The Christ Test

Are you crazy if think you are Christ?

    
    In Western society if someone claims to be Christ they are is just as likely to find themselves in psychiatric care as in a position of spiritual leadership. Indeed, anyone who claims to be God can be qualified as crazy since a normal healthy person needs to have a grounded sense of self-identity as a person, and not a deity. In a society that measures the tangibility of an individual by their ability to work, raise a family and contribute to the community, just being an ascetic or mystic can be interpreted as a symptom of a mental impairment. Even if this judgment is overcome, then a modern Christ must battle the stigma of being a cult leader.
    
    In contrast, Sufism and some other eastern religions teach that spiritually enlightened individuals identify themselves as an aspect of God and loose at least some of their sense of self-identity. This provides a more subtle distinction between those that are subject to psychiatric care and those who are God realized. A loss of self or continual spiritual focus can be negatively received in a highly competitive, self-engrossed society like our own. This contradiction might prevent the contemporary Christ from being accepted or even survive in the West, and almost necessitates The Messiah to appear in a spiritually accepting nation, like India, where it is not as socially unacceptable to claim enlightenment.
    
    Finally, Jesus was born in the Middle East, and it may be that the new Christ will be found in that area of the world. While I do not believe that these points are a strong argument for anyone on particular being the new Christ, it does provide some good reasons why The Messiah may not return in the West.

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