I am always truly honored when people read what I write – you have lots of things you can do with the 3-4 minutes it takes to consider my daily thoughts, so I appreciate you for reading and responding and (I hope) sharing my blog. The responses to my thought yesterday about shame ranged from “Thank God you wrote this!” to “Shame is important in developing a conscience.” Thanks for the first, and for the second – I don’t totally disagree with you about developing a conscience. In my interactions with sociopaths, one of the things they all have in common is a lack of conscience that leads to a lack of guilt or shame for the bad things they have done. I have been around guilt enough to know that a little goes a long way, so it must be used wisely and carefully. Shame, however, is a different story.
In many ways, we have become a culture without a conscience. We elect officials who blatantly live in ways that most of us would deem to be immoral. We allow clergypersons to continue in their roles even when they have broken their vows and destroyed lives. Recently, we all watched as a psychopath shot a health insurance CEO in the back in cold blood, and instead of all of us condemning the murderer, loads of people supported him. They even raised money for his defense! I get why we don’t like these companies – they do nothing to ensure our health; they are all about making themselves and their shareholders wealthy. Still, this wasn’t an act of passion or self-defense – this was a hit! To defend his actions is to have no conscience.
So, shame on you! Maybe there is, actually, something good about shame. Maybe there are some things that are never acceptable, regardless of the situation. One of the horrible results of this global lack of conscience is the way religious people accept behaviors that, if committed by someone who is not like them, would be considered damnable. Even some of the most pious among us accept bad behavior, words, and results if we can benefit from them. For those who live this way – shame on you too! I am not calling for the use of scarlet letters or the return of public floggings or stocks, but I think our country has been in a very bad place for a very long time, and it will only get worse – unless we find ways to develop people’s consciences that support positive behaviors. Until we do, each one of us needs to do our best to live well. Maybe our examples will make a difference.
Prayer – Holy God, You have given us a way to do what is right or choose what is wrong. Help us to do the first. Amen.
Today’s art is “Shame” (1903) by Max Klinger.