The Scrupulosity Sufferers

Colossians 3:1-11   |   8/5/2001

For thousands of people, the practice of faith includes compulsive behaviors combined with constant fears that they will say or do something blasphemous or sinful. Is this scrupulous behavior part of the new life in Christ?

Susan has a secret sin.


Susan is a good Ohio woman who, in her late 20s, began to take her faith seriously - compulsively so. Yet the more she practiced her faith, the more she questioned the efficacy of her efforts. Her doubts came daily, nagging her relentlessly and causing her constant pain. "I'd kept it a secret from my children, from my parents and from my husband," she admitted.

For Susan, sin is everywhere. And she is the first among sinners. The one who most needs to confess ... again ... and again ... and again.

She figured she was the only one who had this condition - viewing the world through a sharp and precise moral prism, seeing sin in every situation, and magnifying transgressions whenever they surfaced. But she is not alone. In fact, there are tens of thousands of people - possibly hundreds of thousands of people - who suffer from this very thing.

Clinical psychologists have given her obsession a name. They call it the "scrupulosity obsession," or the "doubting disease."

Scrupulosity, Susan learned, is an obsessive-compulsive disorder, one that straddles two worlds - the clinical, fact-based world of medicine and the mystical, faith-based world of religion. It can be treated with medication, as well as with counseling and spiritual guidance.


There is even a newsletter called "Scrupulous Anonymous," with a circulation of 13,000. Its editor, the Rev. Thomas Santa, describes scrupulosity as "a tender conscience" - a condition in which everything becomes a sin, to the point that you're almost paralyzed.

At first glance, Paul's letter to the Colossians might seem like an invitation to scrupulosity. "Put to death," he commands, "whatever in you is earthly: fornication, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed (which is idolatry). On account of these the wrath of God is coming on those who are disobedient" (3:5-6).

But Paul's not finished. "But now you must get rid of all such things - anger, wrath, malice, slander, and abusive language from your mouth (v. 8).

Get rid of all such things, he thunders. Strip yourself of all such sleazy sins and polluting practices. Begin to live an authentic Christian life, removing from yourself all the trappings of your old life - which for Paul himself included being "a blasphemer, a persecutor, and a man of violence" (1 Timothy 1:13).

These Scriptures seem to play right into the scrupulosity that so many sufferers are struggling to escape. Don't do this, Don't do that. Watch out: the wrath of God is coming.

If truth be told, Paul may be suffering himself from a touch of the doubting disease. He readily admits that "Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners - of whom I am the foremost" (1 Timothy 1:15). The "foremost" of sinners. The tiptop transgressor. The baddest of the bad.


That's serious sinfulness.

So, what does this mean for us? Are we to focus constantly on fornication, impurity, passion, evil desire, greed, anger, wrath, malice, slander, abusive language and lies? Are we to live a life of constant introspection, relentlessly obsessing over every one of our motivations, thoughts, words and deeds? Is Christian living nothing more than avoiding a list of negatives?

Not at all!

Here's a true story that explains why: A Virginia man was scrupulous about always wearing his wedding ring. In fact, in 15 years of marriage he had never taken it off. Never. Not once. It was a personal obsession.

One day he was out walking his dog - a big, lovable, squirrel-chasing mutt. The man stopped to talk with a neighbor, and as they chatted he let the dog's leash hang loosely on his left hand.


All of a sudden, the dog spotted a squirrel and took off like a bullet. The leash caught on the man's wedding ring and - SNAP! - broke his finger.

Oh, the pain!

The finger swelled up around the wedding ring, and when the man arrived at the hospital emergency room the doctor announced that he would have to cut off the ring. "Oh, no!" protested the man. "I have NEVER removed my wedding ring. Never. You can't cut it off."

"Then you'll lose your finger," said the doctor, quite matter-of-factly.

Suddenly, the man saw with crystal clarity what was truly important. It wasn't a perfect record of always wearing a wedding ring, day and night, consistently and flawlessly for the whole of his marriage. No, what mattered was a vital, loving and faithful relationship with his wife. And 10 healthy fingers, if possible.

Off came the ring.

Paul challenges us with the words: "Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth, for you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God" (3:2-3). Set your minds not on the temptations of this world, but on the joy of life with Christ, a life in which we are free to enjoy boundless compassion, kindness, love, peace and gratitude. We can do this because we have been given a new and abundant life that is safe and secure and hidden with Christ in God. Those who are "in Christ" have "died" to this world - died to what Paul calls "the elemental spirits of the universe" (2:20).

Paul wants us to focus on Christ, not on earthly entanglements, to grow in him, not in the passions of this world. If we do, then the dismaying and debilitating distractions of this world will slip away.

What matters is not a perfectly flawless record of avoiding sin, but instead a vital, loving and faithful relationship with Jesus. We can be confident that those whose lives are hidden in Christ will quite naturally show signs of new and abundant life, and the patterns of the old and sinful life will quietly die away.

No one, not God, not Paul, not our families, wants us to suffer from scrupulosity. God does not want us to become paralyzed by fear of doing or saying something blasphemous or sinful. Instead, he wants us to enjoy the glorious freedom of the children of God - freedom to live in the boundless Christian love that "binds everything together in perfect harmony" (3:14).


"What we're dealing with is a God who loves, not a God who is out to get you." So says the Rev. Wally Hyclak, director of spiritual life and development at St. Joseph Christian Life Center in Cleveland. He believes that scrupulosity sufferers are dealing with the fear of God, not the love of God.

So are we going to focus on fear or love?

Fear makes us harshly judgmental of ourselves and others. Love helps us to see everyone - ourselves included - as a sinful soul for whom Christ died.


Fear points our attention inward, driving us to examine our own motives and actions excessively. Love pulls our attention outward, inspiring us to take part in mission to a hurting world.


Fear leads us to obsess over fine points of morality. Love helps us to see that we are never going to be perfect, but that we will always be forgiven.


Fear drives us to worry constantly about the future. Love liberates us to trust that God has a plan and a purpose for us, and will always be close beside us.


Bottom line: God is loving, merciful and trustworthy. So let's set our minds on the things that are above, not on things that are on earth. Our old selves have died - and so can our earthly obsessions.


What's left is a life that is hidden with Christ in God, just waiting for us to discover it.


Sources:
Wheeler, Tracy. "Trapped by an obsession with sin," The Akron Beacon Journal, January 23, 2001, D4ff.

Commentary

Colossae was a town in what is now modern Turkey, with citizens and other resident dwellers who were descendants of the indigenous Phrygians and Greek settlers. However, the Jewish historian Josephus writes that there were a fair number of Jews who had moved there in the second century B.C. Hence the Christian community to which Paul wrote was part of a cosmopolitan setting of diverse religious and cultural influences.

Given this setting, it is no wonder that Paul begins this section with a reminder to the Christians in Colossae that if they "have been raised with Christ" (3:1) then they will have a lifestyle and faith expression that will separate them from the syncretistic milieu of the surrounding culture. The formulaic words "raised with Christ" follows the earlier "If with Christ you died" (2:20). No doubt behind the "died, raised" pairing is the traditional baptismal formula of dying and rising with Christ. Hence, Paul exhorts the Colossians to remember their baptism and put on "the new self" (v. 10) which baptism brings.

This new self brings with it a new mindset that focuses the believer on the "things that are above, not on things that are on earth" (v. 2). However, the new way of thinking affects not only the mind and spirit but directs the expression of faith outwardly, too.

A careful reader properly gets the impression that the Christians were struggling to differentiate themselves from Hellenistic Jews on the one side who stressed circumcision and "legal demands" (2:14), and the Greco-Roman philosophical family of mystery religions or pseudo-Christian sectarian groups who worshiped angels, dwelt in visions and who were "puffed up" with a pseudo-spirituality that, to Paul, did not effect a transformation of one's being toward the likeness of Jesus Christ (2:18).

Becoming a Christian was a death-to-life event. This new life of Christ might be hidden behind the fleshly visage and the day-to-day responsibilities, but nevertheless it was real and effective. Paul promised that what was hidden at present would be revealed in the future. The revelation would show the believer to be one with Christ, for Christ is "your life" (v. 4). Jesus, to Paul, is more than an example whom the believer chooses to follow; rather, for Paul, baptism is a transformation event changing the person from the inside out. Conversion is not a change in the flesh (circumcision), or a change of mind (philosophy); instead, Christ brings mind and body together, for Christ "is all and in all" (v. 11).

Paul makes a stark contrast between the former life of faithlessness and the present life of faith. The former is "earthly" and the latter is from "above." The mystery religions might promise the knowledge of heaven but, to Paul, it was a false experience and hence no real experience at all.

It is interesting to note that in these verses Paul never specifically describes in a positive way the new quality of life. Rather, he describes in formulaic terms the characteristics of the former faithless life and exhorts the believer not to act like that. In Paul's letters the list of depravities descriptive of the life before faith is a common addition. It is a bit much to assume that every person who was not a Christian practiced "fornication, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed" (v. 5). Certainly there were righteous Jews and monogamous Greeks. However, sweeping with a broad brush does have its rhetorical effect. It is probable that in Paul's day, as in ours, the culture was saturated with sex. Sins of the body do not change in the passage of centuries. More specifically, there were some mystery religions that swept the participant up in passions of sexual frenzy. These would have no place in Christian worship, and therefore Paul specifies the sexual excesses.

Paul sums up the list in the parenthetical addition of the phrase "which is idolatry" (v. 5). Idolatry does not modify "greed" specifically, but is added at the end of the sentence to sum up the whole list generally. Anything that is not about worshiping God, the Father of Jesus, and grounding life in the present but hidden spirit of the risen Lord, is idolatry and is worthy of God's wrath.

Likewise, the "old life" was expressed verbally and emotionally in "anger, wrath, malice, slander and abusive language" and lying (v. 8). Again Paul offers a formulaic rhetorical list that contrasts the inner motivation of the old life with the inner power of the new life. Certainly, however, Paul wishes the community of Christians to be gentle and truthful with each other.

The new life, which is assumed, is like a new set of clothing that is put on. This is a common theme in Paul (Ephesians 4:24 and Romans 12). No doubt in Paul's age, as in ours, distinctive dress codes differentiated one group from another, and so stripping down and wearing something new was a powerful metaphor of the effective change of faith. With Christ, the mind and body, the inner motivation and the outer expression, are transformed, and the believer returns to the original state of being human found in Genesis, when male and female are made in the likeness and image of God. Hence, in Christ, we become who we were originally meant to be.

In this new condition, all barriers are done away with. Paul offers the usual pairs of Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, slave and free. However, in this list Paul adds "barbarian" and "Scythian" (v. 11). To the Greek, everyone who was not a Greek was a barbarian. It was an epithet of cultural inferiority. Likewise, to the citizens of Colossae, the term "Scythian" was not complimentary. The Scythians were an ancient nomadic people who lived in a region of southeastern Europe and Asia. Paul is very specific: the new life in Christ breaks down all cultural and social barriers. The outsider becomes part of the new community, for Christ assumes priority over all distinctions and separations.

This passage is odd and challenging. It challenges the modern Christian to consider how her or his life is different because the new life of Christ has been put on. Paul was writing to a community that was struggling to maintain its identity apart from the dominant culture of the day. But questions arise today when the Judeo-Christian heritage is assumed to be the dominant culture, and when groups of people - dismissed by this dominant culture - turn out to be the very people that Jesus would want to include.

Animating Illustrations

A big fact of life: Mistakes will be made.


This little truism comes to mind because of a recent brouhaha over a mistake on ABC's super-popular new game show, Who Wants to Be a Millionaire. Somebody in the Millionaire research department messed up, and the contestant who aced the question, "Which of the Great Lakes is largest in area after Lake Superior?" was incorrectly told he was wrong. When the contestant later complained, ABC quickly confirmed the mistake and invited the guy back for another round. But the damage was done.

Now, it so happens that I am the host of a game show bearing my name, Win Ben Stein's Money, which airs on the Comedy Central cable network. As on Millionaire, success on my show has to do with whether or not the contestants answer questions correctly. I pay a lot of attention to the questions and answers because I am a contestant on every show. If I lose to a competitor, I get $5,000 deducted from my already meager wages and given to some stranger who knows how many moons Saturn has when I don't.

Pride and money are at stake, so it makes me unhappy if I lose because I did not know something I should have known. I find that I - an ordinary citizen who never made any great claims to knowing trivia - make a great many mistakes during my show. For one thing, I am in a state of great anxiety during the competition. Plus, I am often tired because we tape as many as five shows a day. Plus, I am sometimes sick. Plus, I just plain don't know about many things. (See "being, human" in the Ben Stein dictionary.)

-Ben Stein, "In the game show of life, no one's right every time,"
The Washington Post, September 12, 1999, B2.

Current projections suggest that 2 percent to 3 percent of the U.S. population - as many as 6 million people - suffer from some kind of obsessive-compulsive disorder.

[An Ohio woman named] Susan, in fact, suffered from two forms of obsessive-compulsive disorders - first an overwhelming fear of germs, then scrupulosity.

The germs eventually drove her out of her career in nursing, she said, because "I was too obsessed about being around sick people."

But then, her fear of sin overtook her fear of germs. She began to place moral values on ordinary everyday things. She repeated prayers over and over until they were just right. "I would dwell and dwell and dwell on it."

Then she started overindulging in confession, visiting different churches so the priests wouldn't pick up on her obsession, until one day, she visited the same confessional twice.

The priest told her, "You know you don't have to be here again, right?"

Intellectually, she knew that. Emotionally, though, she wasn't
able to stop.

"It's like you're dealing with God," she explained. "You're not just dealing with yourself or with germs. You don't want to disappoint God."

Finally, 13 years after first reading about scrupulosity in her church bulletin, Susan sought professional counseling.

"That was the beginning of learning to deal with it," she

said. "I learned how to counteract the thoughts and learned to
live with it. It doesn't go away. It just goes up and down, up
and down. I call it background noise - it's always there, but I

ignore it."



-Tracy Wheeler, "Trapped by an obsession with sin,"
The Akron Beacon Journal, January 23, 2001, D4ff.

For centuries, it was scrupulosity. Today it's known as obsessive-compulsiveness. It is the neurotic tendency to be overly concerned about getting everything clean, right and complete. It shows up in many ways. Like washing the same windows twice every day. Or entering a room and having to touch every object before you sit down. Or taking your own temperature hourly.


Moral scrupulosity occurs when you worry all the time about obeying every detail of every rule and regulation in life. For centuries, priests and pastors have dealt with people burdened with incredible anxiety over their failure to be perfect. Rather than sin bravely, as Luther recommended, knowing that God is merciful and forgiving, they have been swept into the downward spiral of self-examination and self-recrimination ....


The traditional cure for scrupulosity has been forgiveness. It still is. The generosity of God can, over time, melt the obsessive-compulsive clouds of super-correctness.

-"Scrupulosity: An old concept revisited," Lutheran Campus Ministry,
October 1995, www.neosoft.com.

Of course, profit isn't the primary motive at Mepkin Abbey; serving God is. That mission is reinforced daily by tasks and rituals that are both sacred and mundane: the 3:20 a.m. church service, the Grand Silence from 8 p.m. to 8:30 a.m., even the shoveling of chicken manure into compost piles. Everything that the monks do demonstrates their divine service and strengthens their community.

If the mission provides clarity, compassion is the key to the monks' harmony. "Even the just man falls seven times a day," says Brother Callistus Crichlow, 51, a former Wall Street computer technician. "If you believe that, you forgive others for their failings."

-Chuck Salter, "What's your mission statement?" Fast Company, July 2000, 50.

It is interesting to ponder what role OCD [Obsessive Compulsive Disorder] (in the form of scrupulosity) might have played in instigating the Protestant Reformation. In A History of the Life and Acts of the Very Reverend Martin Luther (1549), Luther's protégé, Philip Melancthon (1497-1560), wrote:

"Often when contemplating the wrath of God, as exhibited in striking instances of his avenging hand, suddenly such terrors have overwhelmed his mind, as almost to deprive him of consciousness; and I myself have seen him whilst engaged in some doctrinal discussion, involuntarily affected in this manner, when he has thrown himself on a bed in an adjoining room and repeatedly mingled with his prayers the following passage God has concluded them all in unbelief that he might have mercy upon all.' These terrors he experienced either for the first time, or in the most acute manner, during the year in which he was deprived of a favorite friend, who lost his life by some accident of which I am ignorant."

-"Praying for help: OCD and religion," www.interlog.com

Man is born broken. He lives by mending. The grace of God is glue.

-Eugene O'Neill, quoted by Anne Lamott,
Traveling Mercies (New York: Anchor Books, 1999), 112.

There is a fascinating book on scrupulosity written by a psychologist, William Van Ornum, Ph.D., called A Thousand Frightening Fantasies. It is a book that some people are finding very helpful. It has been given rave reviews by psychiatrists, psychologists, counselors and confessors ....


At one point in this book it is said that scrupulosity is like an airport that is always open. That is a good example. No sooner does one airplane leave than another one is ready to take off. No sooner does one airplane come in and land than another one comes along to land. So it is with the person who is constantly worried about some problem of conscience. He or she might get rid of this particular matter, might talk to a priest, might talk to a counselor, to a therapist, to a psychologist, but then another problem quickly comes along to take its place.

-Cardinal O'Connor, "Are You Scrupulous?" www.cny.org/archive/ch/ch031199.htm.

Our 13-year-old is downloading a game from the Internet. My curiosity piqued, I kick John off the computer and ask "Google" to search for the word "perfection" on the Web. In 0.24 seconds, Google finds 131,999 occurrences. Judging by the top 10 or so, they fall into five categories: spiritual theology ... athletic endeavor ... technology ... pornography ... self-help, as in this excerpt from Be Your Own Therapist: "A most liberating and happiness-generating belief that one can have is to believe in the perfection of everyone around. Not only is Mother Teresa perfect, but so is Saddam Hussein and everyone in between."


By this measure, our culture seems to be seriously confused about perfection. Either we mistake it for an inhuman perfectionism or we empty it of meaning by proclaiming everything perfect. It is easy, under such conditions, to lose sight of the distinctively Christian understanding of perfection: maturity, wholeness and obedience in a life consecrated to the law of love revealed by Christ.

-Carol Zaleski, "Short rules to perfection," Christian Century,
September 13-20, 2000, 918.

There cannot be a crisis next week. My schedule is already full.

-Bumper sticker

Online note from a scrupulosity sufferer:


Okay, I'm still trying to deal with this scrupulosity. It's been a long while and I am so ready for a cure... . It's not our fault, but it's our fight. We have to find a cure .... We deserve to be messy. We deserve to not have to be perfect, to curse when we want, to watch a movie that that has "bad things" in it, to go through a day without fearing GOD will hurt us or our family if we offend or disrespect GOD in some way. Yes, most of us scrupulous people know what we really think about GOD and that we mean no disrespect. We should all realize that God forgives us deep down inside. BUT I know I cannot get it out of my mind that I am somehow doing something wrong and I am offending GOD, and GOD may hurt me or my family in some way. At least this is what it feels like for me. I know it differs for every obsessive and scrupulous person. I cry for all of us. We may have different obsessions and compulsions ... but we all hurt. I think we should be able to experience having just a few minutes of quiet, serene time, time to not have to be sure or worry about GOD, faucets that aren't turned completely off. We need that time for our sanity and our health. Please find a way. I've researched a bit and found some ways that make me feel better, and they look pretty promising ....



I hope you all understand you're not alone in this.

-Joshua

Children's Sermon

Hold up a suit coat, or an attractive dress, and ask the children if such clothes are to be used for playing sports or climbing trees or digging in the dirt. Of course not! Have them describe what kind of behavior goes along with fancy clothes: attending church, going to a party, working in an office, having dinner in a gourmet restaurant. Explain that our behavior truly does change when we put on certain clothes, because it wouldn't be right to slide into first base or make a mud pie while you are wearing a nice outfit. Then ask them what kind of behavior the apostle Paul was talking about when he said we have "clothed ourselves" with a new Christian self (Colossians 3:10). Suggest that this means we behave in ways that are kind and forgiving and loving and peaceful - other kinds of behavior just wouldn't be right. Let them know that they can still have fun in their Christian clothes, as long as they stay away from doing things that are selfish and hurtful and destructive. Conclude by saying that a Christian outfit can be worn anywhere, in any situation, at any time - and it always looks great!

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