“See what you made me do!”  A manifesto follows that blames bad behavior on someone else.  Old Testament prophets Jeremiah and Ezekiel both convey a now millennial anthem:  “my parents ate sour grapes, so now my teeth are set on edge.”  Blame empowers bad and then worse behavior.

God said, “No, the soul that sinneth, it shall die,” that is, you are completely responsible for your own deeds and attitude.   In contrast, you know today how this pathology works, especially with now regular mass shootings at the center of which is a troubled figure, someone who hasn’t had enough “love” as a child.  He’s the victim.  Sigmund Freud provided modern justification with his earlier twentieth century psychological theories and terminology.

The effect doesn’t follow the cause.  A parent eating sour grapes doesn’t cause a child’s teeth to be set on edge.  It’s a phony excuse that should fool no one.

If it is a parent’s fault (or some other authority figure), that assumes the parent did something wrong.  Maybe it wasn’t wrong, but let’s assume a parent sinned.  If the concern is sin, is concern over sin substantiated by more and worse sinning?  Like Jeremiah and Ezekiel said, the parent’s sin isn’t the concern.  It’s just an excuse.  The cause, like James and Peter teach (James 1 and 2 Peter 2), is lust.  If the parent’s sin was a concern, the reaction wouldn’t be more and worse sinning.  The child just wants to do what he wants to do and justifies it:  “See what you made me do!  So I’m going to do far worse!”

I’ve seen this in church through thirty-two years of pastoring.  Most people who leave a church blame the church for doing things wrong and then go to another church that’s worse.

What does someone do, who is really concerned about wrong or sin?  Scripture is very clear.  He tries to help.  He attempts reconciliation.  He seeks mediation.  Paul wrote that he tries to restore someone in a spirit of meekness.  He doesn’t say or think, “Hey, I know, I’ll go out and do more and even worse and justify it with I’m saying was someone else’s wrong.”

Prominent in Freudian psychology and still used by modern psychologists is the is the idea of defense mechanisms.   According to a Freudian psychologist, one of the mechanisms for a victim to defend himself is “acting out.”  He does puzzling things and makes peculiar decisions contrary to his own well-being.  People are afraid that he might “snap” and do something even worse.  His trajectory is in a downward spiral and he is in need of an “intervention.”  He also has his “enablers,” those who confirm his excuses and blame, because they also dislike authority and standards that clash with their own lust.  They are confused and misguided sympathizers.

According to God, no one is a victim.  If he dies, it’s because of his own sin, not his parent’s.  He owns what he is doing.  Paul said, someone’s body parts are either instruments of righteousness or of unrighteousness.  He should mortify, put to death, his deeds of the flesh.  John says he either loves God or he loves himself and the world.  Jesus said that those who enter not the narrow gate did not agonize or at least seek to get in.  They will have no one to blame but themselves.

When someone does more sinning and far worse, he exposes his excuses for what they really are, blaming his sin on someone else.  There is an axiom here, that to the degree someone blames his own wrongs on what he perceives are the wrongs of others, he will do more and worse.  The good news is that he thinks something is wrong.  He would only blame someone else if he thought something wrong was to be blamed.  In other words, he hasn’t totally lost the ability to know and identify what is wrong and what is right.  Now it’s just a matter if he is also willing to do something about it.  Does he love his sin so much that he will keep blaming other people for it?

Some of what Freud wrote smacks of some truth if someone places it in the context of truth.  Everyone who sins needs intervention.  Anyone who continues in sin without repentance will get worse, which could be described as a downward spiral.  A person who is not surrendered to God or controlled by the Holy Spirit will act out of the nature of the depravity that characterizes fallen human flesh.

What the world needs today is a message of repentance, like Jesus and John the Baptist preached.  Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.  Relief is available for someone who will turn to God and like with all those who do in scripture, it will be accompanied by great joy.