AFT, I agree with your assessment.  Here are two interesting principles that have to do with Christian self-identity and human values.  1. "Who we are is what we do with what we have".  2. "Always and everywhere and without exception, people are more important than things".  In our human frailty, these concepts are difficult to accommodate, but well worth the try.  I am 70 years old and have personally encountered only a handful of people who seem to have incorporated these principles into their lives and I must admit that as much as I have struggled to do so I have not yet succeeded.  I have discovered though, that love, compassion and kindness are like yeast in that a very small amount can affect the whole rest of the batch and raise it up beyond all expectations.  This idea calms my dispirit and brings me hope that I can change and if I can change myself, maybe I can become some of the yeast for the rest of the batch.