to be afflicted so that I might learn your decrees. (Psalm 119:67-71)

If David needed to learn through His afflictions, perhaps we also must be afflicted. Indeed, my Lord has taught me so much through my afflictions that I am now grateful. He has opened my eyes to the great threat of self-contentment, self-trust, and self-righteousness – the things that happen to us when our Lord allows us to go our own way. He has also shown me how destructive this threesome is to the life of the church. In His wisdom, He has placed us under His law to reveal to us our moral failures and our need for Him:

·        Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world held accountable to God. [20] Therefore no one will be declared righteous in his sight by observing the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of sin. (Romans 3:19-20)

We so desperately need to become “conscious of [our] sin.” Without this, it is inevitable that we will look down on others and exalt ourselves.  However, even worse, we will take our Lord and His glorious gift of righteousness for granted.

Exalting self and its complement - diminishing God - are our human default position. It’s what comes most naturally! If this is the case, we require constant reminders of our need and brokenness.

This is why I exult in my neediness. I flaunt it in front of others – whatever it takes to exalt my God, my chief delight and passion. I also think that this helps others to accept their own spiritual failures. However, this is a passion that couldn’t be, as long as I remained passionate about myself. Paul also learned to disdain self-passion:

·        But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ--the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith. (Philip. 3:7-9)

Paul didn’t dismiss his education and his zeal for the Law. Instead, he was dismissive of any self-trust regarding these! A fruitful relationship with our Savior and a fervent embrace of His righteousness depends upon realizing that we are entirely lacking of any righteousness of our own, earned with our good deeds. Therefore, whenever this self-aggrandizing temptation arises, we must be quick to expose it for what it truly is – “rubbish.”

I pray that my Lord will deliver me from my afflictions. However, I know Him and therefore know that if He leaves me with them, He has a good purpose for this.