Guilt and Grace

Guilt and Grace

I know how most Christians deal with guilt, by beating themselves over their heads until they feel better. The rough definition of a flagellant person is a "holy man," "monk," "religious devotee" or a "puritan." Go ahead do the MSWord thesaurus look up and that is what you will find.

However, the real definition of being flagellant is the act of extreme mortification to ones own flesh by whipping it with various instruments. Sorry, but that sounds painful and sick to me. Unless you are into that sort of thing being flagellant is not what I would call a healthy way to deal with guilt or anything else really. No matter how good this practice makes you feel, beating yourself with things to make you bleed or feel pain just cannot help you in the long run, because it masks the true pain of the guilt.

Does anyone know what a Buddhist, Muslim or Hindu do when faced with guilt? I will find out or we can find out together. If you are of one of these faiths then join us and let us know. Is it possible to not feel guilt without being a jaded person or someone without a conscience?

The fact is, is that when we feel bad for something we have done then we want to make amends to the one we offended. At least in some cases. I venture to say it happens more than not for the average person. Should we feel bad when we mess up? And for Christians where does grace come into the picture?

So how did flagellant become synonymous with "holy man" anyhow? It just isn't right I tell ya!