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  %THREAT PUNISH EXCOMMUNICATE REJECT ALIENATE EVIL 940501

Tacit   and  explicit  threats  of rejection,   excommuni-
cation  and  alienation---to  be  carried  out  if  proper
conformity  is  not  achieved---lead threatened  people to
try to control what they cannot control;  and so lead them
to fail in what they try to do.

    People   who  issue  tacit  and  explicit  threats  of
rejection,   excommunication and alienation usually regard
such threats as proper means to proper goals.   They  view
themselves  as serving transcendent if not ultimately good
goals.  They often view those people who do not conform to
their  views  of  propriety  as  extreme  and  perhaps  as
ultimate threats to the  essence  of goodness.   Thus they
view extreme  and perhaps ultimate threats and punishments
as  appropriate  responses  to  what they perceive  to  be
extreme  and perhaps ultimate  threats to the  essence  of
goodness.  They feel that they must protect God's turf for
Him.   Apparently they believe God is not powerful  enough
to protect His own turf.

    Tacit    and    explicit   threats    of    rejection,
excommunication  and alienation are evil because they lead
to  alienative relationships;  i.e.,  evil  relationships.
This  is  so,  even if it is the most  respected religious
leaders  in a  community who  are  the instigators of  the
tacit and explicit threats  of  rejection, excommunication
and alienation.  Such religious leaders are not protecting
God's turf,  they are  sowing  the  seeds  of personal and
communal disintegration.   God is much  more interested in
truth,    honesty,   openness,   love,   forgiveness   and
reconciliation---than in conformity,  perfection, judgment
and  punishment.    God  is more  interested  in promoting
creation  than  in destruction,  in  integration  than  in
disintegration.     God's  true servants share God's  true
interests.
                                                                                                                               
                         (c) 2005 by Paul A. Smith in      
                    (On Being Yourself, Whole and Healthy)  
                                                                                                                               
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