Jesus also said, “Those who show mercy will have mercy shown to them” (Matthew 5:7).
.. When you do not know you need mercy and forgiveness yourself, you invariably become stingy in sharing it with others
.. we have developed penal and judicial systems that think of mercy as an affront to justice. We seem to have a craven fear of–and even hatred for–anyone outside our own kind of people. After centuries of legalistic religion, sacraments administered in a juridical fashion, and biblical fundamentalism, the very word “mercy” seems newly introduced into our vocabulary–as if it were from a language other than our own, a truly foreign concept. Mercy refuses our capitalistic calculations. Most religion now offers no corrective to the culture, but largely reflects cultural self-interest.
.. Any candidate is praised and deemed worthy of high office because we think, “He speaks his mind” (when it is actually our prejudices that he is speaking aloud). Two thousand years of Jesus’ teaching on compassion, love, forgiveness, and mercy (not to mention basic kindness and respect) are all but forgotten in a narcissistic rage. Western culture has become all about the self, and that is just way too small an agenda. The very self that Jesus said “must die” is now just about all that we think about!
Trump Is Compatible with Many Evangelicals’ Leadership Style
But there are evangelical leaders with whom Trump would feel quite at home. Like him, they are middle-aged men who refuse to submit to basic checks on their power and ego. Like him, the leaders of many “megachurches” are not known for the classic virtues of leadership — wisdom, patience, and humility. Like him, they are often lone charismatic figures who “get things done”— build new structures, attract more followers (and money) and establish a “brand.”
So long as there is growth, many evangelicals hesitate to address clear and troubling signs of egotism and even spiritual abuse.
.. They need to “elect” church leaders who will submit to reviews of character and mental health. (Some studies have found strong correlation between pastors and narcissistic personality disorder.)
Narcissistic rage and narcissistic injury
Narcissistic injury occurs when a narcissist feels that their hidden ‘true self’ has been revealed. This may be the case when the narcissist has a fall from grace, such as when their hidden behaviors or motivations are revealed or when their importance is brought into question. Narcissistic injury is a cause of distress and can lead to dysregulation of behaviors as in narcissistic rage.
White Guilt is actually White Narcissism
I was a little white girl, mirroring people’s own racism back to them in the innocent way only a child can, and when they saw their racism in me they refused to take responsibility for it. They blamed it on me, and I believed them... due to the common practice of the household patriarch raping his female slaves, it is highly likely that white children often witnessed the beating of their own family members. In order to maintain the institution of slavery, children had to learn to act outwhat they were told and ignore what they felt, and so childrearing methods to numb children to their own emotions were developed... I learned some toxic things around race relations. One was that it was unacceptable for me to state, plainly, my observations or questions around race so I kept quiet on topics that confused me. I learned there were certain things I was “allowed” to say, and certain things I wasn’t “allowed” to say, and these rules seemed arbitrary. I also learned that white people would say things they weren’t “allowed” to say when they were around other white people, but to repeat such things in larger groups was unacceptable and would lead to denial, and attacks on my person... I realized I was able to fend off these feelings of shame by acting in overtly “not racist” ways. If I complimented black people, for instance, or expressed outrage at racial injustices, my feelings of shame around my own presumed racism would be lessened... Narcissistic behavior (at least as I understand it from reading the last psychiatrist) is basically defined as behaving in ways to create a positive story about ones self in order to maintain high self image. So, if someone volunteers at a homeless shelter so she can tell herself and others what a good person she is, she is acting out of narcissism... What it is very difficult for people acting out of white narcissism to do isempathize with people who have experienced racism. If someone brings up an incident with racism in it, their number one concern (as someone desperately trying to cover their own racism, even to themselves) will behow can I show that I am not like this racist person... Additionally, I think white people should stop excessive shaming of racists. Once their behavior has been identified as problematic, we can stop there. Excessive shaming of other people sets us up to be highly defended ourselves, because we fear also being called out in such a way. It is much more important that you are able to fix your own problematic behavior than it is for you identify it in others.