Teen Mania Documentary out

There is a new documentary out on Teen Mania and the Honor Academy with some absolutely horrifying pictures of ESOAL, the indoctrination program that the Honor Academy uses. I urge you to watch it. For non-evangelicals or people not familiar with Teen Mania\Battlecry, here are a few of the things that Ron Luce believes:

He believes in a concept called virtue terrorism: "Just like Al-Qaeda, virtue terrorists have a detailed plan for your life. They use their technology and marketing to create a culture of destruction, custom-made for your generation”

He has, in propaganda videos, literally shown the opponents of Christianity as being Nazis.

He believes that within a generation only 4% of the population will be evangelical Christians.

For information on this movement see 2006-2007 Battlecry and Acquire the Fire Promo DVD. 2006; DVD, Luce, Ron and Mike Guzzardo.Battlecry for my Generation: The fight to save our friends. Colorado Springs: Nextgen, 2006. Et. al; Sharlet interview.

The other information comes from resources that are no longer readily available.

Progress on Book

Hey guys, I just wanted to update you on the progress of my second book (the one on evangelicalism and mental illness). Currently, I have accumulated about 400 notes for the book, and I haven't even touched Jay Adams's most significant works, the Journal of Biblical Counseling, any integrationist works, Thomas Szasz, half of the deliverance manuals I believe will be helpful, theophostic counseling, and a few other important works\subjects yet (I of course have already read in most of these fields, just not in a while). I'm looking for people's suggestions on how to gather testimonials on biblical counseling or deliverance ministries, either pro or negative. Right now, the testimonies are slanted positive, because I've primarily read biblical counselors and deliverance ministers who promote their methodologies and don't talk about any negative cases (to be fair, Christian psychologists would do the same thing in all likelihood). If you have any suggestions, I'd really appreciate them. Like I've said, however, this book getting published really depends on my first work getting accepted.

Working on New Book about Evangelicalism and Mental Illness

Hey guys, today I started the process of ordering texts for what I hope will be my second book. My first book is with a publisher for consideration. I don't know right now if it will be published, though my guess is there is a fair chance. My second book is going to deal with evangelicalism and mental illness (the first deal with evangelicalism and literature). I plan to write chapters on theophostic prayer ministries, deliverance ministries, biblical counseling, Mercy Ministries, perhaps a chapter on integrationism, perhaps something on scrupolisity, a section on SRA, etc. If there's anything else you'd like to suggest I write on, please let me know. If I get the first book published, there's a pretty good chance I can get the second one published as well, so cross your fingers. Thanks.

Freedom Village Survivors, please contact me immediately!

Dear Freedom Village survivors,
If you see this in the next few days, please contact me immediately. There's a reporter interested in investigating the ministry, and he needs to hear your stories. Thank you so much in advance for your courage in coming forward. Take care.

Best wishes,
John

john_weaver8@msn.com

Updates on Mental Illness Class, Writing

Hi everyone. Only can occasionally get to this blog now, there's just too much to do. My Mental Illness and Literature class is going fairly well. There's a wide divergence of opinion in the class about the reality of mental illness, which is o.k. by me, though it sometimes shocks some of my students who haven't been exposed to the anti-psychiatry movement. While I wish students could be a little bit more enlightened about the need for medication in certain instances, I want to respect their viewpoint.
In terms of publishing, I am currently working to change my dissertation into a book. I'm hoping that if I'm able to do this, I will be able to publish other academic titles in the future, particularly on evangelicalism and mental illness. It is for this reason that I've largely been silent lately. I'm trying to make this book into a reality. Anyway, I always appreciate your thoughts and prayers. God bless.

John

Sorry for no posting lately

Guys, I just wanted to apologize for my lack of posting lately. I'm having major health issues right now because of one of my meds (the other two work pretty well). About the most interesting news I have to report is that I had to replace Clans of the Alphane Moon with Clockwork Orange for my Mental Illness and Literature course. I'm going to be talking a lot about the Ludivico treatment I guess, though I'm nervous about assigning such a challenging novel to my students. Clockwork's language and content make it a controversial work to assign, even in college. Oh well, here goes.
I'll try to post more in the school year, though I can't promise. Take care.

Gay Marriage in New York State

A little off topic, but I wanted to comment on the emergence of gay marriage in New York state. I am very excited that my LGBT friends will finally be able to marry. I had hoped that they would have gained those rights in Governor Patterson's turn at the helm, but it fell to Governor Cuomo to make that happen.
The growing visibility and acceptance of LGBT people in mainstream American culture gives me hope that someday, perhaps, the mentally ill will also gain such acceptance. Though we have not received the same mark of societal approval that gays have received, the growing openness of mentally ill people and their allies, graphically illustrated in Glenn Close's recent adds against stigma, perhaps speaks to a societal willingness to finally confront this issue.