Real Live Preacher wrote about the difference between the real person and the persona presented to the rest of the world.
In his post he says this.
"Let us agree that when a minister presents an entirely false image, it is hypocritical and as harmful to Christianity as the airbrushed magazine images of women are to real women. In both cases, the image has no connection to reality."
Real Live Preacher, .9 of X
I think Chuck suspects that false images can destroy or distort reality. I think this idea relates neatly to the picnic crisis concept I posted about a while back. I think part of the reason people don't get together for dinner parties or picnics has to do with ideas fostered by TV, movies, Martha Stewart and consumerism in general. People believe that entertaining should look like something we see on a movie set. We can't just invite someone over until we have to have a sparkling clean house, filled with bankbook breaking furniture, accessorized with the right colors for the season, and food that glistens in the glow of our expensive home made looking candles. The irony of course is that we somehow believe it would be better if we could make our real life resemble an illusion we saw on a screen; an illusion that never really existed except as a well lit cardboard and plastic facade on a movie set. (It's not that I have anything against fantasy and/or illusion, it's just that I hate to see people forget the dividing line between two.)
I suspect that he knows that the condition of creating a false self to display to the world doesn't simply affect pastors -- it's a human condition. Pastors probably have more pressure to present a certain image than most since it's practically part of the job description. I think he is right when he suggests that this phenomenon is a cause for plenty of loneliness and depression.
Thank you, to all of you who don't flinch when I slip up and show you something approaching nine tenths of X.
