The RASN’s Agenda Must be Everyone’s Agenda

If anyone teaches a different doctrine and does not agree with the sound words of our Lord Jesus Christ and the teaching that accords with godliness, he is puffed up with conceit and understands nothing. He has an unhealthy craving for controversy and for quarrels about words, which produce envy, dissension, slander, evil suspicions, and constant friction among people who are depraved in mind and deprived of the truth, imagining that godliness is a means of gain. (1 Timothy 6:3-5)

We know that RASNs (revilers, abusers, sociopaths, narcissists) are driven by their mindset of exaggerated importance. They MUST be the most important being on the planet, and everyone else only exists to feed that fantasy.

One fairly common example of this self-exalting demand is when the RASN insists that whatever HIS focus is on, whatever issue HE deems to be essential, be embraced by everyone else. I have seen this played out many times.

For instance, a Godly man I knew years ago was employed by a member of our church (no longer a member, thankfully). One day this first fellow said to me “you know, whatever thing my boss deems to be important on a given day, MUST be regarded as the ‘drop everything else and focus on this’ mission that day.” Now, that may initially sound reasonable, but in this case the “boss” was a fool. Instead of focusing on things that really needed to be done, routine, daily things that obviously had to be taken care of regularly, this employer pushed senseless duties upon everyone else. Why? Because he insisted upon being the center. And that meant that everyone else had to pull themselves off of important things and give themselves to some stupid task.

Another example in my experience was when a man showed up at our church one Sunday. He was dressed immaculately – unusually so. He gave a bit of his background, telling us all what a fine Christian he was, and claiming to have been closely connected with a professional, NBA basketball team. That week immediately following the Sunday service, he sent me an email full of flattery, asking that I meet with him that week to discuss theological issues. I responded by telling him that the way I minister to people is for them to come on Sundays regularly and to plug into my online teaching studies. His response? “Well, I can see that you don’t have time for someone like me.” I rebuked him and told him to stop his guilt-tripping manipulative tactics. He never came back.

I looked into this fellow’s past church experiences and things grew even more suspect. NO ONE at his two prior churches was willing to talk to me about him. One pastor said “we do not discuss that man with anyone.” It was almost as if the pastor was fearful?? Something very dark and hidden characterized this RASN.

I am always suspect when a new person visits our church and immediately begins to crave special attention, or offer critiques of sermons or introduce subjects which they insist everyone else show an interest in. But this is what RASNs do. They have no respect for boundaries. They insist that they be granted rights and privileges and trust that are only gained over time by evidencing oneself as trustworthy. And if our response to them is to refuse to embrace their priority issues, the fangs will come out.

Without doubt victims of domestic abusers know exactly what I am speaking of. They have lived this. Their abuser refused to let them be a person, having their own interests and goals. No. Everyone is to get on board with the RASN’s issues. Never mind that those issues will change almost daily, creating chaos and frustration.

These are the kind of people that Paul warned Timothy about in the scripture quoted above.

…he is puffed up with conceit and understands nothing. He has an unhealthy craving for controversy and for quarrels about words, which produce envy, dissension, slander, evil suspicions, and constant friction among people…