Distorted teaching from Christian leaders can have a significant impact on our images of God. When people in positions of authority, who claim to be speaking for God, tell us, or in some way imply, that God is mean or impossible to please it carries a great deal of weight. I believe that such teaching is especially impactful on people at vulnerable points in life. People new to faith in Christ seem to be at risk because they may be open to take in as absolute truth the first formal teachings or representations they hear from authority figures about God. In the midst of a crisis we are all also at risk because we are making major psychological changes, are flooded by feelings, and are searching for spiritual direction. And, if we already suffer from distorted images of God, we are also at risk. This is especially true when the distortions being perpetuated match, even vaguely, the distortions we already experience. This is what happened to me when I received the angry letter from the pastor. I was already struggling with distorted images of God as excessively angry and demanding and the letter reinforced these images.
It is important to remind ourselves that God is on our side in this process. According to Scripture, God is Love and wants us to experience this love in practical ways. God has gone to great lengths to reveal himself and his love to us. In addition, according to Scripture, God is a healing God who is personally invested in replacing our distorted images with images rooted in truth and grace. We cannot fix our distorted images of God by some single act of courage or dedication. Some of us have tried this approach but we are soon forced to recognize our powerlessness over deeply rooted images. What we can do is to risk asking God to personally reveal his grace to us, to heal our distorted images and to give us the capacity to take in divine love.
Their Minds Are Filled With Big Ideas, Images and Distorted Facts
A third resource for healing distorted images is to explore possible origins of these images. It might be helpful, for example, to examine the role God was assigned in your family of origin and to look at any similarities between your descriptions of God and your descriptions of your parents and other important people in your life. This process of separating one from the other is, for many of us, a grief process. It involves acknowledging early life experiences for what they were, feeling the loss of what should have been, protesting the unfairness of these experiences and awakening unfulfilled longings. Our distorted images of God may tell us something about the losses and traumas we experienced early in life. Identifying these experiences and grieving them are a important part of the healing process. Seeing the connection between our experiences with early caretakers and our images of God sets in motion a process of separating one from the other. This is how we begin to realize that God is not the same as the humans who have, in one way or another, failed us or hurt us.
In rare cases, people can have such a distorted view of their bodies that they have a mental health condition called body dysmorphic disorder (BDD). BDD is a serious illness in which a person is preoccupied with minor or imaginary physical flaws. Learn more about BDD.
263. We do well to keep in mind the early Christians and our many brothers and sisters throughout history who were filled with joy, unflagging courage and zeal in proclaiming the Gospel. Some people nowadays console themselves by saying that things are not as easy as they used to be, yet we know that the Roman empire was not conducive to the Gospel message, the struggle for justice, or the defence of human dignity. Every period of history is marked by the presence of human weakness, self-absorption, complacency and selfishness, to say nothing of the concupiscence which preys upon us all. These things are ever present under one guise or another; they are due to our human limits rather than particular situations. Let us not say, then, that things are harder today; they are simply different. But let us learn also from the saints who have gone before us, who confronted the difficulties of their own day. So I propose that we pause to rediscover some of the reasons which can help us to imitate them today.[207]
FACT: While contemplating suicide, young people may have a distorted perception of their actual life situation and what solutions are appropriate for them to take. However, with support and constructive assistance from caring and informed people around them, young people can gain full self-direction and self-management in their lives.
This would be like an evil scientist raising a group of infants in a twisted world where most objects they encounter are filled with helium and only a few fall to the ground. Those infants would generalize their curated experience, because that is what our brains are designed to do. They would each develop a profoundly flawed model of reality.
Another key distinction is that people with schizotypal personality disorder usually can be made aware of the difference between their distorted ideas and reality. Those with schizophrenia generally can't be swayed away from their delusions. 2ff7e9595c
Comments