Defining Sin…

I was listening to a podcast from Stanford University available on iTunes U; a speech by Arun Gandhi, grandson of Mohandas. He quoted what his grandfather considered the “Seven Deadly Sins”:

• Wealth without Work
• Pleasure without Conscience
• Science without Humanity
• Knowledge without Character
• Politics without Principle
• Commerce without Morality
• Worship without Sacrifice

As a follower of Jesus I understand that I’m not the definer of sin. I would however propose these seven statements as rather profound descriptors of fallen human traits which destroy culture and community.

Defending Talk Therapy…

I’ve found myself in a position in which I am defending what we traditionally call ‘talk therapy’.  The first, simplist and sometimes seemingly only plan of attack for those suffering from depression and psychoses seems to be medication.  The medical model, at least in practice, seems to effectively dominate the world of service delivery.

Paradoxes of Community…

I’ve been concurrently reading Becoming Human and From Brokenness to Community, both by Jean Vanier. Jean Vanier is the founder of the L’Arche Communities; intentional communities focused on the care of the disabled. In From Brokenness to Community Vanier quotes Dietrich Bonhoeffer:

He who loves community destroys community; he who loves the brethren builds community.

I hope I’ll never be dumb enough to try to improve on anything that Bonhoeffer has said; what I intend to do in this post is to confess conviction. This quotation caused myself to ask me the question; “Do you love your community more than the individuals in it?” My honest answer to self was; “Mostly.”

I realized that it’s much easier to have a relationship to an entity than an individual; whether the ‘entity’ be God, a company, a church or even abstract conceptual entities such as “family”, “country” or “fellow NASCAR fans”.

In Becoming Human Vanier convinced me that a deep barrier to personal belonging-ness lies in my own desire to be special, to compete, to be recognized as valuable and important. How can I belong if my belonging, by necessity, means something more important than everyone else’s belonging?

Walking with Christ is often paradoxical; it is a paradox that 1.) my own desire for community would become a block to realizing the same; and 2.) the tendency that I believe to make me attractive to others…my ’special-ness’…does in fact become a hindrance to experiencing community.