 | Nearly every American who is globally minded has gone through a stage of self-deprication, simply because they're American. As an American, understanding how the rest of the world views you means that if you meet someone from another country, you are obliged to talk about how bad the United States is. Whether it's putting down the educational system, ignorance, bigotry, social and financial inequality, leadership, or anything else - globally minded Americans feel the need to preempt the insults by acknowledging their own frustration at the issues in their homeland. |
Self-deprication, however, does nothing to make a globally minded American any different than one who doesn't care to look beyond themselves and their immediate community. It doesn't fix the problems Americans have with geographical ignorance, ingrained biases, or financial inequality. Self-deprication simply acknowledges some sort of deficiency, while it says nothing about whether or not that deficiency is being fixed. It's like a fat comedian making fat jokes while drinking a 60 oz. soda and eating donuts and pizza, or like a chain smoker laughing at their impending lung cancer while smoking a cigarette.
There is a similar trend of self-deprication within Christianity. We Christians are often very quick to judge "religion" and "Pharisees," yet so slow to do anything about these faults in our communities and in ourselves. In the past few years, I have thought more and more about this, because there are some pretty huge implications. If the fat comedian talks about how bad being fat is and how good being skinny would be, yet does nothing about it - he's not really skinny, nor will he ever be. If the chain smoker talks about how good quitting would be, and how bad smoking is, yet does nothing about it - he's not really clean, nor will he ever be. And if the Christian talks about how "religion" isn't really Christianity, and how they need to embrace Christ rather than simple tradition and rules, yet doesn't truly follow Christ - it seems to me that logic would say they're not really a Christian.
There is a similar trend of self-deprication within Christianity. We Christians are often very quick to judge "religion" and "Pharisees," yet so slow to do anything about these faults in our communities and in ourselves. In the past few years, I have thought more and more about this, because there are some pretty huge implications. If the fat comedian talks about how bad being fat is and how good being skinny would be, yet does nothing about it - he's not really skinny, nor will he ever be. If the chain smoker talks about how good quitting would be, and how bad smoking is, yet does nothing about it - he's not really clean, nor will he ever be. And if the Christian talks about how "religion" isn't really Christianity, and how they need to embrace Christ rather than simple tradition and rules, yet doesn't truly follow Christ - it seems to me that logic would say they're not really a Christian.
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