We have been looking thus far at a central feature of Christian character: following Jesus our Lord on the lowly path of Christian servanthood. We have seen that as true servants of the living God, we should manifest in our lives that blend of meekness and zeal found in Christ’s own character. Taking on the Lord’s character in this regard is no easy task. A key to making the necessary changes in us lies in brokenness – the taming and training of our strength to serve the purposes of God.
This Christian ideal of servanthood is truly a high and noble calling. It is not, however, “the only ideal on the market. In our society it is diametrically opposed by the reigning secular ideal, which I will call “the gospel of selfism.” In the next two chapters, we will compare the Christian ideal of character and its concrete expression with its modem secular counterpart. In this chapter we will compare the “gospel of selfism” to the ideal of servanthood. In the next chapter we will compare the Christian qualities of meekness and zeal with some prevailing patterns of behaviour in our society today.
The “age of narcissism” and the “me generation”
A peculiar Western heresy, the gospel of selfism has met with surprising success in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, considering its shallow, selfish goals and its myopic perspective on human life. In a relatively brief span of years it has worked massive changes in the ideas and attitudes of the person-on-the-street, without his or her conscious awareness or consent. In recent years, many sociologists and historians have been charting its progress, calling our time “the age of narcissism” and the “me generation.”
The good news of the “me generation” is preached everywhere-at work and in the schools, in newspapers, magazines, radio, T.V. [and the ever present digital media and smart phones], in the government and even at times in the churches. “Get ahead.” “Be yourself.” “Don’t let anyone tell you what’s right for you.” “I’m okay, you’re okay.” “Fulfil yourself.” “If it feels good do it.” “Do your own thing.” “Grab for all the gusto you can get.”
The catch phrases go on and on, proclaiming salvation through self-acceptance and self-fulfilment, reassuring us that all our personal desires merit satisfaction. As one ad puts it, “If you want it, you deserve it.”
This new gospel was not concocted solely by the advertising agencies of our land, seeking to create a luxury-buying mentality in consumers. While the advertisers have certainly played their part, so have many others. Some of the foremost missionaries of this new “faith” are well-known social scientists (especially certain psychologists) and their popularisers.
Paul Vitz, a professor of psychology at New York University, has written an excellent Christian critique on some of the propagators of the “selfist” gospel, which he aptly entitles Psychology As Religion: The Cult of Self-Worship. According to Vitz, it is from the chairs of many university professors, from the offices of many psychological counsellors, and from bookstands offering the latest bestselling psychological self-help manuals that much of the strongest, most influential proclamation of the gospel of selfism comes to us.
The Gospel of Selfism and the Great Commandments
How does this strange, secular humanist faith match up with the gospel of Jesus? Very badly, to say the least. Before comparing it with Jesus’ teaching on servanthood, let us look briefly at how it compares with Christ’s two greatest commandments.
And one of the scribes came up and heard them disputing with one another, and seeing that he answered them well, asked him, “Which commandment is the first of all?” Jesus answered, “The first is, ‘Hear, 0 Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one; and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ The second is this, ‘You shall love your neighbour as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”
Mark 12:28-31
The love of God and the love of neighbour are of central importance in the Christian faith, but they have no place in the gospel of selfism.
In the “selfist” faith, God is not honoured or worshipped as the one true God. In its purely secular forms, he is ignored or denied. In its Christian guise, he receives lip service, but little more. Paul Vitz’s subtitle puts it very well. Selfism is a new religion, centered on worshipping the self. In selfism, then, we find people worshipping what must be the strangest of strange gods-themselves. For some, this self-idolatry is far from conscious, operating as a more subtle undercurrent in their philosophy of life. But for others, self worship is boldly proclaimed as a way of life.
Vitz quotes one such example from a widely popular self-help movement. It is an extreme example, but it effectively captures much of the spirit of the selfist gospel.
You are the supreme being. Reality is a reflection of your notions. Totally… Perfectly. So you got the notion to play a little game with yourself. That is, you said to yourself something like, “Gee, this is rather boring. Wouldn’t It be more FUN to COMMUNICATE?” So you created a WORD game. That’s all life is-one big word game. Don’t lie to yourself about it anymore. They even wrote it down, not long after the beginning. They said, “AND THE WORD WAS GOD.” Of course it was. Also notice that there isn’t any right/wrong; it simply doesn’t make SENSE to be unethical.
You had the notion that communicating would be more fun. And you created the rules. So you are responsible for the game as it is. All of it. And it has no significance. You’re IT. Choose. It has no significance. Choose. Life is one big “So WHAT?” “CHOOSE…”[1]
The opening line of this quote really says it all. In the purest forms of the gospel of selfism, there is no room for God. The human person is the supreme being, who lives in a strange world in which “reality” consists of whatever the individual prefers to believe.
We are told to believe that we are the center of reality, and its judge. Everything is relative, and we can use our own subjective criteria to guide our beliefs. I have run into this idea many times while talking to people about Christianity. I recall talking with a university student once about Christian truth. After we had talked awhile the student said, “Yeah, that’s pretty interesting. But what I really think is … ,” and he proceeded to layout a confused hodgepodge of Western humanism, Eastern mysticism, and romantic back-to-nature ideas, some of which were not even internally consistent.
“Now that’s very interesting,” I said. “But where did you come up with that?” “I thought it up myself,” he told me proudly. “But,” I “asked, “what’s your basis, your authority, for believing those things? What gives you any reason to suppose that any of those ideas are true?” “It’s just the way I like to think about things,” he stated defensively. “It’s true for me.”
For a Christian, certain truths are absolute. If God is, then he is. If Christianity is true, it is not just true for me because I like to think about things that way. It is simply true-for everyone. Those who subscribe to the gospel of selfism prefer to see all truth as relative. After all, as the passage quoted above states, we made up the rules of life in the first place, and we’re free to change them. There is no one over us, no greater significance to life than what we choose to make of it. “Your own life,” says the selfist “is the whole show. Do what you want. Live for yourself. You’re IT.”
When put so baldly, these ideas sound patently absurd. Most reasonable people, especially Christians, don’t buy them in their most blatant form. Rather, they quietly, even unconsciously, absorb more moderate versions of them from the selfist atmosphere around them. A set of underlying assumptions is formed that shapes their values and decisions in a selfish direction: “Your personal happiness and fulfilment are most important.” “You can do what you feel like as long as you don’t hurt anyone.” “You are the one who decides what is right and wrong.” These self-oriented assumptions seriously affect a Christian’s relationship with God. They foster a very self-centered attitude toward him, consisting largely of “gimme, gimme, gimme.” Such assumptions encourage the Christian to relate to God on the basis of “what I get out of it.” They often leave Christians feeling quite at liberty to ignore God’s commandments, provided that everyone is “sincere” and doesn’t obviously hurt anyone else.
Selfist assumptions can also lead to a refusal to accept God as he has revealed himself. “I can’t believe in a God who would throw people into hell” is an all-too-frequent refrain among some Christians, considering how clearly he has indicated his ability to do so when it is warranted. Insistence on a God who puts my personal fulfillment first, and who must meet all my requirements, is a sure sign that the gospel of selfism has penetrated a Christian’s life.
So much then for love of God! The selfist gospel abolishes it or distorts it beyond recognition. Love of neighbour doesn’t fare much better in the selfist gospel.
Following the teaching of the Old Testament (Leviticus 19:18), Jesus instructs his disciples to love their neighbours as themselves. This is not an exhortation on self-acceptance, as some people today tend to think. Jesus presumes that people generally take good care of themselves. He teaches them to take care of their neighbours as well. In Philippians 2:4, Paul says, “Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.” Selfism reverses Paul’s instructions and directs us to begin by “looking out for Number 1.” Cover all your own needs and wants first. If there’s anything left over, you can do good to others if you so choose. In its more extreme forms, it teaches a new golden rule: “Do unto others before they do unto you.“
Selfism and the Family
This self-centered attitude is in evidence everywhere. It is prevalent even where it ought to be least expected: in the family. According to many sociologists, the American family is coming apart at the seams. The divorce statistics are staggering: by 1978, over 40% of all first marriages in the U.S. and 54% of all second marriages were ending in divorce. And the rates continue to climb. As a result, studies show, the number of single-parent families in the U.S. has increased 71 % in the last 30 years.
A major factor underlying these statistics is the spread of a selfist “me first” attitude on the part of husbands and wives. It is also demonstrated in the attitudes of parents towards children. Children are increasingly perceived as undesirable nuisances, obstacles to the couple’s freedom. Evidence of this can be seen in the Supreme Court’s 1973 ruling on abortion and the consequent explosion of abortion statistics in recent years.
The overwhelming evidence of the impact of the gospel of selfism on family life in our society is not to be seen merely in charts, graphs, and impersonal statistics. It can be found all around us, fashionably displayed in the lives of many people we know. Take, for instance, a young university professor I met a short while ago. It was a balmy summer evening, and we were chatting on the front porch of his house, while his two very active and fun-loving boys frolicked together in the front yard. The subject of our beliefs came up, and as he did not profess to be a Christian, I asked him to explain his philosophy of life. “It’s really pretty simple,” he said. “I live for myself.” He hooked his thumb toward his sons, who were wrestling and laughing in the grass. “You know, I love my kids.
They’re really a lot of fun. But I’ll tell you straight out, if it ever comes to an issue of them or me …” He paused and poked his chest decisively with his thumb. “It’s gonna be me.” I was appalled, but not surprised. He was only asserting more boldly a set of values held by many others who would be ashamed to admit them so blatantly.
A friend of mine told me of another instance of such attitudes he encountered recently. He and his wife were speaking together in a small cafe, and in the booth behind them, two young women began carrying on an animated discussion. It was loud enough that my friend could not help overhearing parts of the conversation. “I’m still undecided about whether Joe and I should have children. I mean, on the one hand, I think. I’d find it very enjoyable and satisfying. On the other hand, it seems so restrictive. I think I might feel stifled in my growth as a person to be so tied down to someone else. I guess I’m not sure if I’d feel fulfilled by having children. And if it’s not fulfilling-man, I’d really be stuck.”
My friend, who has some children of his own and knows very well what it means to be a parent shook his head and said to himself, “Lady, if all you’d be in it for is personal fulfilment, please do yourself and the world a favour and don’t have any children.”
The family is not the only place where we see the disturbing inroads of the selfist gospel. To a startling degree, selfism has also corrupted the minds of today’s youth. Many of the young, traditionally among society’s most high-minded, sacrificial, and idealistic individuals, are today almost totally absorbed in themselves, their own pleasure, and their future.
Lansing Lamont, a former Time bureau chief, comments on the plunge into self-concern taken by university students in Campus Shock, an eye-opening report on the sad state of affairs on the most prestigious university campuses of the 1970s.
They fought each other-sometimes physically-not only for grades, jobs and coveted graduate school positions, but for financial aid, choice housing, even the books on reserve in the overused libraries. “You understand that everybody is your enemy,” wrote a young Harvard M.B.A., “and you learn to fear and hate people, to live in crowded isolation.”[2]
See related articles by John Keating:
- Part 2: Christian Servanthood Versus Selfism – God’s Great Reversal
- The Paradoxical Greatness of Christ-like Humility and Servanthood
- Brokenness and the Grace of Yielding to God
- Strength Under Control: Meekness and Zeal in the Christian Life, by John Keating Available online for free download from the Sword of the Spirit website.
Top image credit: AI enhanced digital artwork contrasting a self-centered attitude and mindset versus taking on the mind and character of Christ. Image source from artstyles.com. Used with permission.
[1] Paul Vitz, Psychology As Religion: The Cult of SelfWorship (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1977), pp. 32-33.
[2] Lansing Lamont, Campus Shock: A First-Hand Report on Student Life at America’s Leading Universities (New York: E.P. Dutton, 1979), p. 3
John Keating is currently the head of the International Community Building Committee for the Sword of the Spirit. He is an elder in the Servants of the Word and leads the Servants of the Word household in Beirut, Lebanon.