MFS at Mental Multivitamin makes me think, and that’s a very good thing. Especially lately, my mind is so caught up in daily concerns and necessities that it is renewing to stop and think for a moment.
Yes, the images of Amish teenagers attending what amounts to rave parties fueled by copious amounts of alcohol, drugs, and bad music are, as one reviewer describes it, ‘jarring,’ but it was the reminder that if a child returns to his church community following rumspringa (and ninety percent do), he is, in effect, denying his sense of self: Amish religious convictions are predicated on the erasure of self.
SHUDDER.”
I haven’t seen the documentary Devil’s Playground that MFS is writing about in this post, but I have read about it. And I would probably have some disagreement with what I perceive from a distance as a legalistic theology in Amish Christianity. Nevertheless, denying self is a very Christian concept. In fact, Jesus commanded us, “Deny yourself. Take up your cross, and follow me.” I was reminded of this quotation from Methodist missionary Stanley Jones’s The Christ of the Indian Road, published back in 1925.
Greece said, ‘Be moderate—know thyself.’
Rome said, ‘Be strong—order thyself.’
Confucianism says, ‘Be superior—correct thyself.’
Shintoism says, ‘Be loyal—suppress thyself.’
Buddhism says, ‘Be disillusioned—annihilate thyself.’
Hinduism says, ‘Be separated—merge thyself.’
Mohammedanism says, ‘Be submissive—assert thyself.’
Judaism says, ‘Be holy—conform thyself.’
Materialism says, ‘Be industrious—enjoy thyself.’
Modern Dilettantism says, ‘Be broad—cultivate thyself.’
Christianity says, ‘Be Christlike—give thyself.'”
The self-denial that Christians preach is not self-annihilation, but rather a giving of self as God created it to service in His name. Are we sure that the Amish are advocating “the erasure of self”? Or could it be that they believe in giving a higher priority to Christian community and to the glorification of God in that community? And could a lifetime of this sort of self-denial lead to a greater sense of self within a Christian community than most of us experience in our rush for self-fulfillment?
Again Jesus said, “For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it. For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?” Matthew 16:25-26.
It’s the daily working out of this concept that gets sticky, and I agree that self-annihilation or self-erasure is not the way to go. Neither is a mad race for self-realization or self-assertion.