No Myth

Much has been made of the manipulation by liberals of various classes — economic, racial, gender — through the selling of synchronized victimization and entitlement.

It’s a seductive spiel, one for which the appeal is rooted in the notion that should you by dint of race and/or gender belong to one of the aforementioned classes, none of the negatives in your life are your fault. All the bad things are due to a combination of oppression, discrimination and misogyny. Well, we’re here to set things right! Behold our magnanimous generosity as we take from your evil dark lords and freely give to you. You don’t have to earn anything! We’ve got your back. Oh, no thanks are necessary. Well, if you insist, there is this little election thing coming up.

The whole issue boils down to political Scientology, really. “It’s not on you. It’s those blasted engrams! Here, let us help you get rid of them. You need us for that.” In this case, the engrams are conservatives and anyone who speaks of such things as personal responsibility and the need to work for what you have is obviously a suppressive person, one to avoid at all cost. Otherwise, someone might get the notion they’re being fed a line designed to keep them and their descendants in a state of perpetual dependence on the government while resentment against them by those paying for, in essence, their lives through taxes grows.

That said, are we who believe in Christ guilty of the same sin as those who believe they have a birthright to entitlement and privilege?

Consider this. When Paul was lambasting the church at Corinth for its assorted sordid failings, note how he punctuated one of his rants: “And you are proud!” One of the unfortunate hallmarks of a Christian or group of Christians off track is that even as we are a trainwreck unaware of the fact we’ve crashing, we are quite satisfied with ourselves and certain of our position in the grand scheme of things as God’s most deserving equivalent of teacher’s pet. Bad news all around. We’re in denial about both whatever the sin or sins may be we are committing and the sin of pride when we have nothing about which to be proud. (Of course we’re not supposed to be proud anyway, but you get the idea.)

Another line from the same rant comes to mind: “What business is it of mine to judge those outside the church? Are you not to judge those inside?” It does us no good to try and explain to others how they’re being fed a tasty lie when we’re in the middle of doing the exact same thing.

Following Jesus isn’t a sign of favor or being better than those who don’t. It is an acknowledgment of failure, a confession and admittance that nothing stands between you and an eternity spent in isolation from God’s love except the shed blood of a tortured, executed Savior. Who rose from the dead so we could live with Him in eternity. Not a whole lot there to stick your chest out about, what say?

It’s a difficult thing to convince someone who believes they’re entitled this is not the case. However, it’s a necessity if we are to break the stranglehold this myth has on both our political process and society as a whole. We have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. We must remember that we means, well, we. And that’s no myth.

P.S. Speaking of no myth…

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