A Catechesis of Guilt and Shame - Part 2

By Patrick Hall

“No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you tempted beyond your ability…. he will also provide a way of escape.” (1: Corinthians10:13)

Guilt and shame are symbiotic. As human beings, we feel guilty for our actions and we experience shame for what we are because of some previous action. If left unchecked we are susceptible to moral nihilism; that is behaviors, traditional values, and religious beliefs have no bearing on our lives. As a consequence, everyday life becomes more and more guided by the passions and temptations of the moment. The scriptures are replete with examples of what happens to a society when it loses its sense of “limits”. When we let our moral compass get cluttered with our lesser angels (Acts 20:28-32).
 
When we deliberately forget the Gospels’ lessons, we do not live by bread alone (Matt 4:3-4). And unlike Our Lord, we choose to turn rocks into bread (Luke 4:3) and fall prey to the temptations of everyday life.   Examples abound in our culture attesting to the fact that our hearts have become hardened (Proverbs 28:13-14).  We no longer possess God’s grace to discern good from evil.  To be able to choose correctly from all the temporal nomenclature, moral rootlessness, and social instability that pulls us away from God.  We become accustomed to beliefs and human interactions that neither serve us nor society well.  Even in those instances where intentions are good, for example, society provides welfare benefits without teaching anything about social responsibilities. The good that society and social agencies wanted to do, create more damage to a culture, and to a people than what was intended. Many of our elected officials are like children in their pursuit of helping the less fortunate. They have empathy without wisdom.

The Great Society Programs of the Johnson Administration and the now-discredited War on Poverty was textbook example of good intentions, and “misguided empathy” going astray.  Beginning in the mid-1960s, billions of dollars were given, and “invested” in poor mostly African American communities in the form of block grants, manpower training, and development, most notably an increase in welfare and a plethora of public assistance programs.  A cursory review of welfare dependency in late 1960, especially among African Americans as compared to today, shows a massive increase in monies spent, even though blatant discrimination is but an echo of what it was in the Pre-Civil Rights Era.  Fatherless homes and single parental families, headed mostly by young poorly educated women became the norm, despite the massive amount of “welfare benefits” being given to these individuals.

To paraphrase the late Nobel Laureate economist, Milton Friedman, whatever you subsidize you get more of; in this case, a massive uptick in unwed mothers and their irresponsible partners.
Once again, the road of these good intentions has led to the hell that existed in far too many cities, with cities like Chicago, Philadelphia, and East St. Louis being the poster child for unfettered, spiritually demoralizing help, from well-intended but mostly secular progressive benefactors.  It just didn’t work!

[Patrick is a retired University Library Director. He is graduate of Canisius College and the University of Washington where he earned Masters Degrees in Religious Studies Education, Urban Anthropology and Library and Information Science.  Mr. Hall has also completed additional course work at the University of Buffalo, Seattle University and St. John Fishers College of Rochester New York. He has published in several national publications such as Commonweal, America, Conservative Review, Headway, National Catholic Reporter, Freedom's Journal Magazine and American Libraries. He has published in the peer reviewed publications, Journal of Academic Librarianship and the Internet Reference Services Quarterly. From 1997 until his retirement in January 2014 he served on the Advisory Board of Urban Library Journal, a CUNY Publication.]