Guilt

Okay, so today's topic is guilt. This topic came up last Sunday in church and it got me thinking.

What happened is a girl in my ward wrote down a little quotation about guilt. According to her the idea came to her like a stroke of revelation and she quickly wrote it down. When she was done she showed it to me. The quotation went like this:

"I have noticed that it is the hallmark of a good man that he has a sensitivity to the promptings of guilt. A good man experinces guilt more intensely than most; it sweeps him away and envelopes him. A good man is brought to despair."

When she showed this to me I was in quite a predicament. I could tell she was proud of what she'd written, but I thought she'd missed the entire point. She'd associated the effects of guilt (which can be good) with guilt itself (which his bad).

Now, I was in quite a predicament cause I didn't want to say "no, that's a horrible definition. I disagree with it. If you think it's revelation from God than I disagree with that too."

So, I didn't say that. I figured that would have been too much. But I did offer to her the idea that maybe her quotation is incomplete. She said "what would you write?"

The result was I didn't pay attention to the next 2 testimonies in testimony meeting...but I came up with something along these lines (and I use "man" as the generic for person only because she did in her definition...I usually avoid sexist language):

(also, her definition and and what I'm about to describe are not definitions. She was wrong in that too. We're talking about the properties of guilt, not defining guilt. A definition is a very particular thing, but I'll probably post on the qualities of a proper definition some other day.)

Guilt: guilt is a negative emotion and an emotion one should avoid. However, (and this is the tip of the hat to her) quite paradoxically, this bad emotion is more frequently felt by good men than by bad men. Why is this? My thoughts are these: a man sensitive to guilt is a man prepared to repent. As a person grows out of guilt they grow into God. The feeling of guilt is the feeling of dissatisfaction with one's currest spiritual state. This feeling is the primary inciter for positive spiritual change. Guilt is for the soul what pain is for the body. Pain warns us when things are wrong. Pain tells us to take our hand from the fire or we will get hurt. Similarly, guilt warns us when things are wrong. Guilt warns us that we must change or we will be hurt (or hurt or continue to hurt someone else).

For this reason, guilt, like pain, is not something that should be revelled in. It is something we go through and grow through--not something we should ever accept. Guilt is only beneficial as it inspires us to access the atonement.

As you can see, we had two very different approaches to this topic. She thought guilt was a good thing. I think guilt is a bad thing, but it can be good in its effects. This of course doesn't make it a good thing, it's just associated with things that are good. If guilt is good because it inspires people to virtue, then the devil is a good because through opposing good he distinguishes good (without evil there would be no good argument).

I get sorta tired of all the people who revel in guilt like it's some higher path, like feeling guilt makes them more noble than those who have uncluttered consciences. Feeling guilty for a long time doesn't make you a better person, it just shows that you don't believe that Christ's atonement is effective. Christ made it so you can come clean, not so you can dwell in the suffering of a guilty mind. Many people think that the guilt demonstrates a sensitivity to the spirit...and while it's true that guilt demonstrates that you're open to correction, if you stay guilty longer than is due, this shows that you're not open to the the true purpose of guilt....to grow out of it.

I think we often exalt people who suffer. It looks like they're martyrs for a cause. But lets only exalt sufferers that suffer for a purpose. I am impressed when guilt inspires people to change. But needless suffering, and suffering for longer than is appropriate, is flat out annoying. Even worse, it makes a mockery of the atonement of Christ.

Let's not praise people for feeling bad. Let's praise people who feel bad and do something about it. Let's praise people who grow through their mistakes, not people who wallow in them.

Okay, that's it for today. I might blog later. This is just a rant that I woke up with this morning.

p.s. Happy Pi Day!