J
UST SAY NO! Disarmingly simple advice, that. Yet if it were uniformly put into practice, think what it could do not only to the scourge of illegal drugs but to all other human temptations.
That same simple formula-just say no-could free mankind from countless woes. Why weren't human beings long ago able to 'just say no' to war? Why can't we all "just say no" to hatred, prejudice, crime, greed, corruption? Pornography, sexual diseases, alcoholism, eating disorders, the destruction of the environment-all this and more could be effectively dealt with if "just say no" would work.
But in so many cases it doesn't. Why?
Blame It on Something!
There is no shortage of blame laying for the difficulties here on earth. Nations blame each other for arms races and wars. Political, religious or ethnic groups blame the other side for strife. Individuals find excuses for almost any point of controversy.
The tendency to avoid accepting personal responsibility is deeply ingrained in human nature. Now certain psychological theories make it all easier to dodge personal responsibility for our problems.
Some current thinking in psychological circles has put an end to the traditionally termed conflict between good and evil. In many discussions the word good has been replaced by "socially acceptable," "healthy," "normal" or some such term. Evil is now called "antisocial," "sick," "abnormal," "acting out anger," "sociopathic" or some similar euphemism.
Thus, through word substitution, the issue of good versus evil is obliterated.
Most people, by this school of thought are considered normal. Those who do socially unacceptable things are considered to be abnormal-not bad, but sick. The quest therefore becomes one of trying to discover what to blame for sick individuals being sick. The individual himself, or herself, is generally not charged with accountability.
The concept of personal guilt for doing wrong is replaced by perceived need for understanding factors and influences outside of a person that contribute to the doing of abnormal acts. Elements blamed are varied: poverty, television, environment, racism, emotional or mental conflicts. Also, the search is on for biological causes, perhaps genetic links, that may cause various disorders.
Certainly, all these influences affect behavior. But sooner or later choices are made. At some point, the question of personal, moral responsibility must be raised. The result of this line of reasoning is a society besieged by dilemmas. It is a society that often must try to deal with effects rather than actual causes-causes that it dare not identify because to do so would be considered morally judgmental.
Criminal behavior? Blame it on poverty. Blame it on racism. Blame it on genes. Shift as much emphasis as possible away from personal accountability, from failure to just say no to inherent hatred, lust or greed.
Beyond External Factors
All this is not to say external factors, factors beyond a person's behavior. They most certainly can.
Studies indicate, for example, that certain people may have traits inclining them to alcoholism. The same may also be true for homosexuality. Innocent babies hooked at birth on heroin or cocaine because of their mothers' habits come into a world with that strike against them.
Background, upbringing and countless other external forces have a bearing on behavior. And since no two of us are alike, we all have different combinations of strengths and weaknesses to deal with.
But whatever the pressures of our environment, these do not replace personal responsibility for deciding whether to do right or wrong. In any given situation they may make it easier or harder for one individual to make a decision and carry it out than for another to do so. This is a fact of life we must accept and work around.
More basic than external factors and underlying everything we are, we all have essentially wayward impulses of human nature to contend with. Notice how strikingly this has been described in the case of a prisoner who was spent years on death row in California.
His conviction is being appealed. The essence of the argument being made in his defense is that his deeds were because of his tragic childhood and background. His actions were, according to his lawyers, "filtered through a brain that had been damaged by a sea of alcohol in utero and by fists and weapons wielded against him by his parents in early childhood."
Hi didn't set out to deliberately contravene laws or social conventions. He was, in the words of his lawyers, "driven by impulse" that he was unable to rein in.
From where do impulses come? Underlying all of our particularities, our particular combinations of weaknesses and strengths, our own environment, is the impulse common to all humans-the impulse to think or do wrong, to justify one's beliefs. We all have it to one extent or another. No one has a monopoly on this impulse. Psychiatrist Karl Menninger observed: "Everyone's mind is 'criminal': we're all capable of criminal fantasies and thoughts." Los Angeles Times Magazine, October 8, 1989.
Some of us allow thoughts to germinate and become deeds. Others of us do not. But the possibility, the inclination, to one degree or another is there in all of us.
Heart trouble
The Bible does not mince words in describing our condition. In the book of Genesis, way back when civilization as we know it was just getting started, it was already evident that "the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth" (Gen 8:21).
Some psychologists and therapists may interject that this is toxic evaluation of the human psyche destructive to self-esteem. But such a reaction is premised on the view that we all at heart would be basically without negative, harmful impulses if psychologically identifiable external factors did not impart them to us.
What they overlook is that, entirely apart from any external factors capable of being identified in a laboratory, the human heart or mind quite simply inclines toward aberrant behavior in the face of negative influences around it.
Jesus was once involved in a discussion in which he set the record straight. He declared, "what comes out of a man, that defiles a man. For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, licentiousness [lewdness], an evil eye [envy], blasphemy, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within and defile a man" (Mark 7:2-23).
Can anything be more to the point? Goodness does not easily come to anyone. It is not natural to many to be kind, unselfish, honest. Special effort is required to do what is right. Instances of true goodness in human behavior are remarkable precisely because they are exceptions.
Wrongdoing is not simply a question of being sick or paranoid or from a bad background. The potential to do wrong is in us all. By now most of us are familiar with television pictures of mobs engaged in looting. Here in many cases are average citizens who normally would not risk getting into trouble by stealing. But suddenly they find themselves confronted with the possibility of taking something and getting away with it. Their inhibitions crumble and quickly give way to unleashed inner desire.
Consider the shockingly widespread savings and loan and stock market insider trading scandals in the United States. That so many individuals participated on such a vast scale in the misuse of yet untotaled billions of dollars clearly indicates that greed and dishonesty are common traits, awaiting only the opportune moment to surface whenever moral slippage occurs.
In surveys of male college students up to half of them have said they could see themselves committing rape if they knew for sure they could get away with it. So they are "good" by not committing rape, but only because in the final analysis they themselves are better off (they don't face legal repercussions).
Therefore, even their "goodness" is egoistically motivated! It is in their own selfish interest. No wonder the ancient prophet Jeremiah proclaimed: "The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked" (Jer. 17:9).
A negative assessment? It would indeed be, if nothing could be done about the situation, or if it had been designed that way from the beginning. But, it was not.
The whole point of the Bible, one of its central themes, is that human beings can have-must have-a change of heart. Only then can we hope to free ourselves from all that is negative and harmful in our characters. Only then can we order our lives aright.
"Create in me a clean heart, O God," prayed King David (Ps. 51:10). That's where change must start. We can't do it by ourselves. We need supernatural help.
If you would like to learn how to obtain help, request our free booklet *Human Nature-Did God Create It? Since human beings were created "good" (Gen. 1:31), how did they become so easily capable of wrongdoing? This booklet explains the answer.
by Clayton Steep
* I don't know if I am ever going to post the booklet Human Nature-Did God Create It? up to the site. Basically the booklet says that it is Satan who is behind our evil nature, but one can change.
e-Book Will Christ Return?
Print the most amazing photograph ever taken, the miracle in Hungary.
