"You must love yourself. The most important love you can have is love for yourself," according to a message given to our students today by Dr. Lonise Bias, who has made a career out of recovering from the death of her son, Len, a basketball player who took cocaine in 1986 after being drafted by the Celtics.
I am not judging this woman. I have never lost a son. I hope I never do. But it seems to me that Dr. Bias is responding to feeling guilty about the way she raised her boy and that she is attempting to atone for this by charging PTAs and taxpayers $5000 per session to bring a message of hope and self-respect to students.
I have no issue with the good doctor's zeal, but her message gets the cart before the horse. Of course we, who are made in the image of God, are lovable, but only because we are made in the image of God; there's nothing in and of ourselves that is intrinsically good. All that we have is from God and it is possible that we ourselves only if we understanding that the good we love is a gift of God. We are unworthy. In addition, if we choose to take mind-altering drugs we are even less worthy of our own love. I'm sorry Len Bias died of a drug overdose, but a lack of self-love wasn't his problem. Of course, at only $5000, she couldn't be bothered to go into all of this.
This wouldn't be bad if she used Dr. Scott Peck's definition of love: the willingness to work or endure suffering for the sake of spiritual growth.
Right - but she kept repeating that we "are fearfully and wonderfully made" (which is true), but never followed that up with its logical conclusion. Very Protestant: only half of the truth.