Dick Keyes, Leiter von l’abri in Rochester, hat ein kurzes Paper zum Thema “Schuld und Scham” verfasst. Die Bedeutung der Begriffe werden an ihren Gegensätzen besser erkennbar:
The opposite of guilt is innocence or moral purity. The opposite of shame, though, is not innocence; it is honour and glory.
Keyes identifiziert drei unterschiedliche Beziehungen zwischen Schuld und Scham :
- Kongruent: I can tell a lie and feel guilt because I know it is wrong, but also feel shame because I had thought I was a strong enough person to have told the truth
- Inkongruent: I can know that I have done the wrong thing morally, but I can be quite unashamed about it.
- Gegensätzlich: We can feel shame for doing the right thing, or sense a certain glory in doing the wrong thing.
Unsere Scham hängt mit unseren inneren “Modellen” zusammen:
Guilt and innocence deal with morals, rights and wrongs. Shame, however, deals with models, our sense of what is heroic, which is measured in terms of honour and glory on the one side and shame on the other. … the kinds of things that cause us shame depend on whatever it is that to us is heroic, the content of our self-portrait.
Das Problem besteht darin, dass unsere Modelle unterschiedliche Orientierungspunkte aufweisen:
An obvious problem that we can get into is to have our morals derived from the Bible and our models defined by Hollywood. This is like having one foot in Jerusalem and the other in Southern California.
Unter der Berücksichtigung der “Scham” merken wir, dass das Werk Christi eine umfassendere Bedeutung bekommt.
The salvation of Jesus Christ involves is more than forgiveness. There is something more than just legal acquittal – and that is personal acceptance.
Wir müssen uns von falschen Idealen verabschieden und uns an Jesus Christus ausrichten:
Negatively, we must get rid of many of our heroes and heroines. Many of them come from Hollywood and Madison Avenue and are heroic for their exploitation of others in every imaginable way. As such, they have a powerful appeal to our pride. … Positively, the Christian has the hero to end all heroes. Jesus Christ is the “hero and perfecter of our faith.” (Hebrews 12:2)
Inwiefern bietet uns Jesus Orientierung?
- We are to love one another as Jesus loved His disciples. (John 13:13-15)
- We are to forgive one another as “God in Christ forgave you.” (Ephesians 4:32 ff)
- We are to be willing to suffer unjustly. (1 Peter 2:20 ff)
- Since Jesus was rich and became poor that we might become rich, we are to give and be generous with each other. (2 Corinthians 8:9)
- If Jesus lowered Himself to become a man and die on a cross for us, we can afford to be humble. (Philippians 2:3-8)
- Finally, our greatness and fulfilment is found in serving, not in being served, because Jesus came not to be served but to serve, to give His life as a ransom for many. (Mark 10:43-45)
