Some Current Reading
Recently, I’ve focused on two areas in my reading.
In my daily Bible reading, I’ve been meditating on the Gospel narratives of Jesus and the Pharisees. In my extra-biblical reading, I’ve been focused on Christian resources about mental health challenges.
I did not anticipate an overlap between these two topics. Yet, I’ve seen quite the intersect.
In the Gospels, I’ve seen how the Pharisees repeatedly “otherized” people—stigmatizing them with pejorative labels related to “spiritually illness.”
In reading about mental health challenges, I’ve repeatedly seen how our Western culture “otherizes” people—stigmatizing them with harmful labels related to mental illness.
Let’s take a look…
5 Marks of the Pharisaical Mindset: “I Thank God That I Am Not Like Other People!”
Consider Luke 18:9-14.
To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everyone else, Jesus told this parable:
“Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector.
The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other people—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’
“But the tax
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