Guilt is a universal fact and feeling that compels all of us either to deal with it or to find a convincing means to explain it away.
The first response that one may have, and many fall into this attitude towards guilt, is to expel personal and public guilt with a brazen irreverence. This is a posture that implies that nothing in life is essentially sacred and that guilt is a conditioned response orchestrated by religion. What they argue is that religion is something manufactured, to control others with guilt and fear. Even legal theorists are now calling only for the appearance of wrong, rather than calling something wrong.
One wonders whether such a stance is nothing more than a valiant attempt to desensitize everyone, so that no one is left to remind us of our guilt. Watch next time as either a sitcom or a political power player shows us how far we have come down the road of trivializing things that are clearly wrong.
And yet, guilt haunts. Oscar Wilde poignantly demonstrates the self-destructive nature of irreverence in his book The Picture of Dorian Gray. Dorian flippantly says that morals “are of much less value than a good chef…for even the cardinal virtues cannot atone for cold entrees.” Have we really come to value a good meal over the pleasure of a good person, or a good deed, or even of a good God? Dorian himself ended up proving that absolute irreverence destroys the very individual who tests it out. We see this replayed again and again. We laud somebody for being a great speaker or athlete or actor, and disregard an irreverent lifestyle behind it. Can this really be a coherent path for civilization. The answer is No.
Why? Because mockers do not play by their own rules when the tables are turned and something they regard as sacred is vilified.
Far too much damage is done when we deal irreverentially with matters that to many are sacred. Those who mock the sacred and deny the reality of guilt will find themselves desacralized and none guilty for treating them as such in a world of horrors. At some point guilt must be acknowledged, or else the irreverent will end up victimizing everyone, including themselves.
In short, expelling guilt by irreverence is unlivable.
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Copyright © 2002 Ravi Zacharias International Ministries (RZIM). Reprinted with permission. “A Slice of Infinity” is a radio ministry of Ravi Zacharias International Ministries.