By Steve Cornell
In twenty-three years of pastoral ministry, I have repeatedly been amazed by the human capacity to live in denial of damaging and hurtful behavior. Alcoholics, drug addicts, sex offenders, abusive husbands - all are masters of deception and dupes of their own making.  It is not surprising that Scripture repeatedly warns against the dangers of self-deception (Jeremiah 17:9;Galatians 6:7; Ephesians 5:6:James 1:22).
Self-deception is an ugly mixture of corrupted consciousness and willful ignorance. It is "…a shadowy phenomenon by which we pull the wool over some part of our own psyche. We put a move on ourselves. We deny, suppress, or minimize what we know to be true. We assert, adorn, and elevate what we know to be false. We prettify ugly realities and sell ourselves the prettified versions. We become our own dupes, playing the role of both perpetrator and victim. We know the truth, and yet we do not know it, because we persuade ourselves of its opposite" (Cornelius Plantinga, Jr., Not the Way It's Supposed to Be).
Self-deception is expressed in many ways, some less harmful than others. If I convince myself that I am a great cook or believe that I have a better golf game than I do, it is not as perilous as the alcoholic who doesn't believe he has a drinking problem or the gambler who refuses to admit his addiction. We all have blind spots, but when inaccurate self-perception is self-damaging and hurtful to others, it's time for a reality check.
But self-deception is not limited to alcoholics and gamblers. "There are few moments more ripe for self-deception," wrote Stephen Crites, "than those in which people are puffing and straining to be religious." This is because "…religious beliefs and practices may mutate into a self-serving substitute for the service of God. People start to use their religion to get rich or to get happy or to feel good about themselves. They use it to build a power base or simply to secure and enrich a middle-class life" (Plantinga).
A well-known example of religious deception is found in the Pharisees of Jesus' day. Repeatedly, Jesus exposed their deception. On one occasion, he confronted them, saying, "…on the outside you appear to people as righteous, but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness" (Matthew 23:28).
There are a variety of forms of religious self-deception. A prominent example is found in the ways people choose to understand God. When people fashion God in less threatening forms than he reveals Himself to be, they deceive themselves. This deception is encouraged from high places. Countless pastors and priests stand in pulpits each week to present a God of love and compassion, while intentionally avoiding divine attributes of justice and wrath. Others have created a "politically correct God who cares much more for the lives of seals and snail darters than for the lives of unborn children" (Plantinga).
Willful ignorance of God's ways is deceitful idolatry. The apostle Paul warned about those who "suppress the truth about God" (Romans 1:18) in order to accommodate immoral lifestyles. God's wrath is reserved for those who distort the truth about his character.
Another form of self-deception is discovered in twisted versions of sin. Traditionally recognized sins are now popular and no longer considered worthy of condemnation. A new list of really bad sins has been created by cultural pundits. They include ecological grievances, homophobic opinions, pollution by cigarette smoke, anti-egalitarianism, right wing associations- these are the unacceptable sins! The curious addition to this list is a required tolerance toward anything currently approved by the pundits. Here is deep deception: Intolerance is demanded toward non-fashionable sins and tolerance is equally required toward the culturally unacceptable sins. But deception about sin is perilous.
"Self-deception about our sin is a narcotic, a tranquilizing and disorienting suppression of our spiritual central nervous system. What's devastating about it is that when we lack an ear for wrong notes in our lives, we cannot play right ones or even recognize them in the performance of others. Eventually we make ourselves religiously so unmusical that we miss both the exposition and the recapitulation of the main themes God plans in human life. The music of creation and the still greater music of grace whistle right through our skulls, causing no catch of breath and leaving no residue. Moral beauty begins to bore us. The idea that the human race needs a Savior sounds quaint" (Plantinga).
Whether deception is about behavior, the nature of God, or sin, it tells us something deeper about human nature. "…the phenomena of self-deception testifies that we human beings, even when we do evil, are incorrigibly sold on goodness. At some level of our being, we know that goodness is as plausible and original as God, and that, in the history of the human race, goodness is older than sin" (Plantinga).
Steve Cornell
http://thinkpoint.wordpress.com/