“Leaders induce guilt feeling in members to control them”
In another incident at that same Messianic congregation we once witnessed a very disturbing incident where a woman was made to stand before the congregation and “confess” some heinous sin, which was really none of our business. We were upset by this and told one or two others and found out this was “common practice” and “good for people”. At the time we didn’t know the risks of this behavior, we had to learn this the hard way, which is why the Sacrament of Reconciliation is done in private.When we sin we tend to feel guilty, particularly if our sin hurts others. This is good because a certain amount of shame usually gets us to seek reconciliation. Yet, Pope John Paul II stated on May 14th 2004 to guest bishops from Hawaii in the Vatican, of
"The crisis of the loss of the sense of sin," and urged the bishops to have the courage to "address this today with particular urgency. While the effects of sin abound - greed, dishonesty and corruption, broken relationships and exploitation of persons, pornography and violence – the recognition of individual sinfulness has waned. In its place a disturbing culture of blame and litigiousness has arisen, which speaks more of revenge than justice and fails to acknowledge that in every man and woman there is a wound which, in the light of faith, we call original sin."
He added as well these words about the prodigal son:
"The prodigal son is in a certain sense all men and women. We all can be lured by the temptation to separate ourselves from the Father and thus suffer loss of dignity, humiliation and shame, but equally so we all can have the courage to turn back to the Father who embraces us with a love which, transcending even justice, manifests itself as mercy."Our Holy Father wisely warns that we are all potentially prodigal sons if we suffer humiliation, loss of dignity and being overcome by shame. This is an evil tool used by people who want control over us. They humiliate us, say we are less wise, incapable of their wisdom/skill/faith etc… they will blow out of proportion any fault or weakness we may posses; even possibly ignoring whether the person has repented and returned (the Sacrament of Reconciliation) and still throw these errors at them as happened above. Yet all this is to gain control, so if we have courage, as our blessed father states, we can escape this net and turn back to the true leader and Father, for His mercy that is always present and welcome.
