God: "I looked for someone to take a stand for me, and stand in the gap" (Ezekiel 22:30)
Up until the 20th century, traditional cultures (and this is still true of most cultures in the world) always believed that too high a view of yourself was the root cause of all the evil in the world... Our belief today – and it in deeply rooted in everything – is that people misbehave for lack of self-esteem and because they have too low a view of themselves.
The glum, sour faces of many Christians. They rather give the impression that, instead of coming from the Father's joyful banquet, they have just come from the Sheriff who has auctioned off their sins and now are sorry they can't get them back again.
