Christine, I'll have to take you to task on this one. It is evident that you do not know everything, therefore you could be 100% wrong.
"In fact, there is a psychological theory that many people who cannot control their drinking, or use drugs, or molest children, or rape women, become conservative Christians as a brake on their evil behavior."
If you believe this, then I have some land in Florida I'd like you to buy! In reality, true Christians have a "spiritual awakening" in which the power of the Holy Spirit indwells them and gives them the strength to overcome. If it so happens that they have a major problem with something or someone, many times it is dealt with immediately. On the other hand, if one is looking for something to deal with the problem, and they say to themselves "I'll try this christian thing and see if it will help", more often than not it doesn't help because the motivation is wrong. You can't look to God and say, "take this (whatever) from me and I'll believe in you". How arrogant and presumptuous, rather you must come to God broken and humble in spirit.
"Of course, these sad people were really very damaged as children, abused and mistreated themselves, and need treatment to break the cycle of abuse, and sometimes prison to protect themselves from the general population."
Everyone has some level of abuse or mistreatment done to them. There is no family or person who is perfect. Should we all seek treatment or hard time to overcome a habit. Do we really put criminals in prison to protect them from us! I thought is was the other way around!
In YHWH I trust,
Tom |
