Sociopath wannabes
Over the years I've observed a number of types of sociopath wannabe, such as the Randroids, the whiny "libertarians", and the angry young male "anarchists". They use their various dogmas to excuse their anti-social behaviors - "I don't owe anyone else for my success, so I can be a jerk" or "I'm oppressed by the government, so I can be a jerk" or "I'm fighting the Man, so I can be a jerk." In general, ignoring the contribution of their positions of privilege and the society around them to their well being, while grasping at some myth of "individuality" to justify their bad behavior. My take is, if you want to be an ass, be an ass. If you have to make excuses for it, you are a hypocritical ass, which is considerably lower on the scale than a simple, natural ass.
Recently, I've noticed another sort of sociopath wannabe - the sort that uses Christianity as their enabler for their behavior. The logic seems to be "I've accepted Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior, so I will be forgiven for whatever I do, so I can behave badly, but there will be no real consequences, because Jesus will take me to heaven." While one can see this manifested over and over in the peccadilloes of public Christian figures, it was brought home by observing the behavior of someone I'm acquainted with. What gets me is that this variety of hypocrisy is so blatantly counter to what Jesus said.
(Personal aside: while I'm a dyed in the wool atheist, I am a firm believer in what I see as a "state of grace". I've seen seen people reach such a state both through religion, and completely without it. Harking back to Luther, the path to a state of grace (salvation, if you would) cannot be bought by good works. (Or, IMHO, by adhering to a specific behavior code.) However, one in a state of grace cannot avoid performing good works. (Also, while performing good works with the idea of "buying" salvation isn't likely to get you there, performing good works for their own sake may well.)
I'm not saying that using one's religion as an excuse for sociopathy is limited to Christians - I'm aware of similar trips in Buddhist and pagan communities. But their reasons are much more in line with the Randroid/libertarian/anarchist path - they rationalize that what they do is OK. The Christian sociopath wannabes seem to be different - they seem to know what they are doing is wrong, but as they individually will be OK in the end, it doesn't matter.
Jesus is spinning on his cross.
Recently, I've noticed another sort of sociopath wannabe - the sort that uses Christianity as their enabler for their behavior. The logic seems to be "I've accepted Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior, so I will be forgiven for whatever I do, so I can behave badly, but there will be no real consequences, because Jesus will take me to heaven." While one can see this manifested over and over in the peccadilloes of public Christian figures, it was brought home by observing the behavior of someone I'm acquainted with. What gets me is that this variety of hypocrisy is so blatantly counter to what Jesus said.
(Personal aside: while I'm a dyed in the wool atheist, I am a firm believer in what I see as a "state of grace". I've seen seen people reach such a state both through religion, and completely without it. Harking back to Luther, the path to a state of grace (salvation, if you would) cannot be bought by good works. (Or, IMHO, by adhering to a specific behavior code.) However, one in a state of grace cannot avoid performing good works. (Also, while performing good works with the idea of "buying" salvation isn't likely to get you there, performing good works for their own sake may well.)
I'm not saying that using one's religion as an excuse for sociopathy is limited to Christians - I'm aware of similar trips in Buddhist and pagan communities. But their reasons are much more in line with the Randroid/libertarian/anarchist path - they rationalize that what they do is OK. The Christian sociopath wannabes seem to be different - they seem to know what they are doing is wrong, but as they individually will be OK in the end, it doesn't matter.
Jesus is spinning on his cross.