Psychologizing Guilt

In this 1973 best seller psychiatrist
Menninger warned against sin being
labeled as simply an "illness" or
"disorder"in a way that makes people
less accountable for their actions.

"This is the sin of your sister Sodom: She and her daughters were proud, had plenty to eat, and enjoyed peace and prosperity; but she didn’t help the poor and the needy. They became haughty and did detestable things in front of me, and I turned away from them."

- Ezekiel 16:49-50 (Common English Bible)

According to some, one of the worst things preachers and others  can do is to "guilt" people, give them "a guilt complex" or send them on a "guilt trip." 

I agree that no one should suffer from false guilt. But on the other hand, we shouldn't dismiss or minimize all guilt as simply a bad feeling to get rid of by whatever means necessary.

The Cambridge English dictionary defines guilt as both "the fact or state of having done something wrong or committed a crime," and "a feeling of anxiety or unhappiness that you have done something immoral or wrong, such as causing harm to another person"  (italics mine).

As a mental health counselor and a pastor, I'm concerned about our overemphasizing the feeling part of the definition and paying too little attention to the fact part.

In other words, acknowledging actual guilt (when we are clearly in the wrong) is a good thing, motivating us to repent of wrongdoing and change our ways for the better.

In fact, I've come to believe we should expand our concept of guilt to include corporate as well as personal sins. 

For example, the land on which most of us live was stolen from native people who had inhabited it for millennia. Much of the prosperity we enjoy is a result of our ancestors having appropriated that land and its abundant resources, then benefitting from slave labor that helped clear forests, build roads, houses and cities, and otherwise add to our nation's phenomenal wealth.

We likewise continue to benefit from having cheap food provided by underpaid agriculture workers around the world, and cheap garments and other goods manufactured in sweatshops by people in unimaginable poverty. Should we feel entitled to that level of privilege and not bear some responsibility to rectify such injustices? 

The Hebrew prophets repeatedly charge whole communities of people with wrongdoing and with giving allegiance to the false idols of their day, addressing their words to entire nations like Israel, Judah, and Babylonia, and whole cities like Jerusalem, Nineveh and Sodom.

We become personally guilty when we are silent or complicit in going along with the evil and injustices of our people, our fellow citizens. 

In seeking to become blameless, we can either deny responsibility and guilt (in which case we need to find an alternative religion and worldview), or we as God's people can heed the words of Jesus and the prophets that call us to "humble ourselves, pray, seek God's face, and turn from our wicked ways." 

The good news is that God offers us grace in place of guilt, pardon instead of judgment, forgiveness for our sins and healing for our land.

Acknowledging guilt is a necessary first step to liberation and shalom.