December 1, 2009
Dear Friend,
My first year in college, I took Psychology 101. The instructor opened the first class by defining terms: "Insanity," he said, "is the degree to which a person is divorced from reality. We are all insane," he continued, "It is only a matter of degree."
It was very funny at the time, but it seems less so these days. For what he said was not a joke. It has turned out to be all too true. It seems as if we are all a little bit nuts at times, some worse than others and, if our society is any indicator, it is getting worse. I have a feeling that the Prophet Jeremiah would recognize our society. The technology would dazzle him, but the people and their leadership are pretty much the same. He wrote about his generation: "Concerning the prophets: My heart is broken within me; all my bones tremble. I am like a drunken man, like a man overcome by wine, because of the LORD and his holy words. The land is full of adulterers" (Jeremiah 23:9-10a NIV).
So, what do you think? Would Jeremiah recognize our culture? But there is an odd thing about what he said. He went on to say, "because of the curse the land lies parched and the pastures in the desert are withered. The prophets follow an evil course and use their power unjustly."
Prophets? With power? What’s this? But there is more: "‘Both prophet and priest are godless; even in my temple I find their wickedness,’ declares the LORD. ‘Therefore their path will become slippery; they will be banished to darkness and there they will fall. I will bring disaster on them in the year they are punished,’ declares the LORD."
Bear in mind that, in Israel, there was no separation of church and state. Prophets and priests were political figures, as were the princes, and they wielded true political power. It is hard, when reading the Bible, to keep this in focus, but it explains many things in the prophets. How can a prophet or a priest be "godless," and what does Jeremiah mean when he says their path will be slippery and dark?
I think Jeremiah is suggesting that a degree of insanity will dog their steps. And why would it not? You have people who are supposed to be religious leaders who are godless. The mental conflict this creates would keep any man awake at night. On the other hand, what did Jeremiah mean when he said "because of the curse"? Perhaps this from a sermon by Moses: "The LORD will afflict you with madness, blindness and confusion of the mind. At midday you will grope about like a blind man in the dark. You will be unsuccessful in everything you do; day after day you will be oppressed and robbed, with no one to rescue you" (Deuteronomy 28:28-29 NIV).
It may be worth noting that the man who is insane may think he is as normal as you are. He may even still be functioning with apparent normalcy. And yet, something about him will seem not quite right. One of the disorders that has been studied for a long time is narcissism—which in normal usage refers to an excessive love of the self. All of us have narcissistic tendencies. It is a part of having an identifiable self. Some psychologists speak of healthy narcissism: Healthy narcissism is formed through a structural truthfulness of the self, but for some people, it gets out of hand. Sandy Hotchkiss identified what he called the seven deadly sins of narcissism. I would list them for you, but I’ll run out of room. Instead, I walked through them carefully in a recent program, all in the light of the political climate that prevails right now.
I get the feeling, seeing what is going on in government these days, that I am watching a variety of narcissists at work. I see people acting as if they know exactly what they are doing, when it is apparent they haven’t got a clue. How can I tell? If they really knew, they could explain it—but no one explains anything. They don’t write it up for the whole world to read. Why? Because they aren’t sure what it says. This is not a Republican/Democrat thing. No one is making it plain for us, and we aren’t stupid. We can understand if the person who explains it understands it himself.
We can send you a FREE (if you call or write by January 15, 2010) CD of the program titled Staying Sane in a Crazy World. This is one you won’t want to miss.
Holding forth the faithful word,
Ronald L. Dart
Listen to the program now!