‘It includes those sins such as hate, intolerance, jealousy and prejudice, which are the result of my self-love seeking to keep an exalted place among my fellows and therefore unable to bear excellence or superiority on the part of others. The sin of envy also is seen to include the sins which result from my attempt to lower those who have risen above me to my own level; namely, slander, gossip, and sarcasm - the tools I use to get even.’ (Lance Webb: CONQUERING THE SEVEN DEADLY SINS. P.58 Abingdon Press 1955.)
“I wish to add though,” said Collin, “that the belittlers are often much more subtle than Webb states. They are crafty enough to avoid open slander, gossip and sarcasm. They often play the psychological mind-game and imply it. Some belittlers will even be outwardly nice to you while attempting through deception to lead you to destruction. Beware of the person who, while seeming to be nice to you outwardly- nice smiles, cheerful greetings, and all that-is attempting to lead you in questionable directions, perhaps by innuendo only. They are expert con artists at times. These are mind- games belittlers play-childish, to be sure, on their part-but it becomes a destructive weapon to victims who may not have sufficient awareness of it to discern what is happening to them.
“They mutilate the character and sometimes the mental health of their victims by derogatory hint and innuendo, or even by glance or other silent expression, all of which can be craftily covered when necessary, since they have stated nothing openly. If what they are doing is ever held up to them they can readily cover up and say they never said a word. Sometimes they imply that that person is never satisfied with what I try to do for him. I was just trying to be a friend. If they are openly accused of trickery, they can easily say, ‘you took it all wrong,’ or, ‘you are imagining things,’ or worse still, ‘you are nuts -paranoid.’
“Furthermore, a belittler is never bothered by others suspecting him of this devious trickery. He thinks it is the smart way to be. To honest, open people it is deceitful and repulsive. But the belittler, as long as he is able to, in his own mind, rationalize and justify himself, he feels his constant ego trip, and consequently his hollow, undisciplined pride, are intact.”
Collin commented further, “Webb has given us reasons why belittlers treat us the way they do; out of envy they have to whittle us down. Also, you can see why, the better the person is in the eyes of the envious ones, the more that person has to put up with the ravages of their envy.”
Continuing, Collin said, “one more very worthy point of Webbs is, I believe, relevant to this story and should be taken note of. Webb states:
‘Intellectual pride is the most difficult of all pride to displace.’ (Lance Webb. CONQUERING THE SEVEN DEADLY SINS, page 48, Abingdon Press 1955).
“I am of the opinion,” said Collin, “that this intellectual pride to which Webb refers is most prevalent in academic circles; among people whose chief pride and ego stems from the fact that they have a measure of attainment in the academic sphere. I will therefore refer to it as academic pride. I would emphasize first and foremost, and very readily that academically is not the only way to be an exceptional person, although many academics with a false sense of pride would have you think so. The world has known many exceptional people who either never had an opportunity, or, didn’t have much interest in pursuing academics to its fullest. This is not to downplay the value of education. I think you will perceive for yourself as I continue, that I realize fully the place of quality education in life.
“Having said that, let me say, the truly educated person is humbled by genuine academic attainment, realizing how much he doesn’t yet know and how much more there is to discover. The proud belittler has to have a feeling of superiority to go with his academic attainments, and often he has to put less educated people, or even more highly educated well charactered people, beneath him in order to, in his own mind, retain his sense of superiority.
“An amusing anecdote that has been passed around for years is ‘a person, through his education and position in life, either grows or swells, one or the other.’ The truly educated person, with his mind humbled and therefore open to a vast world of continuing knowledge, will grow to further spheres of personal development and attainments. The proud, egotistical belittler will continue to swell in hollow, undisciplined pride and a false sense of superiority. He will hold on to this sense of superiority not by further maturing growth, but by belittling and/or getting rid of any persons around him whom he perceives to be a threat to that sense of superiority.
“Actually, there is another difference between types of well educated people. There are those who, as they read, hear and absorb, also think through things for themselves, and formulate their own conclusions on the topics at hand. These people may or may not get top grades. If they do, they have a wonderful combination of learning, thinking through, assimilating, and truly taking to oneself the ingredients present for personal growth.
“In contrast to this, there is the other type; those who read, listen, absorb, and retain all the knowledge imparted to them. They have perhaps excellent absorption and retention abilities. Consequently, they get high grades, some very high, perhaps even higher than many in the aforementioned group. However, they develop little or no thinking ability along the way, only the retention of facts. A colloquial saying sums it up: ‘They couldn’t think their way out of a wet paper bag!’
“Belittlers in this category are the worst kind. They envy others, particularly those with less formal education than they, who have the ability to think through old problems and resolve them, or come up with new ideas. The belittlers have learned mainly by rote and memory retention. When they can look up the solution to a problem in a book, they shine. To come up with an original solution or idea is for the most part beyond them. Therefore, out of undisciplined pride and envy, many of them become the most vicious of those who practice belittling.”
“I am of the opinion,” said Collin, “that academic pride accounts for the major portion of Durwin Lawton’s belittlement coming from many but not all of the teachers in his congregation and many of the other ministers he tried to work with in the greater church. These are the people educated to do the educating. When their undisciplined pride and false sense of superiority is in the way, fine, smart people in particular are at risk when either intentionally or unintentionally we teach them something they didn’t know before about the church and its functioning. They believe that they are all right as they are, and have built up a great deal of undisciplined pride on that belief. Later I will illustrate some of their reactions towards exceptional people like the Lawtons who unintentionally upset that pride by performing a very effective ministry that didn’t fit the preconceived and familiar ideas of the belittlers’ own choosing.
“Belittlers, both in the local church and the wider church have their field day with exceptional ministers, or members, whom they want out of the way. This destructive vice is more skillfully developed in the church denomination in which Durwin Lawton was involved in Terraprima, than anywhere else I have ever heard of or experienced. This will be further illustrated in the continuing story of Durwin Lawton and his wife Canda. I wish to add also, that such mind-games are frequently utilized by belittling teachers in schools, where young students are at their mercy; also it is a widespread disease in industry and business, where in many cases owners and/or management do not know what is going wrong with their business. These things will also be illustrated as my story of the Lawtons in Terraprima continues.
“Webb further states:
‘Even among sincere religious persons who want to “help others” and “do a great deal of good,”