authority problem

 

authority problem

Conventional: Our problem with other people wielding authority over us, stemming from our desire for self-determination.

ACIM: Our problem with the fact that God is our Author, and our attempt to author ourselves, to usurp God’s power, throne, place or function. This attempt, which we believed seriously attacked or killed God, is the hidden source of all guilt. In the separation, we rejected His role as Creator and tried to be creator in His stead. We tried to create our own self and even to create God (see CE T-21.II.10:4). However, we only succeeded in making a self-image, the ego. Now we believe we can change ourselves (a form of creating ourselves) by modifying our image. A conventional authority problem results from projecting this belief (in self-creation) onto another person, which leads us to fear that he or she can take our function of self-creation away from us and can exercise creative power over us, can modify us against our will. All of this, though, is illusion. Since we did not author ourselves we have no power over what we are, nor do others. We have not usurped God’s power and have no cause for guilt (see “I am as God created me”). See CE T-4.II.1-2, CE T-3.X.8-9:5, CE T-11.I.2.