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Here’s an action photo that I snapped this summer.

It’s from a Würzburg t-shirt shop from my family trip to Germany back in July.  What to make of this specimen?

This t-shirt was pulled from a rack of snarky graphic tees that seemed to juxtapose some irreverent humor with a dash of prevailing wisdom of the moment.

So, the “Self Love Club.”  I could be off base here, or overinterpreting things––my kids regularly accuse me of both––but my take on this tee is that while on one hand such a slogan is designed to come across as a bit cheeky, on the other hand, to wear a shirt like this is to project a message that’s considered empowering and brave.

Don’t freak out on me: I’m not advocating for self-hatred.  Nevertheless, two quick observations from me.  For one, it’s only recently in the late modern West that self-love would be considered a prime virtue.  Previous generations and other cultures would have considered the elevation of self love to be rather selfish.  Only in our current moment would the Self Love Club sound like a great idea.

But not us!  If being a good person has become virtually synonymous with being true to one’s self, then we should all be members of the Self Love Club.

Which leads me to my second observation, which I’ll make by way of a question: are we sure that what the world needs right is more self love?  Seems like a bad idea to me.

It’s notable to me that when Jesus was enunciating his take on the greatest virtues, self love wasn’t on the list.  Instead, it was love God (#1) and love people (#2).  

Biblically speaking, would it be fair to add that loving people should be #3?  Maybe not, insofar as a scriptural view of sin holds that we’re born with an inward, selfish bent.  As a result, all too often it’s the case that the more I love myself, the less I’m able to love God and other people.  As opposed to forever chasing after greater self love, the Bible encourages us to practice self forgetfulness instead.

Let’s hold off on wearing the Self Love Club tees.

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