If you were to ask me the question, “The burden of responsibility – is it ours, or God’s?” (Jan 22/10) I would’ve said “Ours, of course!” because that’s the Christianity I was taught – that the burden of loving God and loving neighbour is on our shoulders. It’s up to me now to obey God and take care of the needy. I am now held responsible.
So what happened when I fell short in my Christian responsibilities? I felt horribly guilty – guilty that I wasn’t doing my part, guilty I was letting God down, and guilty for being such a lousy example of Christianity. But why should I feel guilty, when every sin and failing of mine is forgiven already? Because guilt is the way of the world. It’s a powerful motivator, used by religion, advertising, parents, children, husbands, wives, friends and fund-raisers to manipulate, sell and bully us into doing what they want. Witness the guilt-trips laid on us by people raising funds following a major disaster. They’re in your face wherever you turn, using guilt to make us contribute. Like the TV telethon moderator who glared into the camera and said, “You can’t turn us off. If you change channels we’ll be there too. You can’t escape us.” He was right; I did change channels and there he was, still glaring into the camera with his triumphant smirk, because he knew he had us by the short and curlies. How could any decent person NOT contribute to such a noble cause? Guilt, guilt, guilt – because guilt works!
No wonder I feel so guilty, then, even as a Christian, when guilt has been used all my life to get me to act according to other people’s agendas – and make me feel like a heel if I don’t. Like the lady who swore at me recently for not visiting her while I was ill! But that’s the way of the world, and of Christianity all too often as well, to exploit the power of a guilt-trip to bully people into submission.
And despite knowing Jesus took all human guilt upon himself so that I never have to be eaten up by guilt or be motivated into action by guilt ever again, it’s still difficult to shake that awful feeling of “delinquency in my responsibilities” if I don’t give money following every major disaster, or I don’t come up to other people’s expectations. I guess it takes a while to really believe God doesn’t hold anything we do against us (2 Corinthians 5:19). We might still, but he doesn’t.
Filed under: Is this Christianity?
