We do not burn people at the stake any more. But how far removed are we from that Dark Ages ritual when we tear families apart through the misuse of disfellowshiping by misapplying scriptures such as 1 Corinthians 5:11 and 2 John 9-11? With that thought in mind, please consider the following:
In her book, The Sociopath Next Door, Dr. Martha Stout’s working definition of a sociopath is one completely devoid of conscience. She refers to the conscience as the seventh sense. Under the subheading ‘Moral Exclusion,’ Dr. Stout suggests that whenever someone is excluded from our moral universe, ”interventions of conscience no longer apply to him. He is not human. He is an it. And unfortunately, this transformation of a [person] into an it makes him scarier as well.
“Sometimes people appear to deserve our moral exclusion. . . But in most cases, our tendency to reduce people to non-beings is neither considered nor conscious, and throughout history our proclivity to dehumanize has too often been turned against the essentially innocent. The list of out groups that some portion of humankind has at one time or another demoted to the status of hardly even human is extremely long.
“And once the other group has become populated by its, anything goes, especially if someone in authority gives the order. Conscience is no longer necessary, because conscience binds us to other beings and not to its. Conscience still exists, may even be very exacting, but it applies only to my countrymen, my friends, and my children, not yours. You may be excluded from my moral universe, and with impunity—and maybe even praise from others in my group—I can now drive you from your home, or shoot your family, or burn you alive.”
Under the subheading ‘The Emperor’s New Clothes,’ Dr. Stout continues: “When conscience falls into a profound trance, when it sleeps through acts of torture, war, and genocide, political leaders and other prominent individuals can make the difference between a gradual awakening of our seventh sense and a continued amoral nightmare. History teaches that attitudes and plans coming from the top dealing pragmatically with problems of hardship and insecurity in the group, rather than scapegoating an out group, can help us return to a more realistic view of the “others.” In time, moral leadership can make a difference. But history shows us also that a leader with no seventh sense can hypnotize the group conscience still further, redoubling catastrophe. Using fear-based propaganda to amplify a destructive ideology, such a leader can bring the members of a frightened society to see the its as the sole impediment to the good life, for themselves and maybe even for humanity as a whole, and the conflict as an epic battle between good and evil. Once these beliefs have been disseminated, crushing the its without pity or conscience can, with chilling ease, become an incontrovertible mandate.”