Ministeria

[Voyager]

Here's something that I posted back in early 2003:

Recently I have coined a new phrase that I believe accurately describes one of the major problems in modern-day religion. I call it ministeria.

Ministeria is a combination of ministry, hypocrisy, fear, paranoia, and hysteria. It starts out as a desire to follow the calling of God, and ends in something just short of insanity. Its root lies in denial. In an attempt to "minister" to others, the ministeria victim begins to point out the faults in the lives of those that they are "ministering" to. In the process, they lose sight of their own shortcomings. They feel that God will overlook the beam of timber in their own eye and allow them to point out the toothpicks in the eyes of others because of "the calling" on their life.

As ministeria evolves into its advanced stages, its victim's perception of reality becomes completely distorted due to the illusions of spiritual grandiosity that they have embraced. As their perceived level of spiritual superiority over others increases, their willingness to take giant "leaps of faith" many times lands them in jail or bankruptcy court. This is because these "leaps of faith" are based in extreme delusions of grandeur. They have become consumed in a religious fantasy world that has impaired their judgement to the extent that they feel they are above the laws and ethics that "common people" are subjected to.

Unfortunately when people who care for the victims of ministeria attempt to step in and rescue them from this horrible mind-altering disease, the victim usually perceives it as evil persecution. This tends to perpetuate the madness and allows it to escalate to even higher levels until the victim completely detaches from reality and becomes totally lost in what I call ministeria.

Any thoughts?