T. Hoogsteen

Self-Examination T. Hoogsteen

Christianity, or what is called Christianity, conforms largely to Western humanism. Together and individually, believers draw the whole of the West into themselves, accommodating its dreams, loves, greeds, and hurts, as well as its indulgences, contradictions, perversions, and stupidities. All who identify corporately and personally as Christian commit themselves to this world conformity. The fMRI-like files in the first part of Self-Examination may please you, even polish your self-esteem. This whole system of pictures may displease you. But each analysis of the West scrutinizes all church people, the whole gazing, staring intensely back into you. This Self-Examination therefore is about dispassionate self-examination--you peering sharply and persistently into your Westernizing soul, daringly exposing its innermost workings. You thus see in yourselves all the errors of imperialism and racism, including injuries to minority people; these you will own, plus sharing in the responsibilities for mammonism. You thus will see your stewardship, or lack thereof, of the environment. Westerners please the powers of the age; to make yourselves look good, you justify yourselves in the presence of the Western gods and goddesses. By living the standards of the West, you are good for a purpose; you live and work to make your self-esteem glow, and thereby you please the current deities, and in this paradox you still identify as Christian.