There is a lot of talk these days about being one's "authentic self." The tenor of the messages coming through social media call for individuals to become advocates of one's own "personal truth" through a process that involves stripping away the layers of false preconceptions and faulty societal judgements that one accumulates over the years.
In short, this faddish call to action is presented as self cleansing and self care.
But as with any prescribed process for reorganization of mental constructs, the motives and beliefs of those prescribing this probing course of action ought to be called into question and closely examined before entering into it.
What is to be left behind after this process is supposed to be the real you, which you are told is "good enough" no matter what you think you've found.
The appeal of this message is obvious for people who believe in relativistic moralism; however, despite its viral adoption by masses of impressionable minds—minds eager to shed the iniquities of the previous generation's perceived inequities—the message is ultimately a psychological pathogen poised to destroy the concept of a Christ.
Products of this postmodern preoccupation include many colorful new terms for people to describe their new reality: Ze/Hir, two-spirit, third gender, etc., and if your preferred terminology does not yet exist in these shifting sands of superlative subjectivity, merely wait 5 minutes for it to show up.
Besides unpinning societal mores necessary for the stable continuation of civilization, the greatest wickedness silently perpetrated by this social contagion is the notion that, whatever you believe yourself to be, that version of yourself is all you need to be.
This is only a good message in a universe without a highest good. Such is the incompatibility of Christ with this individual reality.
Consider the following realities taught by Christ in his gospel:
"All have sinned, and come short of the glory of God" (Rom. 3:23).
"The natural man is an enemy to God, and has been from the fall of Adam, and will be, forever and ever, unless he yields to the enticings of the Holy Spirit, and putteth off the natural man and becometh a saint through the atonement of Christ the Lord, and becometh as a child, submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love, willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon him, even as a child doth submit to his father" (Mosiah 3:19).
"Wherefore, if ye have sought to do wickedly in the days of your probation, then ye are found unclean before the judgment-seat of God; and no unclean thing can dwell with God; wherefore, ye must be cast off forever" (1 Ne. 10:20).
Though it is the potential for each human being, as a child of God, to put off 'the natural man' and become 'a saint through the atonement of Christ the Lord,' this is not the automatic state of any person. No one arrives at a blameless state by thought alone. We 'all have sinned and come short of the glory of God' and no amount of self care can ever result in cleanliness before God. He has given us his Son to purify us if we will turn our thoughts not to ourselves, but to him. After all, even Christ recognized the futile myopia of self will when he lived:
"Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature?" (Matt. 6:27).
"[Jesus] kneeled down, and prayed, Saying, Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done" (Luke 22:41 – 42, emphasis added).
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