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,” this prideful self picture insists: ‘The good must be done through me. I must be the center of attention.’ (Ibid. P. 41)
“Durwin was eventually handicapped almost completely by members of the administration of his congregation who would not allow any progress unless they could take credit for it; hence the strife and rivalry continuously. This is not to say that people should not feel good about helping others or doing church work. Durwin always, and without fail, encouraged others to do things their own way in church activities, provided it was within the bounds of church polity. It had always been the policy of Durwin to encourage the laity to use their own creativity in church activities and administration. The problem Durwin had was when the belittlers blocked him at every turn from doing his ministry his way and using his creativity. If the church was going to improve and grow, it had to be by their hand, and not Durwin’s, not any part of it.”
“There is one other book I would bring to your attention before we go on with the sad story of the Lawtons. That book is simply the Dictionary. As you no doubt already know, the dictionary has two different meanings for the word pride:
‘1. An undue sense of one’s own superiority; arrogance, conceit.
2. A proper sense of personal dignity and worth.’ (Funk & Wagnalls Standard Desk Dictionary. New York, 1975).
“‘Pride’ and ‘proud’ are very commonly used words today, especially in Terraprima where it is quite acceptable and the thing to do, to say one is proud of oneself or of someone or something else. To take pride in something worthwhile is considered good decorum. This corresponds with the meaning, ‘A proper sense of personal dignity and worth.’ That is good. But people who keep up an undisciplined, false, or empty pride by belittling others are establishing that ‘undue sense of one’s own superiority.’ A person cannot be superior to another if he has to put that other person down in order to feel superior. That would be false, empty, improperly developed pride.
“Now this false, empty, or undisciplined pride, as I will refer to it in future story telling, is wayward pride, established upon ‘an undue sense of one’s own superiority.’ It is conceited and often arrogant, as is stated in the first dictionary meaning I quoted. Being proud this way is a false, undisciplined, hollow pride, and it is easily pricked.
“Belittlers, as much as pride is a part of their life, are not willing to share in the pride of another, especially when they perceive that other person to be a cut above them. Going further afield, they are not willing to recognize that other peoples and other countries have their reasons to feel proud, and that we should at times acknowledge that some of their accomplishments may be greater than ours. Belittlers are wanting, not just sometimes, not even most of the time, but always, to be first and out front, which is not so and cannot be. They are not willing to let others have the credit that is due them, but wanting it all for oneself or one’s own country. People like these, although a minority, are the ones who have caused people, even in the well developed and generally friendly parts of the world to cry out to Americans, ‘Yankee go home, Yankee go home, we don’t like you.’ It doesn’t have to be that way. It can easily be corrected by omitting the belittling and giving credit where credit is due.
“Of course there are the less friendly and usually less developed countries that have a more harsh envy and hatred for the United States that cannot be corrected in such a peaceful manner. It is of a different strain, intermingled with much evil and ignorance and/or a different philosophy of life, and often a grave disregard for civilization as most of the world knows it. This kind of envy and hatred responds only to strict curtailment and strong discipline.
“But as for the first mentioned kind, belittlers in the media have been among the foremost of those who cause this reaction in various parts of the world. For example, they do a write up on another land. The first mistake they make is they compare it to the better parts of America; or worse still, compare a rural part of it to a very large and progressive city in which they themselves perhaps live, instead of seeing that land for what it is in itself. From there they concentrate on the down side of that land, barely or not at all mentioning its better side. Their pride and envy won’t allow them to mention anything in it that may be better than anything in the United States of America.
“I have seen write ups, with pictures, of other lands which would give you the impression that there is absolutely nothing good at all about that country. But having either lived or visited extensively in that land
