Wearing Shame
As Scripture says, “Anyone who believes in him will never be put to shame.” (Romans 10:11 NIV) “What is shame? You are: different rejected exposed contaminated” -Edward T. Welch in Shame Interrupted. In western Christianity, there is a tremendous emphasis on dealing with guilt. Guilt is that feeling or understanding that you have done something wrong or trangressed a particular standard. Guilt is associated with something one does, or sometimes something that one does not do. Guilt is a universal emotion that is culturally defined. Culturally defined because the standards that produce guilt are defined and re-enforced by one's community. However, shame is a much more insidious and opppressive emotion. While guilt may speak "I have messed up"; shame screams "I am a mess". Guilt may impair our actions and outlook, but shame distorts and perverts our identities. Guilt is often related to shame in that shame may result in our pathological ways of dealing with