Legalism

Toxic Characteristic #8

Rules are distortion of God’s intent and leave Him out of the relationship. When religious addicts create a toxic-faith system, they lose God in the process. In God’s place, they implement rules that serve only to further the empire of religious addiction. As new recruits enter the toxic-faith system, they are indoctrinated into the rules rather than strengthened in a relationship with God. The rules reinforce addiction, not faith. Addiction leads to conformity to a predictable pattern of behaviour, often blocking any faithful following of God.

One toxic-faith system takes great pains to ensure that dress and hair styles conform to antiquated beliefs about what is becoming to God. All group members dress the same, wear their hair the same and look the same. There is no room for individuality. Parents squelch an adolescent’s desire to find uniqueness and develop a separate personhood. Conformity is paramount. So little room for individuality exists that the kids rebel by the droves. When they do, they are considered outcasts and of little importance compared to the few who are willing to stay inside the system, follow the rules, and reproduce the addiction structure.

Some toxic-faith systems place less value on appearance than on behaviour. They believe their rules accurately interpret God’s standards, and they expect others who participate to adhere to the rules. Such faith systems are based on ‘don’t’s” rather than a faith centered on God. What one does is valued more than who one is. Because many young people never discover who they are, they develop into robotic duplicates who believe life is found in the implementation of rules.

It is hard for these toxic-faith practitioners to realize that Christ rejected the rigid, legalistic religious system of His day. He would pick grain on the Sabbath if it meant meeting a need. When the rules said not to heal, He healed anyway if it would bring a person closer to God.

Faith always has always been more than a list of dos and don’ts. Standards make up only one part of faith when they become the main focus, faith grows rigid and legalistic.



(From Toxic Faith, Chapter 6)