Christianity is the defence against the culture of perfection

The mental health of European youths is deteriorating. A clear and worrying example of this crisis can be seen in the Scandinavian country of Denmark. My country always seems to be at the top of the most desirable statistics when it comes to life expectancy, corruption, wealth, and overall happiness. Yet, there is a clear and worrying sign.

The levels of depression, anxiety, stress, and overall feelings of meaninglessness are at an all-time high among the youth. The suicide rate is soaring, more and more young girls are resorting to self-harm, and the use of antidepressants in my country is very high.

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Clearly, there is something amiss in our rich and modern country. One of the most discussed reasons for our youths' poor mental health is attributed to the “culture of perfectionism”. Young people compare themselves to everyone around them, both physically and digitally, leading them to set unattainable standards for themselves and their lives.

Standards

The manipulated world of social media, combined with the extensive use of performance-enhancing drugs, cosmetic surgery, and makeup, all created for the purpose of hiding one’s true self and fixing imperfections, creates standards that no one can achieve. When we fail to meet these excessive demands for a perfect life, we are left with a sense of meaninglessness and depression.

Perfectionism has become an ever-more popular subject for Danish politicians. The government has proposed many different so-called solutions to our crisis, but these have resulted in nothing more than restricting or even banning social media. So, before politicians throw around fancy ideas, they should think carefully. For if we simply contain the issue of perfectionism to social media, we are missing a larger and more fundamental issue in modern society.

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Perfectionism is nothing new. Pictures, paintings, and films have always had a degree of manipulation, long before social media.

With makeup, training, and surgery, we have long tried to manipulate and obscure reality and nature. The cult of materialism has always sought to improve even minor flaws in humans for profit. If I envy another person's wealth, beauty, or popularity, I will buy products that help me to be perfect. Perfectionism is utopian and a lie. The manipulation is ever-present, and the issue is that we don’t have the necessary tools to recognise that reality is manipulated, and perfection is unattainable.

Values

The problem is fundamental. It stems from our lack of essential values and eternal truths. These values and eternal truths come from Christianity and have been diluted in secular Danish society

What Christianity teaches us is that no mortal man is perfect. In fact, the central message is that no human being can achieve perfection on their own. We are all imperfect people in an imperfect world.

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We are all sinners in nature and practice, and we all stumble on our way to heaven. That is why we need God's forgiveness. In fact, the forgiveness and love from Christ are the sole ways to eternal life.

Instead of measuring your life against others, be grateful for your life and humble about your God-given gifts. Your beauty, wealth, or sum of good fortunes do not define Christ's love for you. We should cease the excessive comparison to others. We are not the same people; we were created differently, for different purposes and different lives. Christianity, in that sense, is the greatest boost of confidence a human can receive.

Secular society

Sadly, this confidence has been eroded in secular society. In Denmark we are losing our Christian values with the increasing popularity of atheism. Instead of confidence and acceptance, our youth is increasingly affected by standards of perfectionism and ideas about moldability of society.

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We have become imagined sculptures who can erase every perceived flaw. As a non-believer, you can become anything you want. Are you unhappy with your appearance? Then you can fill yourself with Botox and buy expensive clothes. You can change your gender, modify your body any way you want, and wealth and success are not a matter of luck or fortune, but of your own efforts. For many, the pursuit of perfection has become synonymous with happiness.

It’s not surprising that we, young people, struggle when the whole contemporary culture of moldability demands the impossible, where your own happiness is held hostage in the search for imagined perfection.

Defensive wall

To me, this much is clear: It is impossible to eliminate the culture of perfection because we will always compare ourselves to others, and people will always seek to manipulate the truth. Instead, we should help to create fundamental values for the youth that can serve as a defensive wall against perfectionism. Those values are: A gratitude for your God-given life and an understanding that perfection is impossible. And those values should be found in the Bible, not on Instagram.

The author, Tobias Frederiksen, is a member of the Conservative Youth in Denmark