• This chapter addresses social reasons for helping victims and what does not work.
• It also explains how the churches sometimes have a more complicated view of human emotions.
1. Introduction 2. The World Is A Battlefield 3. The Church: A Feast for Oppressors? 4. How Did We Become Victims? 5. How do victims communicate? 6. Being a victim of an offense and victimhood 7. Learned Helplessness 8. Victim-blaming 9. God’s solution to sin 10. How Satan uses the Bible to force us to submit to him 11. The Good Shepherd 12. Victimhood as a weapon 13. The Victorious Christian 14. Practical exercise towards freedom. 15. Restore your trust in God. 16. Why God allows difficulties. 17. Church Tribulations 18. Final Victory 19. Afterword
Equality’s Ethics Dilemma
The world is a battlefield, with wounded everywhere. Everyone handles it differently. Some are more wounded than others. Hurt people, hurt people. It is a chain reaction that won’t stop. Everyone is guilty of something; everyone is also a victim in one way or another. Sometimes bad behavior is the result of trauma and carrying the burden of others’ sins. Issues do not come from nothing. Anger does not come from nothing. Victims can be unstable and a burden to their surroundings. Many victims are programmed to harm and don’t know any other way. Sin is contagious; like an airborne disease, it is easily transmittable. Sin is a chain reaction affecting the body, soul, and society.
Some are more harmed than others and struggle to find peace and hope. They want to be good and do good, but they can’t seem to break a destructive behavior pattern. Others are trapped in abusive relationships. Trapped in a negative loop, many struggle to take care of themselves. They can’t stop hurting or move on. They are constantly triggered and re-wounded. Their scars affect every interaction and every aspect of their lives. They don’t know how to get well, and their behavior only causes new traumatic experiences. Even ordinary day-to-day confrontations can have a devastating impact. It is a sad fact to state, but many victims are found unlikable for reasons that further establish their struggles. In a society where opportunities are equal, there is still only an illusion of equality. Not all can take advantage of the opportunities presented to them. Mental health issues are a real handicap that prevents people from moving forward.
To make the point figurative. You may put a plate of food at an equal distance between two people and tell them they have the same privilege of eating it. If one is paralyzed and the other has well-functioning legs, one will struggle to get to the meal, if at all. If they make it, by the time they reach it, the other person will have eaten it first. Likewise, many just don’t have the right cognitive tools to handle what to others is easy and logical. For many with traumatic experiences, even what appears good can be perceived as a danger due to the bodily and mental consequences that follow. Then, too, the good things presented might be a struggle to accept or receive.
Some don’t even know why they are depressed and feel worthless; they don’t understand how they have been wounded or by whom. Emotional damage is so complex that it can take years to understand what actually happened or how they were wounded. All they feel is an anxiety that appears random and misplaced. Our subconscious mind sometimes picks up on things our conscious mind does not.
No case is less important than another if the result and harm are the same. For too long, people have been evaluated more by what has happened to them than by the harm it has caused, and thus many do not receive the help they need. Any human broken down is a broken human, no matter how it happened or who did it. If somebody cannot cope with life, blaming them is hardly helpful and will rarely bring about a change.
Just like non-religious people, many religious people across different Christian denominations struggle with how to address people who hurt others and hurt themselves.
Every so often, the victim is blamed or made responsible for their hurt. Every so often, the wrongful deeds are covered up.
In society, therapy has become a popular method to help people find understanding, and many Christians seek help there, hoping to get the tools to heal. This can sometimes be problematic as non-Christian mental health professionals do not always follow the principles of God and often even discourage faith and Christian virtue, leaving them in a place where inner values and their healing seem to be in conflict with each other. Some therapists will even suggest that their Christian faith is the problem behind their feelings of being trapped. Thus, some who seek help feel forced to choose between the two. It is a fact that many who struggle have experienced abuse by professed Christian people, and so Christianity is in large part blamed rather than the abuser’s expression of their religion. The Nobel Peace Prize winner, bishop, and human rights activist Desmond Tutu once said: “Religion is like a knife: you can either use it to cut bread or stick it in someone’s back”.
His statement is still relevant. It is hardly going to change the world to “blame the knife” or the existence of it. You must give accountability to the person holding it.
Although this is not the case with everyone, it has been observed that several people seeking help from psychologists become self-absorbed while trying to find a solution to their issues. They are taught to put themselves first and to resist anyone demanding anything self-sacrificing from them as someone in the wrong. This attitude does not go well with Christ’s teachings and overall social interactions. Solving past issues by making everything about us, even the entitlement that everyone should adjust their speech and actions to our needs would make us terrible Christians. When we have been hurt, our tolerance can be adjusted wrongly, and so following it can lead to unreasonable expectations of others. While it is important to respect and love oneself to be able to care for others, there is a balance that is needed in any social society. If everyone puts their needs first, conflict is sure to ensue.
Countless modern studies from non-religious researchers strongly suggest that people who help others are the happiest people. Seeking to make others happy is what makes us happy, which counterfeits a good deal of modern advice on seeking happiness through selfish choices and indulgences.(https://www.forbes.com/sites/traversmark/2021/04/26/happiness-comes-from-making-others-feel-good-rather-thanourselves-according-to-a-new-study/?sh=55a6afeb2fd9 https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/wanting_to_help_others_could_make_you_happier_at_work https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-to-be-happy-by-giving-to-others/ )
For someone who is depressed and unhappy, constantly putting themselves first might not make them happier or more content in the long run. Always putting what others need first can also be exhausting, so finding the perfect balance is important. People interact; it is unavoidable, so no one can live and expect their surroundings to always be customized to themselves and their needs. It is a self-destructive social phenomenon; if others are to adjust to our needs, then we should logically and morally think it is our duty to adjust to theirs, or we will exhaust others to avoid getting exhausted ourselves. We are forced to consider that most of the time, our rights can’t always come first, even if we are mentally struggling.
Life is about giving and taking. Blessings and sacrifices. When do we give too much of ourselves, and when do we give too little? Finding the balance can be difficult. A Christian can be tempted to give too much, thinking it is a Christian duty and “burning the candle at both ends”.
Facts or feelings.
If you have experienced trauma. Finding the Christian answer to healing and dealing with different types of trauma can be hard because there are so many wrong practices within the churches regarding these things.
Sometimes feelings of any sort can be viewed as sinful, and therefore the feelings are suppressed. Many think they do God a service by not demanding justice, by not fighting for what is right, and pretending not to be affected by others’ bad behavior. The unspoken rule is that the less of an emotional reaction we have, the more tolerant and good Christians we are. It is self-deceptive because it is impossible not to be affected by cruelty. Those who do not react emotionally to their surroundings are people who lack empathy, and so if Christians are encouraged to not show feelings, they naturally become less empathetic. A Christian virtue is being emphatic, and so naturally we see two conflicting ideas when it comes to how emotions are viewed. Yet because these unspoken rules regarding emotions as sinful often manifest in churches, many find Christians unsympathetic or even patronizing. If you are conceived as less “holy” because you don’t control your emotions, you will feel patronized by the others who seem to do it. Thus, it creates an atmosphere of hypocrisy and pretend goodness, where no one wants to address the real issues. If having emotional reactions is regarded as a sin, then no one will want to show their emotions, feeling it would label them as less spiritual Christians. In such a toxic environment, we also get proxy Christians who resemble mothers with Munchhausen syndrome by proxy, who need others to be pathetic for them to get attention as superior Christians. The victim of such people may feel loved until they realize the Christian love bomber needs them to remain pathetic for the relationship to work.
In an unhealthy church, our emotions become the sin and the problem instead of what is causing them to be stirred up. It is very common in any sect-like environment. There, you are taught to ignore any emotional warning signs and show your obedience, detached from your common sense and thinking. Going to any church that handles problems in this way means watching people be wounded and traumatized. They may appear to do good, but they do not.
On the right side of the political spectrum, little sympathy and even bullying have become ways to argue against overweight people, against those who are oversensitive, against the uneducated, or against those struggling with poverty and even race and cultural issues. “If you have problems, you made them, and you have to fix them” is an attitude that may seem well intended but is also partly ignorant.
One right-side commentator with a great following once said, “Facts don’t care about your feelings” to which another responded, “Feelings don’t care about your facts”. Both statements are true, but neither fact nor feelings alone can heal the broken. Both must be combined. Although human emotions are not always adjusted correctly, it is still our feelings that help us process and evaluate information and reject other information. Dismissing feelings is therefore deceptive or self-deceptive at best. When humans shut down their intellect, they act on instincts like animals do, but the same is true if we shut down our emotions. Because emotions are also intellect. Without emotional intellect, we will also act more like animals, selfishly and on instinct. The evidence of that is seen in psychopaths and narcissists, who shut down their empathy for other people’s feelings and sometimes even their own. They are destructive and create a hostile environment. There would be no ideal world without feelings, and “facts” can never be detached from them. God created the human body, where intellect and feelings work together to create a being “in His image”. God is a God of facts, law, and order. Yet, it was His feelings for man that saved us and revealed God’s perfection as a leader. His throne consists of both mercy and law. Mercy and empathy go together. “The Lord is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and rich in love. The Lord is good to all; he has compassion on all he has made” (Psalm 116:5) God has compassion for mankind, and He praises those of us who have compassion for our fellow men. “Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy. (Matt.5:7)
Surprisingly enough, it is impossible to keep God’s law without using or employing our feelings. It says: “And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might” (Deut.6:5, See also Mark.12:30). It’s through love and admiration—our emotions—that we worship and connect with God.
God says, “I will put my laws into their minds and write them in their hearts”. This illustrates perfectly how both the heart and mind are needed to be faithful. (Heb.8:12)
When God judges the guilty who refuse to change their ways, He is doing it to protect the innocent. His anger can be aroused at injustice, which in turn makes God interfere when He sees suffering. God has a law, and although it is the foundation of His reign, emotions are the foundation of the law. It is because stealing hurts and harms another’s emotional well-being that God has a law against stealing, and so on. To be happy and excel, we need emotions, and when we have emotions, we need protection from them being damaged. This is the foundation of God’s moral laws so that one person’s happiness cannot legally be built upon another’s misery.Our emotions are part of our intellect and our ability to tell right from wrong. There is no true intellect without emotions. Yet if emotions are detached from factual intellect, they are running wild and untamed. On the other side, if intellect is run without emotions, it cannot correctly distinguish right from wrong. Both are living “by the flesh” and inspire sinful behavior (Rom.8:1). If we think living by the “flesh” and having emotions are the same thing, we will fear our emotions are sin and treat them as such. Many Christians do. They think hell is waiting for them if they “feel too much”. If we understand that “living by the flesh” means just as much detaching feelings from facts as detaching facts from feelings, it might help us see the term “living by the flesh” differently. As Paul said: “If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing” (1.Cor.13:2)
Let’s make a figurative illustration to illustrate the point. If you hit another person, it is the receiver’s pain and hurt look that creates the understanding that the action is wrong. This is how we learn right from wrong from infancy on. It is how we understand good interactions before we understand words. We read emotions. Seeing and experiencing reactions to our behavior. This is also where early trauma can hit hard later on; if we are given toxic feedback, many learn the wrong emotional language. The lack of consistency in response can create this uncertainty. For instance, if the mother praises the child for doing something and the child repeats it another day, she gets angry. It is not normal to remember these years of our lives, but the emotional language we learn can stay with us forever. Babies and toddlers, before talking, can comprehend and recognize fear, joy, hostility, and many other emotions just by looking at someone. For instance, a baby comforting their mother. Emotions are an important part of our growth and intelligence.
Emotions work together with facts to help us be the best people we can be. However, others pain does not always give a right understanding of who is in the wrong. If you hit someone and harm them, it can indicate the action was wrong, but the feelings of the wounded must not be separated from the facts to create the right understanding. Hitting and afflicting someone that way is not always wrong. A person who is wounded is not always in the right.
If you get angry and hit someone who is trying to kidnap someone’s child, the action is correct, even though the receiver feels pain and looks hurt. Thus, you cannot state as a fact that hitting someone is wrong based on the harm or the feelings of the recipient. Still, in one instance, the other’s feelings are evidence the punch is wrong, and in the other, it is not. It is like this with all kinds of “facts”. In one instance, anger is wrong; in the other, anger is correct. Therefore, you cannot state as a fact that anger is wrong or that hitting someone is wrong. For if one man’s anger had not been aroused and he had punched the other, a child would have been kidnapped. The fact therefore says that not the one who got the most harmed is the victim, but the one with the right motives and intentions.
The struggle people have with bureaucracy is its lack of ability to independently evaluate each situation. One law helps one but harms another. Many fall between stools. Occasionally, the very laws that were created to protect end up harming the innocent and defending the transgressors (Isa.10:1-2). This is because bureaucracies lack the ability to use emotions in the interpretation and use of the law. We see the same unfairness practiced by big companies, where the employees meeting the customers have no trust or right to make decisions based on what they perceive. Making the service many small business owners offer better and more docile. God’s law is structured differently. God forbids the addition of additional laws to His own, as that prevents the principles of His law from being kept properly. Too many interpretations remove personal evaluation, responsibility, and growth. There were repeated standoffs between Jesus and the Pharisees and scribes because of their additional laws, which they felt complimented God’s law but instead complicated it. Because there was no more room to individually evaluate the fulfillment of the law in a given situation, God’s law often seemed unfair and misplaced. Was a man who carried his bed on the Sabbath because he had just been healed the same as if a man were moving his bed from one house to another unnecessarily? According to the Pharisees and scribes, there was no difference. They did not consider the situation in which it was happening or the men’s intentions for doing it. God’s law said not to carry a burden on the Sabbath; it was their additional interpretational laws that said healing someone or carrying, for instance, a bed, was a burden. Jesus went by the original intention of the law; thus, the man carrying his bed while walking for the first time in nearly forty years while praising God for the deliverance from his illness, the real burden, was not disrespecting God’s law. Jesus had many such confrontations with the Pharisees because he fulfilled God’s law by interpreting it from a wider perspective.
God even states that too many laws and regulations cause people to stumble and fall (Isa.28:13). There must always be room for independent evaluation within a firm set of moral frameworks. If there are too many laws, that becomes almost impossible to do.
Human emotions are not a sin; emotions cannot be removed, and every so often they tell the truth when the apparent facts do not.
God’s solution to harm and hurt is not to remove emotions but to address what is causing them to be wrongly adjusted or harmed. Christians who think they give God glory by addressing the existence of emotions as a sin might be fooling themselves and others. No one who is told to subdue their emotions feels free, not even as a Christian. This is why God wants us to worship, sing, and rejoice in Him. It is our feelings that attach us to Him in a bond and help us experience joy as Christians. When it comes to science, even what we think of as facts are not God’s facts. When God wanted to save Israel from the Egyptian army, He manipulated the natural laws to their advantage and divided the Red Sea so that they could cross it and be saved. When they were starving, He created an unnatural rain of food from heaven to provide for them. When Joshua needed daylight to win a critical battle, God made daylight throughout the night. Christ walked on water and made water into wine. There are many things that may appear unchangeable and factual in nature, but God put man’s salvation and well-being above these laws. By making people feel seen and loved, God is willing to perform miracles. Although his moral laws are unchangeable, God’s other laws can be temporarily worked on when circumstances make them threaten the same people they were meant to bless. When the disciples needed Jesus, He walked upon the water to get to them. Jesus said: “Do not judge according to appearance, but judge with righteous judgment.” (John 7:24)
The intent of the law determines how it is upheld. Thus, Jesus said these words when the Pharisees had added many additional laws to God’s Sabbath commandment. They allowed circumcision and could even save an ox on that day, but claimed Jesus was not allowed to heal a man on the Sabbath. The point of the law was to bring men to a special weekly rest and connect them with God. Their additional law forbidding healing broke and prevented this intention. Christ’s healing brought the man rest from his troubles, and in this way, he was in line with the purpose of the law. While the Pharisees created the illusion that they kept the law, and that Christ broke it, it was really the other way around.
Christ uses God’s laws to save and protect, while those who abuse them use them to control and divide. People who are hurt and wounded are not to be told their feelings are a problem and need to be silenced.
Even feelings out of control send a message. When a person goes to the doctor and tells them their arm hurts, it helps the doctor find out what is wrong with them. In the same way, people’s expressions and feelings pinpoint the emotional harm. By allowing the expression of feelings, we can find the problem, help solve the issue, and thus bring healing if possible.
It is therefore Christian to consider people’s feelings, to allow people’s feelings, and to have feelings ourselves. Every church should have people who understand and interpret emotional language, as they will often experience traumatized and wounded people coming to seek God’s help among them. Often, they have tried to get help everywhere else first and are still hurting and desperate.
People who are traumatized and wounded usually have a slightly different emotional language than those who have had fewer challenges in life. Not understanding the emotional language barrier causes unnecessary friction and division.
Although we are responsible for ourselves, some do not know how to take care of themselves. Healthy coping mechanisms are a gift given and taught in the first years of anyone’s life. What seems easy to some is very hard for others. What one person does instinctively, the other has not learned and instead has learned a different set of instincts. When one child learns social and developmental skills, another child is trapped in a fight or flight response and is learning survival skills that are inappropriate when they enter a more functioning society.
To give a primitive example, let us say we have two families knocked back to the Stone Age living in each of their caves, having to start from scratch.
If one family is under constant threat by wild animals and competing tribes, their lives will consist mostly of defense, creating weapons, war training, and being scared. They will have less food and innovation, and they will have health issues tied to constant stress and a poor or wrong diet. Constant alertness can even lead to paranoia.
Another family without these threats can focus on building a good house, building relations, focusing on food, innovation, and enjoying life. If you now bring the two families together, there will be a marked difference in how they interact and deal with life, in what they think is important, and in temperament. And the family that was less threatened will feel the other family is too intense and not in contact with reality. Their behavior does not seem to fit their understanding of reality. The stressed family’s communication might seem less friendly, more defensive, and therefore less likable. The healthy family might seem less empathic, more ignorant, and more tendentious. The family that progressed might wonder why the others did not come up with the inventions and progress they have. They, too, will be tempted to think that the other family is less intelligent or lazy.
The family living in peace will also feel that all their success is due to the work they put in on building their house, their little infrastructure, their water system, and their fields of crops, and it is. What they don’t see is that their success compared to the other families is also tied to their freedom from threats. Had they too lived with threats, their focus, and time would have been used differently. The friction between one family thinking they are better, and the other less approachable, makes them dislike each other and become at odds with each other.
Translating this “stone-age parable”, this is often the situation in the world today when we see some failing and others succeeding.
The opportunities in society may seem the same, but if one person is under constant threat or dealing with heavy mental challenges growing up, they will not have had the time to develop in a healthy, progressive way because they are busy surviving. We see children from troubled homes often fail to do well at school, and it is not because they are less intelligent. They more easily end up in conflicts because that is how they are used to interacting. Their alertness and defensiveness create distrust with others, and they will struggle to be accepted by those from harmonious homes and will find friends with others who struggle instead. Distrust will mirror distrust. Thus, they do not get out of the destructive cycle. When two teenagers turn 16, one from a troubled home and the other from a well-functioning home, they no longer have equal opportunities in an equal society because their development is at different stages, yet they are expected to handle the same life decisions and opportunities at the same time. One has learned skills their whole life that are now seemingly useless and needs to learn from adulthood what others learn automatically as kids. Being set back and not provided with this opportunity, they “fall behind” and become losers in society. They lose self-confidence; they think something is wrong with them; they don’t think they can do it. Giving them extra time and free education is deemed unfair by others who look at equality in numbers and appearance. Here, the benefits are a reward without regard for where you come from. Finally, it creates a “survival of the fittest” society, and those who fall behind because of struggle lose.
The God of the Bible is a very great defender of those whose backgrounds give them fewer opportunities to succeed, and he repeatedly tells those who are successful to help families that struggle. This is important for the overall success of a society. “He that oppresseth the poor reproacheth his Maker: but he that honoureth him hath mercy on the poor” (Pro.14:31)“He shall judge the poor of the people, he shall save the children of the needy, and shall break in pieces the oppressor” (Psa 72:4).
Many understand that the prosperity gospel is shady, but they have an unspoken mental prosperity gospel that they practice in their everyday lives. That mentality is that the fewer issues you have, the closer you are to God. But God says: “The LORD is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart; and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit” (Psa.34:18)When God explains the reasons behind the fall of Sodom and Jerusalem, how those struggling are treated is highlighted: “Behold, this was the iniquity of thy sister Sodom, pride, fulness of bread, and abundance of idleness was in her and in her daughters, neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy” (Eze 16:49). “Strengthen the hand” means to help them find strength to cope in life. Give them respect and assistance. When people do not have an equal background, their opportunities are not equal, and God expects the stronger to help those who struggle to make it as well. These are God’s principles. It is not about race, whether black or white. It is about an individual’s life experience and family background. Paul compared a church to the human body, illustrating how all parts are important to make the body function. The same illustration can be used in a larger society. If there is a neglected or sick part, it will affect everyone. “And those members of the body, which we think to be less honourable, upon these we bestow more abundant honour; and our uncomely parts have more abundant comeliness.For our comely parts have no need: but God hath tempered the body together, having given more abundant honour to that part which lacked:That there should be no schism in the body; but that the members should have the same care one for another” (1Co 12:23-25)
Can socialism reduce mental health issues and help equality?
Some might mistake these principles for the Bible favoring socialism or socialistic structures. It is not unusual for people who have suffered trauma and have a mental health issue to dream about a socialistic utopia where wealth is distributed to the less fortunate. At first glance, it can seem like a good way to even out the social differences created because many suffer from trauma and mental health issues.
The Biblical society created by God was not socialistic in structure, where the government oversaw distributing the fruit of others’ work to those less fortunate. While God is charitable and asks the same of His people, God’s charity is meant to be a developing experience for both the giver and the receiver. By giving the successful the ability to see and act when they see others in need, God helps them develop humanitarian skills that resemble the image of God. Through being directly involved in how their means and their own hard work are used, they learn responsibility and receive the happiness only achievable when seeing the faces and interacting with those receiving the kindness. Just as this causes growth and happiness for the giver, the receiver learns to take on more responsibility. Both the giver and receiver feel like they have value. Seeing the helper or giver, rather than being handed help from a governmental institution, they experience love and understand the hard work and value behind the gift (of time or value) from the giver. A government goes by paragraphs and rules that might end up helping the wrong people and disregarding the more needy, handing out evenly to uneven families. Giving to thieves and punishing the honest.
When people are directly involved in their charity, it inspires self-value and character development in the receiver. If it goes well, not wanting to cause long-lasting burdens on the giver and understanding the sacrifice, the receiver will learn and try to be independent or be a giver themselves. Those who are managing life well and those who struggle need to see each other and learn from each other to create a good, developing society. Doing something for others makes people happy. It is, in part, the meaning of life. Selfishness is a negative spiral where you can never have enough and will never be satisfied. With governmental socialism, the benefit seen in the Bible is removed, and the faceless, emotionless government is depended upon while taking money regardless of the situation and circumstances of both the giver and recipient. It ends character development for both parties and creates a selfish and exploitative society.
The biblical intelligent approach is disappearing in the West, where humanity is replaced with antisocial governmental institutions. Every so often, when a large catastrophe takes place, everyone joins forces to help each other out of the difficult situations. They pull each other out of flood water; they search for each other in earthquake-stricken houses. They feed and clothe each other. Another man’s child, wandering the streets after a tornado hit a town, is everyone’s child. We humans have it in us, but this is the mentality that we need to have in everyday life as well. We are all each other’s business. We are all each other’s extended family. This should not just be visible during a threat or a disaster.
God’s system is not socialism; it is giving the power and responsibility to love and care for each other to the people. God wants to empower our charity and social skills. To benefit both the giver and receiver and to create an open, warm society where everyone gets a chance to restart if they have failed while feeling valued and respected in the process. God wanted all his people to own property, to belong, and to have a place to provide for themselves and work. A property the government could not take from them even if they did not pay taxes. And if one family really messed up and lost it, have society give it back to them in the next generation. Owning land that cannot be taken from them, regardless of circumstance, according to God’s laws, is a human right. In the bible, the year properties were to be given back was called the year of Jubilee. Those in economic debt working in slave-like conditions, without property, were to be freed and get their generational property back so their family could have a second chance. (Lev.25:8-13)
The government was not to own people’s land or rights to it and redistribute others’ work. In fact, God advised strongly against it when they asked for a king, because of the taxation needed to form a larger governmental body. The more tax, the more the government grows in strength, and the less freedom is given to the people. And people will become owned by the governmental body to make it work. This was never God’s intention for a society (1.Samuel ch.8, v.10-18) We must not confuse governmental socialism with God’s humanitarian welfare system. Socialism focuses on economics and God focuses on people’s mental development and character through social interactions. Even those who have success need character development. Happiness and material wealth are not the same thing, even though many are fooled into believing they are. Human value, love, time, and charity are true wealth, and a socialistic society cannot re-distribute this, only the illusion of it.
Socialism creates people who feel irresponsible for their fellow men.
Collective mental health
In some countries in the world that have had dictators, corrupt governments, war, famine, and the like, people have struggled for
generations to be self-sufficient and prosper. Many such areas remain impoverished for generations, paralyzed and unable to use what is within their reach to reconstruct their society and help themselves out of poverty. Where war and corruption remain a threat, people can remain apathetic. Which is a threat response when “fight or flight” is not possible. When everything you live for is gone, the motivation and meaning are gone, and this can cause problems in moving forward. If they remain in the state of victimhood not standing up for their right together they become helpless pray. New leaders take advantage when people are stuck in victimhood, as they are easily subdued into different types of dictatorships.
Likewise, many households are war zones, and the children growing up in them can be compared to “war veterans”. Then they are cast out into society and expected to act, behave, and handle opportunities the same way as anyone else. When they fail, they are usually blamed. Despite all this, a well-functioning family should not be punished for being well-functioning. If that were the solution, attacking those who function well with jealousy, financial punishment, and adversity would not elevate those who struggle to the other’s success; rather, we would drag the others down. Those who are functioning well should be an example and inspiration, not the subject of hate. But because the well-functioning often look down on those who aren’t, tension and contempt are created, which helps no one. God rewards those who do good and succeed with even more blessings, making doing good desirable. At the same time, he demands of them that they use their position and advantage to help those that are left behind. In this way, God does not bring the successful down; rather, He blesses them, yet He lets them know that with their success and blessings comes the responsibility to help their fellow man. Bear in mind that the success mentioned here implies not necessarily being rich financially, but also being rich in peace, love, courage, talents, and knowledge. This approach is meant to help pull everyone up rather than everyone down. God teaches us that society won’t prosper because a family in it prospers. Society is dependent on the stronger helping the weak, or the weak will eventually ruin society for the strong. Everyone is dependent upon each other for greater peace and prosperity; everyone is connected, and thus everyone is everyone’s business. You can be good all you want and teach your children to be good, but if the wretched kid from down the street harms your child, then you will no longer prosper as before and even start living in fear mode, draining you, and you will become more like the wretched kid. You may follow all the traffic rules and drive responsibly and never drink and drive, but you might still die because another driver did drink. So, society’s prosperity is dependent on people helping people, or others’ despair and struggles will at some point come back and take something from you through a chain reaction.
Individuals crash into each other in society all the time. It is hard for many to understand the stress and intensiveness or apathy coming from someone who has grown up with constant stress.
Pull yourself together?
Many religious people think that telling people “to pull themselves together” is the solution while ignoring the more profound issues, and for the most part, they hurt and even further harm those they want to change. They call it a “truth pill”, but if the truth is mingled with cruelty, it will not have the desired effect. Truth is not just words; truth is words working together with actions and emotions. On the other side, many liberals seem to allow and support anything self-indulgent, thinking that if people can follow their every impulse and feeling, they will somehow get cured of all their problems. In part, they teach that following one’s feelings and sexual desires will create a utopia where all negative feelings end. The only threat to this utopia is criticism, and therefore any criticism must be violently quenched. This rarely leads to utopia and never has in the past, and the ones who don’t agree with them are blamed. They do not wish to examine if following one’s lust really is the way to solve emotional damage. Their quest for liberating lust does not cure mental health issues, and it is extremely self-absorbed.
The majority of the Western world thinks the Bible is outdated. For Christians, it contains life-saving lessons. Although “mental health” is a modern expression not found in the Bible, the Bible does address mental health issues on an individual level and their wider effect on society. God does not ignore these issues, and He does give an answer to them, which is often ignored by even Christians. This book will investigate how the Bible views those who hurt and are wounded, and how they can obtain freedom to excel and grow.
The Bible has something no psychologist can offer. A Father who loves us, a hope, a value, and a defender. God does not just hear; He acts on our behalf. It is not just words, and then we are left to deal with everything ourselves.
• Does the Bible have an answer or a cure to help us from being suppressed by our wounds and by others acting out their wounds?
• Does the Bible give us help to handle mental health issues and if so, how? How do we break the chain and domino -effect, not just for us not to fall when hit, but not allow that hit upon us to cause us to make the next person in our way fall as well?
• In what way can God help us with healing, without us becoming self-absorbed and selfish in the process?
• Can a victim really rise and become strong as a warrior of that which is good?
The words of the prophet Mica can be the words of every Christian who has been hurt and caused to fall: “Rejoice not against me, O mine enemy: when I fall, I shall arise; when I sit in darkness, the LORD shall be a light unto me” (Mic 7:8)