Richard Dawson, 25 November 2014

The current generations have been called the ‘Me’ generations in an allusion to their pre-occupation with themselves. I think this is thoroughly unfair. To my mind the opportunity to be self-absorbed has increased enormously with the increasing growth of time and energy saving technology and what has filled the gap has been a behaviour which is as old as humanity itself—pleasing oneself! But this activity has really only arisen because of the opportunity, not because people are inherently any more selfish today than they were 50 or 100 years ago. Indeed I would add that current generations seem less happy with themselves than ever before and a recently released survey of secondary school pupils showing that 20% of female students and 10% of male students had thought seriously about taking their own lives in the previous year, would seem to support this. Within Christian circles we have often added to the problem by creating a piety which is ‘anti-self’ and ‘anti-identity.’ In other words, we have taught that God wants people who are, in themselves, ‘blank slates’ or ‘table raza’ as the latin has it. And God wants people like this so that He can direct them without the interference of a ‘person’ who might have wants and needs of their own. This, of course, is nonsense. God created us with the ability to have wants and needs and while we are certainly not to ruled by these we are also not persons without them. And if God created us like this God is very able to relate to us with all those things intact. Indeed, in a most glorious way God desires us to become persons, to be the ‘me’ we were made to be!