Shame Through the Years

This chapter starts with :
What is Shame?
You are different
rejected
exposed
contaminated.

Then Welch goes on to show that shame is nothing new in this world, quoting a book by Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Scarlet Letter.  In this book a woman must wear the letter A as punishment for her adultery, and even though the man involved did not have to publicly wear the letter he had privately etched the letter on his own chest.  Most of us will notice a little bit of shame in our lives but some have reminders every day.  The point of Welch's book is help you so that all shame is gone, whether private or public.

In earlier days when someone broke the law they stood in either stocks, where your feet were locked in yet your hands were free to defend yourself from things thrown at you, or a pillory where arms and head were locked in so you were totally defenseless.  The good thing about either of the above is that when you were free, it was like a public announcement that you were now socially acceptable.

Shame is still the the main ingredient of punishments today, giving the punisher power, and the victim often tries to make sense of it by believing they got what they deserved.  This is the most powerful lie that the devil wants us to believe so we must be very aware and ALWAYS  assume that shame accumulates lies!!!!

Can we identify the scarlet A that we wear, either publicly or privately?  What is that like?  Can we begin to identify some of the lies that are attached to our shame?