Against Biblical Counseling

Teen Mania Documentary out

2011-11-28T06:30:00.000-08:00

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

2011-11-22T03:28:00.000-08:00

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

2011-11-10T09:31:00.001-08:00

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!

2011-10-20T20:40:00.000-07:00

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

2011-09-24T15:01:00.000-07:00

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

2011-08-04T03:09:00.000-07:00

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

2011-06-29T13:27:00.000-07:00

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.

Haven't forgotten the blog

2011-06-07T10:22:00.001-07:00

Just wanted you guys to know I haven't forgotten the blog. I've been busy with my summer class, which requires tons of hours of preparation, as well as a huge opportunity that I'll tell you about in a later post. Hope you all are well. Take care.

Best wishes,
John

Manhattan paper covers Hillsong megachurch

2011-05-28T11:38:00.000-07:00

We got a brief mention about Hillsong's church in New York (I was interviewed for the article). I'm afraid it's not going to do much good, but at least it will make some New Yorkers aware of the church's cultic like influence. I guess that's the best we could hope for.

Mercy Ministries reopening in U.K.

2011-05-24T13:05:00.000-07:00

Hey guys, I'm really sorry I wasn't on top of this. According to news reports, Nancy Alcorn has announced that Mercy Ministries will be re-opening in the U.K. Obviously, this is of great concern to me, though at least in the U.K., Mercy will have to face a very alert press and a thoroughly secular society. Please get the word around, and let me know if there's any British news media outlets that might be interested in hearing another side to the Mercy story. I also got my article published now, so I think I will be seen as a more authortative speaker on this issue than previously. At least that's what I hope. But if survivors speak up, that's of course much better.

His Mansion celebrating 40th anniversary

2011-05-13T16:40:00.000-07:00

His Mansion Ministries is celebrating its 40th anniversary as a ministry. Considering the number of lives ruined by Stan Farmer's "work for the Lord," I can't consider this much of a cause for celebration.
It has now been almost a decade since I was at His Mansion. The wounds I suffered from my time there have not healed. Perhaps they never will. To tell a vulnerable kid that he is cursed by God, that he suffers from the sin of OCD, is an inexcusable action on the part of Mr. Farmer. His ministry left a scar on my faith that has never fully healed. I feel I can't be open with my Christian friends anymore, because I'm afraid they might hurt me. I know that may be stereotyping, and I'm truly sorry for it, but I've learned to be weary of people approaching me with an excess of "good news". I've received too much of such news in my life. I wish I had received more lower cased truth, and less "T"ruth in my life.
The article is slowly crawling up on the internet hits, though I have yet to hear of any reactions to it. If you read it, let me know what you think. Best wishes to all of you.

Article now Up

2011-05-10T10:14:00.000-07:00

My article is now up at The University of Toronto Press, as part of the Journal of Religion and Popular Culture. Please let me know if this link works. This is the article on the biblical counseling movement

Update on article

2011-05-03T05:46:00.000-07:00

There's been a slight delay with the article, but the editor assures me it will soon be coming out. I'll keep you posted as to the release date (I'm hoping it's within the next couple of weeks). In other news, I've been taking a shellacking on some Christian sites about my views on Christian anti-Semitism I guess you can't agree with everybody.

John

His Mansion's latest letter

2011-04-26T07:30:00.000-07:00

His Mansion has released yet another newsletter, letting people know that the patients engage in "petty argument" and feel entitled to anything they want, including "personal right.s" God forbid someone have personal rights. Here's the quote from His Mansion

"One of the greatest challenges facing staff at His Mansion is dealing with all the “petty stuff” that goes on between individuals going through the program. Many of the residents have been raised in a culture of personal rights and entitlement. It is safe to say that the statement that most identifies them is: “My rights are more important than anything else!” In truth, everyone wins when a brother or sister takes the high ground, yielding his or her rights and sense of entitlement. This is especially true in regards to the “petty stuff” when, no matter who prevails, it still won’t affect the next day, let alone, life! It is easy to slip into the erroneous thinking that there are but two people involved in the dispute. There are always at least three!

If you don’t believe and trust that God rewards the righteous and will best manage vengeance, then you will fight your own battle…and will ultimately lose! Residents at His Mansion have the privilege of learning these important lessons in the context of community."

Review of Good Will Hunting

2011-04-19T10:59:00.000-07:00

What a great movie! Matt Damon and Ben Affleck are superb in this picture, with Damon's portrayal of working class male angst at being abused being particularly well done. The movie does not really deal with pharmacological interventions into mental illness and abuse, but considering Damon's affliction in the movie, such intervention would probably have been considered counterproductive in any case. The division between working class and middle class mental health conditions is particularly well drawn in the film. I think this is a great picture that deserves to reach a wide audience, and is well worth the numerous accolades it has received.

Review of Shock Corridor

2011-04-12T12:01:00.000-07:00

Shock Corridor tells the story of a reporter, Johnny Barret, who investigates a murder at a psychiatric institution. As a piece of anti-psychiatric propaganda, it is rather disturbing, as it has all the bells and whistles of shock therapy, straightjackets, and screaming madmen. However, as a piece of underground filmmaking, I must say it is an incredible experience. Shock Corridor, like many Marxist and left wing films after it, sought to define mental illness primarily in terms of its social context. Mentally ill people were constructed so by society, not born. In this sense it was a precursor to the more sophisticated anti-psychiatric critiques found in Laing and Foucault. The scene in which a black man believes he is a member of the KKK is unforgettable, straight out of Schuyler's Black No More. A must see, Shock Corridor is not quite a classic, but more than a historical anachronism.

Suggestions for movies to show in mental illness class?

2011-04-07T04:32:00.000-07:00

I was wondering if anyone had any suggestions about movies to show in my mental illness and literature class? So far, I have quite a few possibilities: Fixing Frank, Good Will Hunting, Shock Corridor, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Psycho, Mad Love, Julien Donkey-Boy. But I need other suggestions? I am looking in particular for movies on OCD and anorexia, as movies on these disorders seem to be fairly rare (at least good ones). There seems to be a fair amount of decent material on schizophrenia and bipolar.

Update on article

2011-04-03T09:25:00.000-07:00

It should only be a week or two now till the article is up online (three weeks at the outside). On other fronts, my mental illness class is coming into shape and I am working on a few other articles on evangelicalism and literature and one on evangelicalism and science (which ties into literature). I'll let you know when the article comes out, and then you can tell me what you think.

The Bell Jar

2011-03-27T03:08:00.000-07:00

Any class that teaches literature and mental illness has to teach Sylvia Plath's The Bell Jar, a classic in the realm of mental illness literature. But though it's a classic, I'm not so sure it's a great classic. To me, Women at the Edge of Time says far more about women's place in society, and their relationship to the psychiatric system, than Plath's classic, though Plath is not quite as anti-psychiatric as Marge Piercy. One thing that does disturb me is the suicidal cultus, the death chic, that surrounds Plath, which basks in her suicide as if it was some great act of liberation. Unlike the suicides of, say, Virginia Woolf or Ernest Hemingway, it is possible that Plath's suicide "made" her reputation, which calls into question her whole body of work. I like Plath, but her writing. with its excessive morbidity and cheap Nazi exploitations, is not in the same league with Woolf and Hemingway. And I am tired of seeing teenage girls killing themselves or harming themselves because of Plath's (or Salinger's) influence.

Woman on the Edge of Time

2011-03-18T18:52:00.000-07:00

I recently read Woman on the Edge of Time, an anti-psychiatric novel from the 1970's. It's a hard read, even though in many ways the work is admirable in spite of its anti-psychiatric rhetoric (occasionally even because of that rhetoric). Written by Marge Piercy, the novel attacks the exploitation of minorities by psychiatrists during the 60's and 70's. Given recent reports about human experimentation on people of color, often mental health patients, I cannot discount Piercy's claims here as merely overblown rhetoric. That being said, at times Woman on the Edge of Time strays into hysterics about psychiatry and mental health labeling. Yes, gays and minorities were exploited by therapists. But many kind therapists have also helped undo the pain these groups have suffered at the hands of white and hetero society. I think it's too simplistic to label mental illness as solely a product of a fearful psychiatric profession, that wants to maintain control. I urge you guys to check Piercy's novel out, however, and make up your own minds.

Note: I hope to conduct a series of book and movie reviews over the coming weeks, as I am immersed currently in materials on mental illness, both for my article and for the class I teach next fall. Hopefully, I'll be posting at an increased rate for a little while.

Biblical Counseling article in Galleys now

2011-03-12T07:24:00.000-08:00

Hey guys, just wanted to let you know my article is in galleys, which means it's basically a done deal now. It should be coming out in April, in the Journal of Religion and Popular Culture. I'll provide you a link to the journal when it comes out.

Heidegger's Personality as Process and Biblical Counseling

2011-03-06T13:28:00.000-08:00

I've been doing research for my class on evangelicalism and mental illness and I've recently been reading some deconstructionist and philosophical critiques of traditional psychiatry. Heidegger's idea on personality was the one I found the most interesting. Essentially, Heidegger argued that we don't have individual personality, but that our personalities are part of a process and never therefore static. On one hand, this at least initially seems to support biblical counseling views that hold that the psychiatry is a faux science, treating a mind that is incapable of getting sick. But Heidegger's ideas, more radically applied, would also question the very foundation on which biblical counselors condemn people. If personality is changing from moment to moment, then what matters is only what the person feels at that moment. Therefore, no I exists to be condemned, and no you exists to condemn. I personally doubt the usefulness of Heidegger in any case, because of his ties with the Nazis, but it's still interesting to finally understand a little bit of what he argued.

His Mansion calls its patients "babies"

2011-03-02T18:03:00.000-08:00

Well His Mansion is still telling me they are not using nouthetics, but I find that somewhat hard to believe when Stan Farmer compares his clients to babies and says they are unproductive members of society. So are cancer and AIDS victims often, but we shouldn't blame them for their suppossed lack of productivity. Farmer's values are that of a petit bourgeoise hypocrite, not those of a Christian honestly engaged in helping the disadvantaged.

Greetings in the sweet name of Jesus!
I recently returned from great, snowy northern Maine where, for three days, I taught a men’s retreat on Disciple-making. God met us there and we all were blessed. In the course of preparation, I reflected upon how some of the material relates to those we care for at His Mansion.
Many of the applicants to our program say they are “Believers” during the interview process. Most are not! Some however, are, or soon come to faith during their time in the program. In any case, they are babies. The early Church also had its share of babies, and as Paul discovered, babies are trouble! They are unproductive except for making work for other folks. They want toys to play with, rattles to shake.
Years ago I decided that His Mansion should not become a spiritual daycare center. Dealing with selfish, self-centered, entitlement-oriented babies is just too much trouble. They are easily upset and when they do not get their own way, they act like yearling seagulls, twice the size of their parents, yet trailing after them begging for “mommy” to regurgitate the next meal!
The question I faced years ago was this: “Are we going to have a ministry designed to make disciples or to keep babies fed?” Expending time, prayer and money changing spiritual diapers is not our calling!
Romans 5:10: “For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.”
His Mansion’s program is fashioned to work with the individual who has been reconciled to God through the death of Christ--sins forgiven and a home in Heaven--and lead them to that place where they are experiencing salvation through His life.
As long as it is us doing it for them, they’ll never experience the joy of Christ living in them. A fair question to ask ourselves, and to proffer to loved ones, is whether we are merely reconciled to God (babies) or disciples of Christ. There is a difference.

Update on My article

2011-02-22T13:55:00.000-08:00

I sent in my editorial corrections for my article. It now goes through a set of queries and then a final set of .pdf edits, before being published. I will let you know when it finally comes out. I'm hoping it will be April, though perhaps early May.

New His Mansion Letter up.

2011-02-15T10:17:00.000-08:00

There's a new His Mansion letter up, and His Mansion staff are still maintaining that they do not do biblical counseling. Considering the increasingly bellicose nature of Stan Farmer's posts about the mentally ill and drug addicted, I find that hard to believe.

Sean's posting again!

2011-02-10T03:04:00.000-08:00

Sean the Blogonaut has a new post up! I was worried about my fellow blogger for a while, especially after the floods in Australia. Great work fighting homeopathy Sean. I may be slightly more superstitous than you, but homeopathy is definitely on my s-it list as well. Keep it up!

Update on Articles

2011-02-03T03:55:00.000-08:00

The biblical counseling article is still on. It probably will be coming out in April or May. I just finished an article on the Inklings and sent it out. As for the other two articles, I'm waiting for replies. I've posted a couple more vids to Youtube. I'll try to post links to them tommorow.

John

Finding a Queer-friendly, mentally-ill loving God

2011-02-01T03:32:00.000-08:00

Right now, I have a bunch of things going on. I just submitted an essay on Francis Schaeffer to a journal, and have another article on the need for a distinctive fundamentalist aesthetics out to a place in California. Currently, I am also in the secondary stages of revising my article on C.S. Lewis, which was more just a fun one to write (I love the Inklings and agree with much of their biblical reading style as well). One article I have up in the que, however, is an essay in which I compare fundamentalist and LGBT aesthetic ideals, with the hopes of creating a fusion of the two. For me, I don't think considering oneself an evangelical and gay is necessarily inconsistent. As for fundamentalism, while the idea of a gay fundamentalist may strike some as funny, I think there is real potential for fundamentalists, particularly pietists, to have productive dialogues with the LGBT community. Unlike other parts of the evangelical community (the Reformed church, for instance), fundamentalists put their money where their mouth is, and I think that they are therefore better equipped to conduct a loving dialogue with LGBT-folk than Reformed theocrats. Right now, I think the idea of a gay fundamentalist may be too much for them to swallow, but in a hundred years . . . who knows. 40 years ago, who would have expected racism to be officially disavowed by every major evangelical denomination. Yet here it is, disavowed. I think there's hope for gay people, and for the mentally ill, to be accepted into the evangelical church. It's just going to take time.

Two biblical counseling videos up on youtube.

2011-01-28T11:26:00.001-08:00

I now have two videos up on youtube about biblical counseling, one about Jay Adams and one about His Mansion Ministries. Sorry for the sound cutting out on the Jay Adams video. I don't know why it's doing that.

John

Teaching Corpus Christi

2011-01-27T02:03:00.000-08:00

I am teaching Corpus Christi today, for the first time. I've already gotten some flack about it, from my girlfriend no less. I've been listening to sermons online about homosexuality. While some evangelicals do try to be as tolerant as they are probably capable of being (given the context of their theology), others, like John Macarthur, are quite hostile to LGBT people. I'm a little bit concerned about how this play is going to go down in class, so wish me luck.

Does anyone know Catholicism's view of mental illness?

2011-01-22T12:10:00.000-08:00

I was wondering if any of you knew how the Catholic church views mental illness? In general, most Catholics I've known seem to be more tolerant of the mentally ill than Protestants, though that is not a universal trait. I know the Church put public pressure on the Nazis to end euthanasia programs directed against the mentally ill, but I also know that the Church has had a rather sorry record with the whole exorcism business, spreading this abusive process into Charismatic evangelical churches. Any info you guys have would be greatly appreciated.

Please pray for Jay Adams

2011-01-20T10:40:00.001-08:00

Jay Adams recently suffered a family loss. Whatever my disagreements with him, this is quite sad. My prayers are with you, Jay. Take care.

Apocalypse and Film

2011-01-17T06:34:00.000-08:00

I've been looking through the list of apocalyptic films that have come out over the last 30 years, mainly because a lot of people have been responding to my posts about Thief in The Night and traumatic childhood experiences. There were other apocalyptic films from the seventies, of course, most noteabley The Omen, which was a combination of Catholic symbolism and Protestant prophecy interpretation. But is any apocalyptic film ready to unseat Thief in The Night in terms of terror? In my opinion, fortunately, this is not likely. The director and production team of Thief in the Night were clearly more talented than modern evangelical writers in the prophecy genre, such as Tim Lahaye and Jerry Jenkins. The only author who could make a script to rival that of Thief is Frank Peretti, and fortunately Mr. Peretti is busy condemning secular humanists of every stripe and so won't be around to victimize young children. So, I hope that evangelicals stay content with the traumatic texts and films they already have, without trying to add any more.

Just wanted to send a shout out to Australia Ex-Mercyers

2011-01-14T11:16:00.000-08:00

Hey guys, I heard about the flooding in Australia, Brisbane in particular. I just wanted to say I hope you all you ex-Mercyers (and for that matter, current Mercy residents) are o.k. too. I'll be praying for everyone, that they are doing o.k. and not in danger from the floodwaters. Take care, and keep safe.

Jared Loughner

2011-01-12T07:05:00.000-08:00

See my post on blog #2 for my thoughts on the Jared Loughner shooting.

Just a piece of beautiful music

2011-01-10T13:49:00.000-08:00

With the shooting in Arizona and its potential aftereffects for mentally ill people, I've just been looking for some peaceful music to play lately. I hope this piece moves you as it moves me. It's music from a BBC version of Persuasion.

Potentially Last Year Blogging

2011-01-04T12:43:00.001-08:00

Hey guys, just wanted to let you know that I'm seriously considering making this my last year blogging, at least on mental illness. I've come to no definite decisions yet, and I would keep the blog up part time even if I no longer gave it my full support. I just thought you should no. The blog definitely will be fully active till August, so I can gauge the interest, if any. that my article brings. Take care.

Movie Review

2011-01-02T12:17:00.000-08:00

I recently finished watching the film the Snake Pit, starring Olivia de Havilland. It was the first major depiction of a psychiatric hospital in film history and still probably the best one, when compared to the state of the time period in which it was written. The film is unabashedly a muckraker picture, pointing out the abuses mentally ill people suffered at the hands of the state and overworked staff, while still holding out hope that psychiatry could help people. De Havilland does an excellent job of invoking how a mentally ill person feels, when losing grip on reality. About my only complaint with the film, and this is a minor one, is that it relies too much on Freudian explanations for its solutions to mental health problems. But other than that, it is a great film, well worth seeing. I highly recommend it.

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

2010-12-29T10:27:00.001-08:00

I recently finished Kesey's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. It was an intriguing read. Kesey was clearly more sympathetic to mentally ill people than his critics have maintained. I think his objection to traditional psychiatry was primarily the result of traditional psychiatry, in his mind, being aligned with pro-capitalist forces. People become mentally ill, in Kesey's world, because of the social enviornment in which we are all forced to live, rather than because of biology. Certainly an intriguing viewpoint, though how accurate it is I really could not say.

Tennessean writes another fluff piece on Mercy

2010-12-24T11:07:00.001-08:00

The ever obliging Tennessean has written yet another fluff piece on Mercy Ministries. According to the article, Mercy Ministries is a warm, caring place that deals with sex trafficking victims. No hint of the scandal in Australia is even mentioned. Why am I not surprised?

Article

2010-12-22T13:47:00.000-08:00

Just wanted to let you guys know that my article will be out by May at the very latest, but possibly earlier, depending on the publication guidelines of this journal. I'll post a link when they put it up. The article deals with the biblical counseling movement and evangelical perceptions of mental illness

Evangelicalism, Jane Eyre, and the Madwoman in the Attic

2010-12-18T07:36:00.000-08:00

I am currently researching for a class about evangelicalism and mental illness, and I have come to realize how long-standing evangelical prejudices against the mentally ill have existed. One of the first texts dealing with mental illness in contemporary literature is Jane Eyre, and in that novel the mad woman is literally a curse, preventing the two leads from marrying until she commits suicide at the end of the novel. The madness of Rochester's wife is therefore a sexual and spiritual curse, preventing Rochester from accepting the gospel until after the wife's suicide. It is a sad comment on evangelicalism, both in its liberal and conservative variety, that madness must always end in death.

Jay Adams on Elijah

2010-12-12T09:44:00.000-08:00

Jay Adams on Elijah's depression. According to Adams, Elijah was pouting, and psychologizers of the gospel ignore this fact when they promulgate pro-depression, pro-Elijah arguments. To a certain extent, I understand Adams's reasoning here. I find it a rather tired argument to find passages in the Bible that are pro-depressed people, when there was no concept of depression as such in the ancient world. On the other hand, I find Adams's argument also rather tired, because he assumes the Biblical writers knowledge of medicine and medical history was the same as our own, some 2000 years ago. That something might not be considered an illness then, but might be considered an illness now, has never apparently crossed the mind of any person competent to counsel in the nouthetics movement. But as always, I'm just a dumb sort-of-Christian. What do I know.

Stan Farmer's latest

2010-12-09T03:48:00.000-08:00

Stan Farmer's December letter is out.

"Most broken men and women entering His Mansion’s one-year program have led a life of “me.” They’ve been nurtured in a culture of dissatisfaction, disenchantment and disappointment. They’ve been told that they deserve more--entitled to more programs, more education and more happiness.

The addicted are sad, lonely and hopeless. They welcome any relief from their pain and depression. One of the most difficult habits to kick is moaning, groaning and grumbling. The cure for depression and dissatisfaction is thanksgiving!

Counseling, His Mansion style, is helping the captive, broken souls focus on all of the positive, praiseworthy truths in their lives."

Apparently, my generation is an entitled privileged generation, which only complains, moans and groans and needs to be kicked in the pants in order to be thankful. What positive advice, Stan.

Review of Wonderland: Episode 1

2010-12-06T12:38:00.000-08:00

I listened to most of Wonderland Episode 1, and a lot of it sounded like the same old same old. Violent mentally ill person, mentally ill person shooting up people, mentally ill people screaming random things that make no sense. The fact that such mentally ill people make up only a tiny fraction of the community, and the further fact that they should be sympathized with rather than harangued, apparently escapes the wondrous producers of Wonderland. Perhaps the series got better after the first episode, but frankly, from what I saw, this is just another ER-ripoff without any redeeming value. At least the sf ripoff of ER (Mercy Point) was set in space. Now that's megacool!

Torture in Sci-fi

2010-12-03T12:04:00.000-08:00

A post from my other blog I thought you might want to look at:

I'm providing a link here to a ministry that psychologically tortured me about ten years ago. I am diagnosed with OCD (and now also with bipolar). The ministry locked me in a room for five hours and the staff screamed at me to repent of my OCD or be cursed by God forever. Finally, when they saw I would not relent, they let me go.

Science fiction, to me, has always done a rather bad job at depicting torture. That may be, in part, because some sci-fi people are sadomasochistic at their heart (perhaps myself included). They like to see their heroes battling people dressed up as Nazis, people wearing uniforms, people saluting Nazis, or not saluting Nazis and getting shot. Doctor Who and Babylon 5 have both tried to depict torture but only somewhat successfully. BSG does a better job at it, but I also think there is a definite anti-Islamic strain of sadomasochism running through that series as well, one that I am very uncomfortable with. I think, as sci-fi or near sci-fi treatments go, Clockwork Orange and V for Vendetta are two of the better treatments, particularly the book version of V, which fully teases out the moral implications of V's torturous actions, even if it does somewhat excuse them (for somewhat understandable reasons however). I think, though, the definitive treatment of torture in a near sci-fi setting is Closetland, with Alan Rickman. Check it out. You just may have trouble sleeping after.

His Mansion calls Addicts "human dumpsters"

2010-12-02T07:04:00.000-08:00

His Mansion Ministries has come out with its latest ministry support letter. On His Mansion's metaphorical plane, we've hit new lows: "The enemy--his name is Satan--has a vast army of “ministers” whose sole purpose is to captivate and ruin young souls, especially those who are members of the family of faith. At one point, these young men and women were like fresh dug wells filled with clear, pure water, but not when they arrive at His Mansion!
The enemy has attacked by filling our nations “well” with every foul filth and garbage imaginable. Moral swill, material access, sexual perversion, anti-faith psychology, contaminated versions of history and immoral models, has clogged the cultural well.
Leaders, educators and media, have, wittingly or not, been co-opted by dark, evil forces successfully luring our children away by the thousands. Children, sensing they have permission, (usually the result of lenient parenting or wretched role models,) soon open the wells of their own souls to the waste. The fresh waters of innocence and faith are rapidly displaced by the foulest of dirt.
There are many descriptive ways of explaining what happens at His Mansion, but the picture of Isaac and his cohorts, taking on the laborious task of uncovering and digging out the trash so that the fresh water of God’s Holy Spirit can once again fill the vessel belonging to Him, is apropos.
It is an honor to take up the shovel and dig, but most of the work needs to be done “by hand!” To witness the damage, suffer the daily stench, and dig while garbage continues to be tossed in, is taxing. This is especially true of the young, dedicated troopers who choose to enter the work short term, when they could be continuing their educations, growing a family or building careers. It is difficult, life-changing work and only the bravest, most courageous, can handle it. I thank God for each one.
Those of us, who are long-term staff, are also very much “hands on” in the human dumpsters that are the souls of addicts, but we are generally older, seasoned veterans of the war. For the “lifers,” the rewards of advanced degrees and accumulated wealth have usually been tossed on the “count-it-all-lost” heap, next to the pile of worthless stuff extracted from the wells of broken lives."

No longer are the mentally ill and drug addicts simply the spiritual third world. Now, our souls are "human dumpsters", who have listened to the lies of Satan and engaged in all kinds of spiritual perversion. We are one step short of being demonically influenced, perhaps not even that. Farmer compares a "slavery" to an eating disorder to a pornography addiction to human dumpsters. All apparently are sins, with no distinguishing between the two. The ministry seems to be in worse hands now than when I broke the information about Farmer's sexual abuse activities back 2 years ago. What a wonderful world we live in.

John

Suffering

2010-11-29T16:40:00.000-08:00

I want to apologize if I've offended anyone with my posts. Lately, my attitude about life, about the existence of mental illness, about fighting biblical counseling even, has been "What's the point?" Peoples minds don't change on either "side," and all I seem to do is stir up people that hate me for believing mental illness might be real. To be honest, I'm not even sure that it is real anymore . . . not because I agree with the anti-psychiatric movement, but because I sympathize with the Focaultian analysis of the psychiatric system, which points out how punitive our notions of mental illness continue to be. If I have to go to a mental hospital again, and listen to more "power of positive thinking" rhetoric, I'm going to end up even worse than when I went in. Get in touch with all the Reki\Zen masters you want, but it's not going to make me feel any better, anymore than biblical counseling did.
So, in the end, what's the point? What's the point, even existentially? We're born, we live, we die. Perhaps we're resurrected, perhaps we're not. But the universe that God has created is so cruel in its uncaringness towards humanity (and all creation), that I have little doubt that God is a sadistic bastard too, as much as I wish otherwise. Praying for God to damn me relieves some of the guilt, but nothing, no God or Gerstein, can relieve it totally. I am what my culture created me to be, and I can be nothing else. And so I have to ask, a la Peggy Lee, "Is this all there is?" Seems like such a cosmic waste for human beings to do anything at all, confronted with this level of cosmic apathy.

Selective Eating Disorder

2010-11-28T14:10:00.001-08:00

From MSN . I'm sure that selective eating has a biological component and I doubt people can actually do much to change it. But to classify it as a psychological disorder on par with schizophrenia, bipolar, etc. strikes me as more than slightly ridiculous. The list of other controversial diagnoses that I found on line also amazed me. I had no idea the DSM still considered transvestism in any way a disorder. Why gender identity disorder is still a disorder is beyond me too, except for the possible insurance ramifications for transexuals.
I don't see too many people, outside of biblical counseling, questioning the reality of OCD or Bipolar. And I don't think people should be questioning Aspergers or ADHD (which Kisekelia very kindly educated me on some months ago). What I do think needs to go is the idea that we need to invent a disorder for every condition. I'm as much a genetic predeterminist as the next person, but being picky about your food (which I am) is a far less life-debilitating condition than washing your hands 300 times a day or having bouts of mania every week. Novelist Tova Reich, in reference to the cult of victimization in America, talks about "Holocaust envy" . . . that is, the pathological need to one up your parents, siblings, significant others, in suffering. Competitive victimization does not help anyone however, and only hurts the people who have truly suffered. My picky eating hasn't done anything except add a couple pounds on my waist, and I'm not sure that my OCD or bipolar have done much worse. Save the sympathy for the burning corpses of Auschwitz, not for the victimhood cult of today.

Wonderland television series: Any info on it?

2010-11-27T18:07:00.001-08:00

I heard about the series "Wonderland" a couple years ago, while researching television programs on mental illness. Along with Monk and Huff, it's one of the few television forays into the subject of mental illness and stigma. However, I've heard that Wonderland itself contributed to the stigmatization of the mentally ill through portraying the mentally ill as violent and prone to behaviours they don't actually exhibit. I suggest people take a look at imdb and then check out the series on Hulu so they can decide for themselves. I wish I had the time to watch it right now, but I'm plowed under with work.

Donnie Darko and the media image of the mentally ill

2010-11-25T16:56:00.000-08:00

I think Donnie Darko is a rare sci-fi\horror film in that it does not trivialize mental illness or the suffering mentally ill people go through, but tries to understand what the experience of mental illness might be like for those suffering from it. It is never quite clear whether Donnie is himself mentally ill or the saviour figure he perceives himself to be. What is clear from the film is that the societal standards governing mental illness in the eighties (the time period in which the movie is set) are designed to create a joyocentric, self-absorbed society that does not truly care about how the mentally ill perceive things. Donnie Darko, as a film, contrasts the possibly schizophrenic Donnie, with his razor sharp analysis of hypocrisy, with the shallow eighties motivational speakers that dominate his school. In doing so, Donnie Darko remains the definitive cinematic statement against the Norman Vincent Peale school of "Positive Thinking", which currently dominates cognitive behavioral psychology. For that the producers of Donnie Darko have my gratitude.

Still feeling dopey from meds

2010-11-23T05:44:00.000-08:00

Hey guys, I would just please ask for prayer about my med situation. I feel like I'm half the person I used to be, because of how my meds seem to be affecting me. Please don't take this as an argument to stop taking meds, I just seem to be logy right now and I can't get out of it. You all take care, and my love to you all.

Mercy Ministries gets its own radio program

2010-11-21T13:51:00.000-08:00

Mercy Ministries is getting its own radio program, dealing with issues "such as physical and sexual abuse, sex trafficking, eating disorders, self-harm, drug and alcohol addiction, depression, and unplanned pregnancy." I can hardly wait (sarcasm intentional). For Mercy to be getting its own weekly series strikes me as a dangerous move on their part, threatening to over-expose the ministry at a time when it is still reeling from the Australian crisis. But I don't think Nancy's particularly concerned about that right now. Let's hope it doesn't unintentionally (or intentionally) harm someone under the guise of providing "help".

Bipolar meds and creativity

2010-11-19T18:14:00.000-08:00

For regular readers of my blog who have any knowledge of bipolar meds, can you please e-mail me about any experiences you have had with bipolar meds effecting creativity, positively or negatively. I'm having some paranoid fears that my new meds will affect my creativity. Thanks

Catholic Church looking for more exorcists

2010-11-18T05:57:00.000-08:00

Heard about this while I was in the hospital. Overall, of course, I think the Catholic church's position on exorcism is more responsible than that practiced by evangelical Protestant churches, where people can be exorcised at the flick of a wrist. However, I think the Catholic church eventually just needs to disavow this right. I have never seen a case of "authentic demonic possession" and I doubt I ever will. There's mental aberrations and what we can't explain, but that doesn't mean we need to resort to sky fairies as a justification for brutalizing mentally ill people.

John

Blog back online

2010-11-17T10:46:00.001-08:00

Hey guys, you'll notice I haven't posted in a week. The blog is back and running. I was in the hospital because of sleep deprivation. I'm alright. I'll post more later this week.

John

Any ideas about getting someone how of Quiverfull?

2010-11-08T06:03:00.000-08:00

I have a very, very dear female friend that I'm afraid is joining the Quiverfull movement. I'm really upset, as I don't want her to have to deal with the crap that movement promotes about women. But as a guy, I am not really in a position to talk to her about the issue, given evangelical sexual\patriarchal ethics (which I respect, though vehemently disagree with). Please, if anyone has any suggestions, please help me.

John

Franky Schaeffer's Crazy for God

2010-11-07T01:42:00.000-07:00

I'm reading Franky Schaeffer's Crazy for God to get a better handle on the history of the evangelical movement. As usual, Franky disappoints, with typically pointless digressions about semen-shooting contests. I do feel a greater degree of sympathy for his father, if for no other reason than having to put up with elitists like Franky and Edith Schaeffer. Francis sounds like someone I might have been able to relate to. The constant class snobbery against non-Reformed people is quite annoying, and I for one am a little tired of Franky's self-serving justifications for supporting the religious right during this period. Instead of directing "Whatever Happened to the Human Race?", maybe he should have tried directing his own life, with a little less elitist classism in it.

CCEF counselor's qualifications

2010-11-06T05:36:00.000-07:00

I was scanning the CCEF counseling page, looking for people's qualifications, and I have to say it disturbed me a little bit. It is located here. Laura Andrews qualifications for instance are: "A Master of Divinity degree in Counseling from Westminster Theological Seminary and a Bachelor of Science degree in Human Development and Family Studies from the University of Missouri." None of these qualifications would be enough for a professional counselor at my university, none of whom have less than a PhD (or are studying for their PhD) in Psychology.

Other CCEFers

Mike Bedzyk. "He holds a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from Covenant College and a Master of Arts in Biblical Counseling from The Master’s College in California." I couldn't find out whether Covenant is accredited (I'll asume it is). Master's College is of course connected to John Macarthur, a well-known proponent of biblical counseling, for reasons that I assume most of you know about (Macarthur, may in fact, have mentally ill blood on his hand, according to at least one lawsuit)

Wendy Budnick "Wendy is a counselor at CCEF. She has a Masters of Arts in Counseling from Biblical Theological Seminary." In other words, no degrees from any established university. Biblical counseling wouldn't be so bad if it at least occurred at established Christian colleges. This women is treating depression and eating disorders. I can hardly wait.

Cecelia Bernhardt "Cecelia is the director of counseling at CCEF. She has completed the Advanced Counseling Certificate through CCEF and also has a Master of Divinity degree from Westminster Theological Seminary." Again, while a degree from Westminster is certainly better than most bible colleges or Reformed seminaries, it is not the equivalent of getting a degree from a secular psychology or counseling department, which has to follow state guidelines more exactingly.

Mike Emlet "is a faculty member and oversees the intern program at CCEF. He holds an M.D. from the University of Pennsylvania and a Master of Divinity degree from Westminster Theological Seminary. Mike has counseled for many years and has published a book on the use of scripture in counseling." Emlet is obviously the most qualified counselor at CCEF, since his M.D. is from a real university (indeed an Ivy League School). However, from what I can discern from CCEF's site, Emlet never practiced as a psychiatrist, nor as a psychologist, and where he got his knowledge of psychology beyond reading (such as lab work, etc.) is beyond me. And oh, he treats OCD. Joys and wonders.

Alasdair Groves
"Alasdair is Director of Counseling in our New England Affiliate office and holds a Master of Divinity degree from Westminster Theological Seminary with an emphasis on counseling." How an M. Div prepares you for treating mental illness is beyond me, especially illnesses that even the more honest biblical counselors, such as Michael Emlet, seem to indicate are caused by biology (OCD. See Emlet's books and articles on OCD).

Kimberly Han:

"Kimberly is the program director for distance education at CCEF. She has a Master of Arts in Biblical Counseling from Westminster Theological Seminary" Again, not a real degree, with any sort of substantive unbiased training about mental illness.

Monica Kim "is Associate Faculty at CCEF. She has a Bachelor of Arts in Sociology from the University of Toronto, Canada and a Master of Arts in Religion from Westminster Theological Seminary." Monica sounds more qualified than most of the staff. A B.A. in Sociology would at least qualify you to do intakes at most secular institutions, though I do not know if it would allow you to counsel people (I think you need an M.S.W.) Again, a masters in religion at Westminster, while certainly qualifying you to run the Christian right (Schaeffer, Rushdoony, Adams, all associated with Westminster), does not necessarily endow you with a good overview of the history of mental illness.

Hannah Koehrsen

Hannah holds a master of arts in Biblical counseling from Westminster Theological Seminary.

Another bogus degree

Gregory F. Lowe
"Greg has a depth of training with a Master of Divinity degree from Westminster Theological Seminary, a Master of Social Work from the University of South Florida and a Bachelor of Science in Psychology from Florida Institute of Technology."

Gregory is qualified by secular standards, though at the low end of qualifications (an MSW is usually considered secondary to a doctorate in Psychology or an M.D. with an emphasis in Psychiatry).

Julie Smith Lowe
Julie is Associate Faculty at CCEF and has been counseling for over thirteen years. She has a Master of Arts degree in Counseling from Biblical Theological Seminary, is a Licensed Professional Counselor and is pursuing certification as a Registered Play Therapist

Another bogus degree.

I could go on. Ed Welch is the only other biblical counselor listed here who could claim to be qualified, with a Ph.D. in Counseling Psychology with a Neuro-psychiatry speciality from the University of Utah. People have claimed I should be overwhelmed by Welch's qualifications and be silent in the face of his genius. Pardon me while I yawn. Welch's degree is still in counseling psychology, not psychiatry, where most of the hard science is being done with mental illness.

My point is not to say that biblical counselors are necessarily unqualified. Some, like Welch, probably are to some extent. My point, however, is that if secular psychology, as biblical counselors claim, really is an ideology, than so is biblical counseling. The vast majority of degrees are from Westminster, and are M. Div's. Since Westminster obviously slants their education in favor of biblical counseling, it is not too much of a stretch to think that these students\counselors are not always getting a totally accurate picture of what mental illness is like, or all the methods that can be used to treat it. Therefore, while biblical counselors may learn one particular method of treating mental illness (which admittedly may be sometimes effective), they do not learn to eclectically mix radically differing counseling methodologies when dealing with the mentally ill, nor does it appear there is any real expert on psychiatry at CCEF, at least that is advertised. Welch's neuropsychiatry degree means nothing without a background in psychiatry.

Again, I have no doubt that there are psychiatrist in the biblical counseling movement. I think Ganz might have had his degree in psychiatry, and maybe a few others. But the hard science on mental illness is the province of psychiatrists, not reporters or biblical counselors. Until I see a lot more psychiatrists joining the ranks of the biblical counselors, I prefer to trust the specialists with real degrees, not the Westminster Reformed intelligentsia.

Jay Adams's novel series

2010-11-05T07:01:00.000-07:00

Just wanted you guys to know that Jay Adams has a novel series out now. I attached a link to what looks to be the most interesting of the series "Greg Dawson and The Psychology Class". I look forward to reading it.

Thanks for the E-mails

2010-10-31T16:20:00.001-07:00

I just wanted to thank all the former people from the Hill for their e-mails. It makes me feel that I'm not alone, to know that others went through what I did. Take care guys.

Topics: His Mansion Ministries

Continue to pray for Jay Adams's health

2010-10-29T17:22:00.000-07:00

I'd ask for continued prayer for Jay Adams's health, as he's recently been having a hard time with that. As you know, I virulently disagree with Mr. Adams's theology, but I do not wish him any harm, no matter how many people have been hurt in his name. Take care, Mr. Adams. We wish you the best.

Starting Foucault's History of Madness

2010-10-26T03:33:00.000-07:00

I'm starting Michel Foucault's History of Madness. Has anyone else read it? If so, can you tell me your thoughts? Foucault was fairly instrumental in the history of the anti-psychiatric movement and also played a minor role in influencing biblical counseling (very minor, and only by hearsay and borrowed dogma). I'm inclined to read him with an open mind, since Foucault's histiography is more complicated than Jay Adams's theology. But let me know if you've encountered Foucault in your own reading.

New His Mansion Letter Out

2010-10-25T20:59:00.000-07:00

His Mansion's latest letter is out. Kind of a mixed bag, to be honest. I do feel sorry that Mr. Farmer does not have a salary or medical insurance, though I suspect he is gaining compensation in some other way, not to mention living off the welfare of the church. The whole section of the letter dealing with the dreadful consequences of not treating drug addiction with His Mansion therapy is patently ridiculous. Mr. Farmer may be causing as many addictions as he is curing. I am quite concerned that Mr. Farmer is still so actively involved in His Mansion, even with the passing of the baton. To be honest, I doubt much has changed there. Perhaps it never will.

Mercy Ministries and Charity Navigator

2010-10-21T06:11:00.000-07:00

Mercy Ministries's latest Charity Navigator numbers are out. Nothing much to note, except Nancy's not listing herself under the administrative section, so it's no longer possible to tell how much or how little she is making. I myself tend to be a little suspicious of Mercy's numbers, not because I believe it is impossible that the group is this efficient economically, but because I remember what they did with the statistics for their success rate (recall how much those fluctuated). Anyway, if I here any more about this, I'll make sure to tell you guys.

John

CCEF podcasts

2010-10-19T05:31:00.000-07:00

Hey guys. I thought you might want to check out this. It's CCEF's podcast page. There's some interesting material here, some o.k., some not so o.k. As I've said before, CCEF to me is a lot less problematic than NANC, though perhaps more dangerous because of that. But they make a fascinating object of study, especially because of the high level of education that CCEF counselors have in opposition to people like Dave Hunt, the Bobgans, and the Bazlers.

From His Mansion's website

2010-10-17T07:27:00.000-07:00

"Long-term recovery from depression disorders ultimately requires dealing with the underlying causes, not simply the symptoms such as chemical imbalance and depressive thoughts. Experts agree that a safe and supportive group environment can be an important component of healing."

Farmer's logic has a basic flaw, which is that His Mansion assumes that a symptom can't be an underlying cause. He also does not define what he means by "symptom" and "underlying cause," which rather troubles me, considering what His Mansion told me the underlying cause of my mental illness was (sin). I could be wrong, but telling a mentally ill person that their illness is the result of pride or a sexually abused person that her anger at her father is a sin is not really that helpful. But what do I know? I'm just some dumb hick from upstate New York.

Wittgenstein's Problem with Biblical Counseling: Can the Soul Survive Death if the Mind doesn't?

2010-10-15T14:43:00.000-07:00

Although I still consider myself a Christian, I'm finding Ludwig Wittgenstein a major, earth-shattering revelation. I honestly don't see how presuppositional worldview or nouthetics apologetics can possibly say anything meaningful after Wittgenstein (and I'm not sure any other Christians, atheists, or agnostics can either). Basically, here's how I understand Wittgenstein's basic thinking on theology, which focuses on its grammatical content.

"I believe in God"

"I do not believe in God"

"I do not know whether or not I believe in God"

To Wittgenstein all three of these supposedly logical propositions were in fact, not only not truth claims, but were literally nonsense (phrases having no meaning). In all three statements, one can not define what "I" is, what "believe" means, or what "God" means. Therefore, the question of logical proofs of God is eliminated. It literally never existed, because it was based on nonsense philosophical claims.
Then take a look at Schaefferian apologetics, which is based on a relationship between a personal creator (God) and a person (a human being). Schaeffer, in the God Who is There, comes up with a 4 part justification for what constitutes salvation. But the categories he picks are purely arbitrary. He does not prove them, either apologetically or logically, because such proofs are not possible. The claim "Jesus saved me" assumes that I can have a full relationship with an incarnate God-man that is infinitely more than me, by Christian definitions. Even worse, the statement assumes that there is such a thing as a "me" or an "I". But why assume that there is only one "I" or two "I's". Why not ascribe an infinite number of I's to a person. There's absolutely no logical justification to say there is such a thing as "I" or "me". It is a metaphysical claim, beyond the boundaries of logical deduction.
Which brings me to the nouthetics issue, which here gets a little ridiculous. I am rather skeptical of the existence of the soul which is why I am an Arian (not Aryan) Christian. Biblical counseling, I realize now, has absolutely no choice in saying the mind is something separate from the brain For if the soul or mind is in any way part of the brain, then when the brain dies, a part of the soul or mind must die as well. Therefore mind and soul must be separate from brain. Personally I think a better definition would be to separate "selfhood" from "soulfulness" and say that while our souls can be saved, our selves can not. I don't know how that would square with biblical counseling though.

Ray Bradbury, Madeleine L'Engle featured in Imaginarium Geographica?

2010-10-14T12:43:00.000-07:00

If you haven't picked it up, I highly encourage you guys to check out the Imaginarium Geographica, which features Jules Verne, C.S. Lewis, H.G. Wells, J.R.R. Tolkien, and Charles Williams as characters. I may be reading into things, but I'm pretty sure the authors of the series also wants to introduce Madeleine L'Engle, Ray Bradbury, and perhaps Lloyd Alexander as well. It's a highly entertaining romp that is surprisingly philosophical for a children's series, as well as an excellent pastiche.
Take care! I'll try to post more sometime later this week. Sorry about there being no posts yesterday. I was getting an article ready for publication.

Article on Biblical Counseling Accepted!

2010-10-14T12:38:00.000-07:00

Hey guys, my article on biblical counseling has been accepted by a major journal, for publication in Spring 2011! I wanted to thank everyone, both pro-bc and anti-bc, who gave me ideas for the article. Even though I don't agree with the biblical counseling movement, the more friendly commentators among biblical counseling supporters helped me complicate my viewpoint of biblical counseling, particularly the difference between NANC and CCEF. For now, I'm keeping what journal it is specifically, under wraps. But it's a journal with a large online presence, which is also easily accessible. Please pray\hope that it gets read by as many people as possible. I feel like a great weight was lifted off my shoulders today, and I feel a lot of relief that there will be at least one secular source out there on the biblical counseling movement. Take care everyone!

Bullying Atheists Not Acceptable

2010-10-12T04:52:00.000-07:00

I watched a terribly sad video on Youtube about an Oklahoma teenager who was bullied out of her school because she was an atheist. I find this inexcusable. If you really believe in Christ, you should be treating atheists even nicer than you treat your fellow Christians. That goes double for evangelicals, who believe they have to evangelize those atheists in order to "save" them. In high school I was bullied for my (at the time) mildly heterodox viewpoints on salvation (basically, at the time I wished the universalists were right, though I feared they were not). I realize that at some schools, its the religious students being bullied, but in the South and Midwest this kind of anti-atheist action seems to happen all too often. It needs to stop, both for the good of Christians and the good of atheists.

Looking for souces on CCEF

2010-10-11T16:46:00.000-07:00

Hey guys, I was just wondering if anyone has any suggestions on CCEF sources that I might use to accurately depict that organization's view of mental illness. I want to be fair to CCEF, which I honestly believe is not as fanatical as NANC. I have The Biblical Counseling Movement: History and Context, by Powlison and Blame it on the Brain by Ed Welch. I just ordered Michael Emlet's book on OCD. Any other suggestions?

Nouthetic Confrontation and Worldview thinking

2010-10-09T11:24:00.000-07:00

I have recently begun to notice the similarities between Adams's practice of nouthetic confrontation and Francis Schaeffer's worldview theory concepts. Both Adams and Schaeffer were presuppositionalists. They emphasized attacking their opponents\counselees at their weakest points, and not letting them go until they had won the day. Victory was the object. While ideally the goal was to help the counselee\opponent out, the most important objective was to get them to realize the truth of Christianity and accept it, even if the person is harmed in the process. I read one (secular) scholar who charged that this process, at least in the Schaefferian variety, amounted to a form of utilitarian thinking that was little better than the ideologies it sought to oppose. Certainly something to think on. I for one am leaning more towards an experiential theology these days, on the Greek Orthodox or Pentecostal models.

Good News on My Article

2010-10-07T07:29:00.000-07:00

Hey guys, just wanted to let you know I got some good news on my article, but I don't want to reveal more till I can say what happened with more certainty. Just pray I get some time to do more revisions on it. I hope you are all doing well. Still no news on the Mercy or His Mansion front.

John

My Thoughts on God right now

2010-10-03T18:04:00.000-07:00

Hey guys, I'm posting a rather long series of lecture notes here, detailing my feelings about language and its relationship to God. I'm trying to reinterpret Christianity in terms that I hope will make me a better, less judgmenetal, and less hurt person. See what you think.

Tolkien Notes
Rationality and Emotion
-The problem with rational argumentation is that the success of argumentation
basically relies on one’s ability to come up with an argument that is logically convincing,
whether or not that argument is in fact moral. Therefore, if a barely literate slave went
up against an Oxford scholar, slavery would likely win the logic argument.
-How many wars have been started by people who believed that what they
believed was a falsehood or lie? How many of their followers followed them fanatically
because they believed that their leaders had lied to them? How many of their followers
followed Hitler or Stalin, etc. because they believed the “truth” of their Leader’s
message.
-One of the paradox’s about Lewis was that although he was a romantic, reason
was of great importance to him. Lewis’s rationalism deeply influenced by his tutor
Kirkpatrick.
-For Lewis, reason and logic came to assert a strong influence on him. His
conversation tended to be argumenative.
-Lewis held that imagination conveyed meaning, not truth, while Own Barfield
argued that poetry initially conveyed knowledge and therefore imagination spread truth.
-Lewis stated: “I am a rationalist. For me, reason is the natrual organ of truth; but
imagination is the organ of meaning.” Lewis’s early writings, both apologetics and
fiction, emphasized reason, particularly Pilgrim’s Regress. The Space trilogy used
imagination more strongly, but used it to emphasize reasoned argument.
-Lewis argued that any “reasoned thought, and reason generally, are valueless,
if they are the result of irrational causes. The Naturalist who feels the human mind the
result of irrational causes, is contradictory. Thus we must conclude that reason exists
on its own.
-It is difficult to know what Tolkien believed about reson, as there is little
evidence to find on this subject from his Letters. What is clear from Tolkien is that he
was much more aware (and nuanced) than Lewis of the power of the unconscious and
irrationality. This is seen primarily through the symbolism of the Ring, which serves as a
festishistic signifier of unconscious desire for power, wealth, women. Indeed, it is
argueable that Tolkien and Freud would probably be a better course than Lewis and
Freud. Tolkien was terrified of the possibilities of the irrational, seen through the Ring,
but he was also, like Lewis, terrified of the possibilities of Naturalism, as seen through
Mordor’s brutal technocratic regime.
*-Wittengstein argued that religion was a form of aesthetics.
-Lewisian apologetics is fundamentally based on the proposition that rationality is
better than emotion, that logic is better than the irrational, and that truth is better than
falsehood. The writings of atheists like Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens, and
Sam Harris are also based on this assumption. More debateably this emphasis on
reason over emotion, truth over falsehood, and logic over the irrational ultimately leads
to a reliance on the written word over the spoken word or literacy over illiteracy,
because the literate are more likely to be able to form arguments according to the laws
of logic (logic itself being primarily a product of literacy). In the following, I seek to argue
why Lewis and Dawkins are potentially wrong in their assessment of these ideas. I will
also argue that these divisions fundamentally reify existing class, racial, and gender
divisions, thus perpetuationg a fundamentally (in my mind) immoral cultural system.
-PENTECOSTAL AESTHETICS SHOULD BE BASED ON THE IDEA OF
RELIGION AS AN AESTHETIC CHOICE. MOREOVER, PENTECOSTALS SHOULD
ARGUE THAT THERE ARE DIFFERENT FORMS OF CHRISTIAN KNOWLEDGE
OTHER THAN REVELATION, AND THAT THE RELIANCE ON LINKING
CHRISTIANITY TO LOGICAL ARGUMENTATION IS CULTURAL AND MORAL
SUICIDE, BECAUSE RELIGIOUS TRUTH CLAIMS ARE BASED IN A LINGUISTIC
UNIVERSE, WHERE MEANING IS NOT DEFINED BY RELATIONSHIP, AND
THEREFORE DOES NOT EXIST. PENTECOSTALISM, BY CONTRAST MAKES
RELIGIOUS EXPERENTIAL CLAIMS AND THEREFORE IS IMMUNE FROM THE
ERRORS OF LINGUISTICALLY BASED LOGIC SYSTEMS.
-Lewis’s disciples (but not Lewis himself) believed that God is truth and that truth
therefore must be the foundation of all morality. Dawkins argued that truth comes
through empircal evidence and that morality derives from evolutionary conditioning. But
Dawkins fundamentally believes, following the empiricist model, that truth is essential to
the construction of morality. Nietzsche in some ways the most consistent, says there is
no truth, because there is no God. Therefore truth is merely a socially constructed
value. Both the evolutionary and the Nietzschean model lack an absolute justification
for morality. The problem (potentially) with the model of Lewis’s disciples is that truth is
derived from God, so that means that if God sanctions genocide as just, it’s just, murder
is just, etc.
-I want to tentatively assert here that lying\myth\untruth\falsehood may also be a
basis for morality, one not neccessarily inferior to “truth” based doctrines and one that
may in fact be superior. The prime argument against religion is that it is based on “fairy
tales for grown ups.” The main argument against altruism and forgiveness is that there
is no evolutionary or pragmatic reasons for them. Abolitionism was rejected as the
illogical doctrine of women and blacks, because it was felt that the Bible could only
truthfully be interpreted in support of slavery. Similarly, women’s suffrage was rejected
because women were irrational and controlled by their “reproductive organs”. Women
represented irrationality, error, untruth, while men represented rationality, correctness,
and truth.
-Can something be moral and a falsehood or a myth or a lie? Can something be
considered logically true and yet be fundamentally immoral? The problem in Western
society begins when logic is unified to the search for moral truth, sometime in the
Ancient Greek period. This led to the conclusion that because a moral claim could be
proved logically, it must be morally true. By extension, morality that is not logically
thought out or supported, must be immoral or at least based on false premises. Morality
is thus equated to truth, and truth by extension, to a logically thought out process. The
problem is that this Code does not take into account human experience as being of any
value. It assumes that lies and myths have no function in maintaining morality, that they
are in fact diametrically oposed to morality. Yet every philosophical system relies on
lying for the maintenance of its mythos and often for the best parts of its mythos. This is
for 2 fundamental reasons. First of all, human beings are not telepaths\empaths. We
cannot always communicate exact truth, because language and even more the written
word can not convey the intenions, emotions or non-mental thought\body processes
that underly what we believe or think. Language can communicate that 2 + 2=4, but it
cannot communicate what that thought means to us. Since morality cannot be placed
into an empircally verifiable system or be communicated through empirically verifiable
formula, it must always contain some element of falsehood or artifice, simple because
language, by definition, cannot convey exact moral truth, since what one means by a
moral term is always subjective (NOTE: I am not saying that morality itself is subjective,
simply that moral terms can only be communicated through subjective terms).
Falsehood automatically creeps in, even if the speaker intends to be truthful.
-Secondly, every belief system relies on experimental evidence to prove its point.
This is true, even of empricism, which assumes that the universe is knowable (even
though one can make a quite convincing argument that the senses cannot be trusted.)
Christianity asserts that there are miracles, which it asks us to rely on primarily through
experience, or at least on faith, a byproduct of imagination, experience, and reason.
How one could “prove” or “disprove” a miraculous event, even outside the bounds of
empiricism, is difficult to see. The miracle must be experienced (through direct
witnessing), and then how can one know if one’s senses are accurately producing a
sign of a miracle, or simply sensory or psychosomatic phenomena caused by our brain.
David Hume also pointed out that almsot every religion proclaims that it is supported by
the miraculous, yet there is no reason to accept one of them over any other, then we
must hold all to be true. Given the fact that religions contradict each other, he believed
this cannot be the case.
-Think of some of history’s greatest lies: all men are created equal (which can
only be true in the very narrowest of senses, such as equal in the sight of God), which
wasn’t what the founders meant anyway).
-When one makes a moral claim, one is making a truth claim. But there is no
way to verify whether this claim is true or not because sesnes cannot be proven
trustwrothy. Therefore, we must rely on experience. Knowledge itself is the result of
thousands of years of experience, much of it pre-empirical.
-For instance, the statement that God is love can not literally be true, not
because God does not feel something like what we define as love towards us, but
because language is a finite tool that cannot possibly communicate what God means by
love, or what love means to God. For similar reasons, one cannot say God is evil or
God is good because language again can not communicate what precisely good or evil
means to God (or if it means anything at all). Thus, any church, any religion, has to rely
on experience or sacred texts or tradition to support its truth claims. Unfortunately only
a few religions even nominally support this idea, noteably Judaism and Greek
Orthodoxy.
-Applying logic to God and morality may also be misplaced. Ludwig Wittgenstein,
for instance, argued that all discussions of the will, life after death, God and ethics is a
misuse of logic. Logical language, because it is based on empricism, can only reflect
the world. Any discussion of the mysteical, which lies outside of the metaphysical
subject’s world, is meaningless (because the metaphysical subject can only know the
world through language).
-Religion, Wittgenstein argued, is a form of aesthetics and cannot be expressed
in meaningful terms.
-The problem with language is that in language, every word has a meaning. A
meaning is connected with the word. Meaning is the object for which the word stands,
according to language. Wittgenstein emphasized that meaning was a social event.
Meaning happens between language users (and therefore God has to limit himself to
only a part of Himself when communicating to us, since God is something far bigger
than language). Wittgenstein Wittgensten asserted that if something is a language, it
cannot be (logically) private and if something is private, it cannot be a language.
Christianity gets around this by having a relational trinity. Judaism’s answer, I think,
would be that God need not communicate through language at all. Indeed, here we
have a central problem with Christianity and Judaism, which is that we trust God by
forcing him to conform to language. The infinite is forced to communicate with only the
tools of the finite.
-Analytic philosophy does not argue that religious assertions are unproven or
false, but that they are impossible to understand. And they are impossible to
understand, not because they are too complex, but because they literally have no
sense.
-To Analytics: The statement “pigs eat corn” is true. The statement “pigs fly by
flapping their ears” is false. The statement “piageeraa” is neither true nor false, but
nonsense. It does not signify anything, because the signified is absent of
meaning. According to analytics, key statments of religion are essentially like
“piageeraa” - sentence like utterances without any snese. Nobody can either believe or
disbleive utterances like that because before one can either believe or not believe a
statement one has to understand what it says (NOTE: Incidentally to understand
“There is a God” one would have to understand fully what God is, and this is
impossible for any human being to do in any of the traditional conceptualizations
of God, since God is suppossed to be beyond complete understanding). This
understanding is impossible, according to Analytic philosophers, in the case of
metaphysical propositions, because language can not grasp the mind of God.
-Analytics argue that one can not loggicaly argue that “God exists’ because the
statement is nonsensical because one of its words cannot be satsifactorally defined -
the word “God” (and actually defining “exists” would be pretty tough too). God is often
defined as a non-physical person who is omniscent, omnipotent and universally good.
Can one really think such a being, in its full form? Similarly, “God does not exist” is
nonsense as is the agnostic’s “I do not know whether God exists”. None of these
statements make sense from a logical point of view, because langauge cannot “Define
the indefinable.”
-Similarly, the whole question of whether God is male or female is like asking
whether “Lake Huron is male or female.” What does one mean, for instance, when you
say “God sees everything.” How can a non-physical being see? What would seeing be
in such a case/ Can a non-physical being see? A way out of this is to argue that
religious propositions are not straightforward statements, but rather “metaphors”,
“similies”, “allegories”, or “symbolism”.
-Wittgenstein points out that we have no idea what a non-physical being is like,
so we can’t meaningfully talk abou it\Him\Her, since we are trapped in a physical world.
-Logic an empirical sysetm, because it cannot talk meaningfully about anything
beyond the material world. Therefore it cannot make any meaningful statement about
God, true or false. Therefore all we have to go on are our senses - specifically our
brain, taste, sight, smell, etc. The only way we can experience God (or non-God, for
that matter) is through experience and experience is always at least partly a lie, since
our experience of God or nature can never conform exactly to what God or nature
actually is.
-For that reason, 2 people cannot say “we believe in the same God” or the “same
Jesus”, because what each person means by God and Jesus can not be the same.
God cannot be defined, because no two people mean the same thing when they are
mentioning God. Therefore, it’s not really correct to say that “billions of people worhip
Jesus,” but to say that billions of people worship separate definitions of Jesus.
-My problem with the glorfication of truth over lies and rationality over emotion,
as well as literacy over illiteracy is based on moral assumptions, specifically that
rationality\truth\literacy is almost inevitability used as a tool by the more knowledgeable
against the less knowledgeable (though not less intelligent). The rational, in history, has
usually been defined as whites, the educated and therefore by extension the rich, who
are usually more likely to be educated, men, and the sane. Irrationality, intution,
conscience, emotion usually equated with the poor, women, blacks (and other
minorities), the mentally ill, etc. A classic example of this is in Lewis in which Jesus is
defined as “either lunatic, liar, or Lord.” Therefore, liars and lunatics are equivalent,
while the Lord is equated with truth and sanity. In different situations, the power
dynamic will be diffrent of course. But fundamentally, logic requires that the better
arguerers beat the worst arguers and the more “logical” beat the less “logical” Therefore
it tends to be a fundamentally abusive power relationship, since the less logical, in most
cases, are speaking from the subservient position in society: socially, economically, and
lingusitcally. This doesn’t make their arguments wrong, just not as logically thought out.
-The reliance on text over oral tradition, another sign of this fundamental
Western preoccupation with proving superiority through logical arguments (the written
word), which can be carefully formulated. Orality, which is associated with experience
based cultures that pass down their traditions, is devalued. Again, this leads to the
devaluing of those people who do not develop written languages (certain Native
American tribes before first contact), as well as those who can not use written language
for biological reasons (the mentally retarded person who claims we should love our
enemies versus the Nietzschean philosopher who claims we should kill the unfit), since
most formal logic systems a product of literate cultures and peoples.
-Judaism, Islam, conservative Christianity, Marxism, and Atheism all textually
based beliefs. Fundamental to their worldview is the assertion that God (if he exists)
operates in the realm of langauge and must be defined by language’s rules. Even Jews,
who get closest to the rejction of this viewpoint, ultimately falls short. Thus, these belief
systems privilege language over all non-linguistic means of communication
(conscience, the subconscious, emotion, etc.). God is reduced to some cosmic
truth\falsehood claim, as if a concept like God could fit into that kind of dualism. Those
means of worshipping\communiating with God that are non-textual are therefore seen
as inferior. These methods - personal conscience, emotion, intution, speaking in
tongues, communicating with God through dreams and visions, are devalued as not
being “sufficently spiritual.” And it is precisely these means of communication
(particularly speaking in tongues, dreams and visions) that are most often persuceted
and most often orally based. Witness the persecution of Methodists in Britian at the
beginning of the 1800s, black Christian slaves, or Charismatics by atheists and
Reformed Protestants, or the Sufi Muslims in the Middle East even. Belief systems that
communicate with God this way (another good example is the Quakers) devalued
because thay are seen as black\minority filled (Black Baptists, Pentecostals, or
minority-friendly (Quakers) or working class (all of the above with the exception of the
Quakers).
-Every religious system, therefore, is mythic because truth claims can not be
reduced solely to logic. Lies, therefore, serve as an important and neccessary means of
building a moral code. God could not communicate with us except through lying, or at
least distortions of the truth, not because God is immoral, but simply because we
cannot understand him under any other terms with our finite minds. Therefore he uses
myth, metaphor, symbolism, and allegory to hint at what he means (if one buys the
theistic argument).
-God therefore gives each being their own mythos, by which he hopes they will
encounter him and lead a moral life. But God is limited, not by himself, but by the limits
of language, so people misunderstand his message. Tolkien and Lewis, therefore,
were on the right track, in my opinoin. From a theist point of view, the myth
communicates important moral and spiritual truths that God wanted to convey to us,
regardless of whether the events in your particular myth actually happened or not (and
I’m not saying they didn’t). Similarly, an atheist can also get spiritual and moral truths
out of these myths or his own myths, regardless of whether they impart correct “truth
claims” In the final analysis, lying is the path to salvation for us all, since it is through the
lies in our lives, the half-truths, the emotions, the experiences, that we make sense of
the world. To me, therefore, the love of a human being for a helpless individual
(mentally retarded, vegatative individual) even if based on a lie (be it atheism,
Christianity, or whatever), will always be more worthy of respect and veneration than a
thousand logical proofs for Christianity, atheism, Judaism, Buddhism, etc.
-No two people going to have the same exact definition of “sin” or “election” or
any other of the signs\sinifiers of Christianity because each of these signs\signifiers
represents different signified ideas for every person. Thus, to claim that truth comes
from a certain textual formula is to assert (in Christianity, anyway) that salvation is
literally impossible for anyone, since no one could correctly believe in Jesus as Jesus
meant them to believe in him, since Jesus is God and his definition of belief would be
different from ours (and from our viewpoint, probably incomprehensible because of its
vastness), if in no other way than lingustically (As he is incarnate and therefore in the
material world, forced to communicate divine concepts through finite terms).
-It could be argued that the first person to speak (though this is somewhat
evolutionarily unlikely) could have created a private language known only to the self that
is not relational. The problem here is that one is assuming the self is a discrete,
concrete individual. In other words, one is assuming that “I” has a meaning, that there is
only one “I” and not several “I”’s. Yet how does one prove that “I” exists? Asserting an
“I” exists is a metaphysical assumption about “yourself”. Why could there not be a
multitude of “I”’s, a plethora of “I”’s, an infinity of “I’”s that make up the biological
organism which the-I’s-that-are-you(s) inhabit? How can the-I’s-that-are-you (s) prove,
either empirically or from logic that there is an coherent “I” as oppossed to an infinity of
things-in-the-meat-called-you, which come together to create the being that the-meatcalled-
you is defined as? And don’t give me “I think therefore I am” . . . this asserts,
again without logical proof, that there is an “I” that exists, that there is a process called
thinking, and that “I” knows what “thinking” is. Kierkegaard argued that “x thinks, I am
that x, Therefore I think, therefore I am.” Unfortunately this still presupposses that there
is a process called “thinking”
-There are potentially morally troubling aspects to these assertions, namely that
we may not be able to have individual rights, because there are no such things as
“invidiuals” only biological organisms which are a collection of an infinity of things that
together, usually but not always, define themselves as “I”. Therefore the fundamental
basis for human rights could be undercut, unless we ascertain rights to all biological
organisms within the human species, regardless of whether they have distinct individual
identities, or have identity at all. That, coincidentally, would tend to argue against a prochoice
subject position, since while fetuses can be defined as not being people, or not
being individuals, it is very hard to define them as not being human biological
organisms.
-What does this argument say about God? Can God be an “I” if He uses
language? Can God, while inside time, say “I exist” or “I do not exist,” when both of
those statements make metaphysical assumptions about there being a concrete “I”,
statements that can not be proven by logic, because they are literally nonsense. How
would we know an I exists? How could we prove that there are not more than one “i”’s
in each organism? Logically prove the assertion that “I” means only one concrete
identity. Can Jesus be said to have been one person, one “I”, one “Son” of God, when
there is no such thing as a distinct “I” in any one organism. Wasn’t Jesus, as incarnate
God, a million different “I”’s, each one the son of God. From this viewpoint, John 3:16 is
logically suspect. In the original it states “God so loved the world that he gave his only
begotten son, that we might not perish but have everlasting life.” Laying aside for the
moment that the verse, according to many Christians, is making a truth claim that can
not be proven through logical reason (What does it mean to say God loves? What does
it mean to say love at all, to believe that such a thing as “love” exists and can be proven
through logical deduction), one still has problems. Couldn’t it be argued it should be
properly understood as “The-infinity-of-I’s-that-make-the-being-called-God so loved the
world that they gave their-only-begotten-biological-organism-of-infinite-I’s, to save the
world.” Or alternately, that Jesus can not logically conclude “I Am” since he relates to
the world linguistically and therefore does not have a distinct identity, but many distinct
identities, no one more or less God. What about the trinity?
-One, according to Wittengstein and Anscombe, can also not argue that “Morality
is objective” since morality is a metaphysical concept and thus beyond the province of a
system of thought (logic) limited by the forces of linguistics. One can also not argue that
“Morality is subjective” or that “Morality is relative” or that “morality is absolute” because
these statements are neither true nor false, but literally nonsensical. To argue these
positions, one would have to understand what any of these statements says, when all
the terms being used in the statements are metaphysical assumptions, belonging to a
field, neither inferior or superior to logic, but ouside logic’s purvey. Thus, human
experience becomes the most likely grounds to base morality

Guatemala Mental patients experimented on

2010-10-01T21:11:00.000-07:00

Horrifying story about the U.S. experimenting on Guatemalan mental health patients.

"U.S. government medical researchers intentionally infected hundreds of people in Guatemala, including institutionalized mental patients, with gonorrhea and syphilis without their knowledge or permission more than 60 years ago."

I am also sickened by Hillary's statement about this, which tries to minimize U.S. actions by saying this happened 60 years ago. Do you really think things are so better now? I don't. I guess the last people to be declared human are always the least fortunate. Hardly surprising, but depressing.

Bullying LGBT people is not o.k.

2010-09-30T07:26:00.000-07:00

A horrible news story this morning about a gay Rutgers freshman being taped having sex, and then committing suicide. I am so revolted by the actions of these two Rutgers freshman in hurting a young LGBT man. Bullying of the mentally ill and LGBT populations is becoming an increasing problem. Indeed, any population labeled "freakish" today is in danger of suffering such rampant bullying - Goths, depressives, punks, etc. I am sick of the treatment of LGBT people in this society, and I don't blame solely the religious right for this. We Americans have a very warped sense of sexuality that automatically makes fun of male-male love, whether homoerotic or not. That needs to change. That needs to change now.

His Mansion's newest letter

2010-09-29T15:07:00.000-07:00

Stan Farmer's apparently still writing the letters for His Mansion, even though he stepped down as CEO, so I think we can be safely assured that nothing has really changed up on the Hill. His latest missive is out, in which he tells us that he's reading Sheila Walsh. Apparently Stan hasn't actually learned anything from Sheila, who was treated abominably by the evangelical community when she suffered from serious depression. Stan now inflicts those same guilt trips on the community at His Mansion, with no accountability from the outside world. Congrats, Stan.

The Need for Neo-Evangelical, Fundamentalist and Charismatic Alternatives to Nouthetics

2010-09-26T18:29:00.000-07:00

One thing that I feel is sorely lacking in other forms of evangelicalism is a thought out theology of counseling that can match what nouthetics supporters produce. Part of the advantage nouthetics supporters possess is the rich intellectual (though not moral) heritage of the Reformed tradition, which provides them with formidable debating tools to confront mentally ill and mentally-ill supporting "heretics" in the Adamsian tradition. Adams's Theology of Christian Counseling also is quite sophisticated in applying Reformed theology in defense of nouthetic practice. By contrast, much of the pro-psychology\psychiatry writing of anti-noutheticists (including sometimes my own), while great at picking apart the intellectual and moral problems with nouthetics, is less sophisticated in its theological defense of psychological tradition. Perhaps that is because psychology and Christianity ultimately are similar, but not totally coexisting, viewpoints, but I tend to doubt that, since Adams's own nouthetic practice, despite his denials, is only a rehash of reality therapy (and not even wholly original in that regard). I think it is up to each faith tradition in evangelicalism to come up with a truly health theology regarding the mentally ill, one not built on discarded Descartian dualism (nouthetics), smarmy bourgeoise values of "love" and "self-acceptance" (Warren, Olsteen), or horrible exorcist practices (the disciples of Nancy). Nor do I think TPM (theophostic counseling) is the answer, though I think it may be slightly less abusive than other forms of "bible-based" counseling. There needs to be another model of Christian therapy that notes the spiritual without using the Bible as a rulebook to beat someone over the head. To me, ideally counseling, while acknowledging religion, makes as few value-judgments as possible, and is concerned with the mental health of the client, their well being, and (of course) the safety of the community (this comes last, however). In lieu of this, I think Christian counseling needs to seriously look at its theological presuppositions and come to some sort of moral consensus that certain practices (nouthetic confrontation and exorcism in particular) should simply not be tolerated.

Gollum . . . mentally ill?

2010-09-25T01:42:00.000-07:00

I really wonder why there has to be a study about this. While professional therapists are debating Gollum's psychological deviancies, real life evangelicals are being exorcised by deliverance ministers and nouthetically confronted by biblical counselors. That being said, I don't really have a position on Gollum's mental illness or lack thereof. I think it's rather silly to apply psychotherapeutic techniques to a literary character. I do wonder, however, what the nouthetic diagnosis of Gollum would be? Doesn't bear thinking about.

Update on My Article

2010-09-21T17:36:00.000-07:00

Hey guys, just wanted to let you know I finally submitted by article on biblical counseling to a peer reviewed journal. Cross your fingers about it getting accepted. It has originality on its side (not many secular journals have covered biblical counseling. Actually, none.). That may not be enough. I also worry that I had to rely too much on online sources for parts of the article, to prove how belligerent the more radical members of the biblical counseling movement can occassionally be. I should be hearing back about it in a couple of weeks.

Pullman, C.S. Lewis, and the Ethics of Using Children as Religious Pawns

2010-09-19T07:13:00.001-07:00

I'm working on a class I'm teaching for the winter, about Lewis and Tolkien. I've been rereading essays on both men's works, and one issue that occasionally comes up is the Phillip Pullman\C.S. Lewis debate. Now, I like both Pullman and Lewis, though I think Lewis is a slightly better writer (that may just be childish preference talking, however). But I am disturbed that both Lewis and Pullman saw fiction as a vehicle for proselytizing to kids. I contrast this with Tolkien and J.K. Rowling, who did not seem to have the same goal. Both Tolkien and Rowling believed in certain values and morals and fought for those, but they did not believe in using children as religious pawns, so the issue of belief vs. nonbelief was largely kept to the side. It is no coincidence, in my opinion, that Tolkien and Rowling are better sellers and favorites. They express universal truths that we can all believe in, while not forcing people to subscribe solely to the author's point of view (this is particularly true of Rowling). I think the continued popularity of Pullman and Lewis speaks to the continued marginalization of children in our culture, where they are used as little more than political weapons by one religious\non-religious group against another.

On Catholicism and Greek Orthodoxy

2010-09-18T07:41:00.000-07:00

I am currently researching into Catholicism and Greek Orthodoxy, mainly to understand what these belief systems mean. Orthodoxy seems the better of the two belief systems, but I do feel somewhat disturbed by Catholicism's insistence that Catholics and only Catholics represent the true church, and that while non-Catholics will be saved, it will only be through the Catholic church's efforts. Frankly, I don't understand where they get that from biblically (I"m not an inerrantist in any case) or how they can justify that doctrine ethically. Of course, I don't get the whole evangelical emphasis on the "saved" either, since that's every bit as exclusive as Catholicism's definition. More and more, I just feel Judaism is the most logical of the major religions, and the only religion that even attempts to deal with its own "shit". So, just wish me well. I have a lot of theological and philosophical thinking to do.

Jay Adams on the "simplistic accusation"

2010-09-15T10:12:00.000-07:00

Jay Adams had up an interesting post on how people see his writing as too simplistic. I think, to a certain extent, I can see Adams's point. In at least the Christian Counselor's Manual and his book on theology and counseling (sorry, I forgot the title), Adams talks about psychological theory in great detail, and his ideas can occasionally be interesting (operant conditioning of an angel, for instance). To claim that Adams doesn't at least have a basic knowledge of psychology is absurd. On the other hand, while Adams's depiction of his own theology is not simple (in my opinion), he does tend to simplify the counseling ideologies he depicts. For instance, Adams's analysis of Freudianism tends to be colored by a Puritanical reaction to Freud's centralization of the sexual impulse in counseling. Adams tends himself to too easily dismiss the sexual drive, a natural byproduct of his creationist outlook. On the other hand, Adams's satire of humanistic psychology, while hardly fair, is entertaining for anyone whose ever had to deal with a disciple of Carl Rogers. Adams himself seemed to realize that psychology was a social construct. My main problem with Adams and his disciples is that they do not also recognize that the standards biblical counseling sets up are also social constructs. To claim, as some of Adams's more erstwhile disciples do, that depression or OCD is condemned in the Bible is absolutely absurd. Gethsemane anyone? I don't think our Lord was a sinner when he cried "Eloi, Eloi" which is about as doubting a statement as one can possibly come up with. There's nothing in the Bible that could possibly be construed as labeling over-counting or facial tics as sins, or that could condemn a child who caught OCD from strep as having become a great sinner because of strep throat! The problem with Adams is not that he defends the inerrancy of the Bible (even though that doctrine is a recent historical invention), but that he adds to it commands that were never in it.

Jay Adams on empirical evidence for nouthetics

2010-09-12T10:16:00.000-07:00

Jay Adams had a rather interesting post on biblical counseling and empirical evidence. Adams writes: "Question: What empirical evidence do you have that Nouthetic Counseling is superior to other forms of counseling?
Answer: Quite frankly, none. Do you wonder at that? Let me tell you why you shouldn’t. To compare Christian counseling with other forms of counseling is to compare oranges to apples (no, let’s say, oranges and socks!). Consider the goal of Christian counseling over against that of others. Most counseling seeks to solve a person’s problem in order to bring relief. That is the prime goal. In Christian counseling, however, the goal is to honor and glorify God, whether or not relief is obtained. How, then, do you compare the outcomes?
Moreover, since the object of biblical counseling is to bring about change in the counselee that honors God, how would you test for that empirically? Would you put his soul in a test tube, shake it up and hope it turns blue? How would you test whether God was honored, whether the motives of the counselee were sound (since God looks upon the heart; not merely on outward behavior) or whether he only made changes outwardly? How would you determine the extent of the Holy Spirit’s work in the counselee’s life so as to make the desired spiritual changes? In other words, there is no way to obtain empirical evidence. Since it is biblical attainments that are under consideration, it is impossible to get statistical evidence for the spiritual changes that the biblical counselor seeks to bring about."

Adams is ultimately far more honest than many of his colleagues in the biblical counseling movement. He admits that the ultimate goal of biblical counseling is to make the patient\counselee conform to the cross, not to make them get better. Of course, the assumption is that if one conforms to the cross one will get better, but that is not the ultimate goal. The problem with this counseling methodology is that it is not ultimately centered on helping the client, but on reinforcing societal values (specifically Christian values) whether or not the counselee is helped. It is my belief that counseling, even counseling for truly disturbed people like pedophiles, should ultimately aim at helping the client become a more mentally healthy individual, whose illness or deviancy is more firmly under their own control. Biblical counseling shifts the control of the client's illness to the counselor and thus removes agency from the counselee in controlling their own lives.

Without empirical evidence, it is difficult to see how biblical counselors can charge $85 to $100 bucks for counseling sessions, as some CCEFers do (Adams, to my knowledge, does not do this). Basically, biblical counseling then becomes solely about faith healing and has no claim to being an empirically based discipline or a discipline for which the counselor should even be paid.

Nancy Alcorn takes 40 Mercy girls to the Call

2010-09-09T07:50:00.000-07:00

According to Nancy Alcorn, she took 40 Mercy girls to the recent Call event in Sacramento, California. According to Nancy "I just wanted to give a big shout out to Lou Engle and his wife, Therese, and all the thousands of people who came from all over the United States to attend TheCall. It was such a wonderful time as we prayed for our nation, our leaders, and for the hearts of people to be turned back to God! We joined with intercessory representatives from, and on behalf, of California and every state to "altar" lives, "altar" states, and "altar" the nation."

I can not tell you how deeply disturbing I find this. The Call is led by Lou Engle. You may remember him from the movie Jesus Camp. He's the guy who shows the kids in Jesus Camp the little plastic fetuses and then gets them to scream "Righteous judges, Righteous judges!" And that's NOT what I'm disturbed about. It's Lou Engle's other work: Engle is responsible for several sermons in Uganda decrying homosexuality . . . sermons that occurred shortly after Uganda tried to put the anti-gay death penalty on the books. And that's NOT THE ONLY REASON WHY I'M DISTURBED. Engle has also influenced the rhetoric of Joel's Army, an evangelical group that believes we need to breed a super-race of evangelicals gifted with unique spiritual powers to combat the "serpent's seed" of intellectuals

Students at certain Joel's Army schools have been taught "that they were a "super-race" of the "elected seed" of all the best bloodlines of all generations — foreknown, predestined, and hand-selected from billions of others to be part of the "end-time Omega generation." (see article linked to above). Now granted, this is a great way to teach Mercy girls self-esteem, but I think they don't necessarily need to become blood zealots to do so.

The politicization of Mercy Ministries, what I long feared, has begun. Nancy, do you really want your girls learning from a man who allies with legalized murderers in Uganda. Do you really want your girls thinking that they are the super-seed of an End Times army? I think you're smarter than that Nancy. And I certainly hope your Mercy girls are.

Book Burning and Fundamentalism

2010-09-08T09:04:00.000-07:00

So, now we have a book burning controversy with the Koran, as a Gainsville pastor wants to hold "Burn a Koran Day". The story would simply be amusing if it wasn't so sick. As you all know, in principle I'm not opposed to book burning. What I am opposed to is burning books to provoke religious or political violence, which seems to be this pastor's intention. Fundamentalism has good reasons to be burning art, but it's reasons for burning the books of opposing religions or books suspected of supporting opposing religions (Harry Potter anyone?) are ridiculously poor. There is definitely such a thing as a principled anti-art evangelical stance, and I for one am eager to develop it. However, that stance does not come from casually attacking another religion's sacred books, endangering thousands of Christians and Muslims.

Note: Still no news on Mercy or His Mansion, and Jay Adams has kept rather quiet lately.

Anti-Semitic thought in Evangelicalism

2010-09-05T15:27:00.000-07:00

I'm still coming to terms with the anti-Semitic heritage evangelicalism has given me. I have never liked that heritage, but as a child I believed in it to some extent, particularly the ideas that the Jews killed Christ and that the Holocaust was punishment for Jewish unbelief in Jesus. Looking back on it now, I can not fathom how I could believe such reprehensible things, in the name of God. I find myself pulled to Judaism intensely, but I know that that is partly caused by my desire to attain some sort of victimized status, and I believe that justly only belongs to those born into Judaism or non-Christian converts to Judaism. As a Christian, my act of atonement for the Holocaust is to remain a Christian, even though I am far more attracted to Judaism. Nothing can mitigate what I believed as a child, nothing can forgive those thoughts. The only possible way I have to even minimize the suffering my religion, through me and others, has caused, is to accept the cross, not as redemption, but as punishment.

God and Paradox

2010-09-03T22:47:00.000-07:00

I'm gradually coming to terms with coming back to Christianity, but one thing my current theological thinking really focuses on is paradox, ideas like to die we must live, to love we must hate, to have goodness we must have sin, that faith can only come with doubt. Paradox allows me to exist in a liminal space where belief and non-belief merge in a kind of syncretic, scary unity. I'm inspired in this - you won't be surprised - by Gerstein, who to me is the ultimate encapsulation of both the redemptive and the tragic elements in Christian theology. I think, as a Christian, it is impossible not to in some extent, sympathize with the victimizers, even as we sympathize with the victims. There is an inner Nazism within all Christians that needs always to be fought, but also to be acknowledged as incarnate in the world. One of my central problems with the Christianity I grew up with is that it never fully acknowledged its responsibility for the evil done in its name. Embracing paradox allows me to acknowledge that evil's existence, but to also acknowledge that as incarnate beings, we ultimately have to settle for that kind of imperfection in our religions and perhaps in our Gods. I guess in some ways I'm moving to a pre-Nicean, Arian (not Aryan) time Christianity, but who knows where I'll end up. Please keep me in your prayers.

No news on the Mercy or His Mansion fronts today.

Imago Dei and Embryos

2010-09-02T15:06:00.000-07:00

A post that's slightly off topic, but roughly deals with the same issues I struggle with concerning artificial intelligence and mental illness. As you all know, I've always been rather skeptical of the doctrine of imago dei (the idea that man is created in God's likeness). Historically, the doctrine has been used to denigrate the mentally ill within the evangelical church, as if we are somehow less imago dei because Christ could not be mad, but only liar or Lord. As someone who believes in a mad Christ, I have rejected that logic utterly, because I can't worship a God who doesn't have some share in the insanity of mentally ill peoples' lives. Furthermore, I refuse to declare another form of sentience soulless, because it is not made in mine, nor God's, likeness. I think these arguments are sound, but I have another.
In recent years, scientists have been experimenting with embyronic manipulation. In some cases, tiny bits of animal DNA have been inserted into human embryos, creating chimeras or hybrids. The question then becomes, do these embryos still have souls (assuming we can even define that most nebulous of theological terms)? We will also soon be able to take animal embryos and alter them into human embryos. Is this creation imago dei or diabolic? My point is, the contemporary evangelical understanding of imago dei is tragically short sighted, because it does not prepare evangelicals for the coming of transhumanist technologies and the consequences of transhumanist thought. Traditional concepts of imago dei will not be able to last in a world where the very meaning of "human" and "person" will be highly subjectivized. We need a new definition of the human, one that rejects the nouthetic notion that mind and body are separate. Otherwise, we risk condemning many other forms of life to perpetual slavery at our hands.

Jay Adams on class differences and church targeting

2010-09-01T06:03:00.000-07:00

A small, but important post, by Adams, as it shows the complexity of the biblical counseling debate. Adams objects to the modern form of "seeker sensitive" church targeting, in which churches do market research to find their coveted target audience. Many of these churches then adopt their sermon style to best attract those audiences. In the seventies, crucially, this led to what some biblical counseling advocates have labeled the "psychologicalizing of the gospel". This movement, through seeker sensitives, provoked an intense counter-response among biblical counseling advocates (in particular John Macarthur) which hardened existing theological positions. I think it's important to realize that this controversy, though manipulated wrongly by biblical counseling advocates, was indeed a tragic dimension of the evangelical church, as it used pop psychology rather than the gospel or truly challenging psychologists like Frankl or Jung, to quiet evangelicals fears. It taught a gospel of self that is contrary to the most basic Christian teachings. Therefore, I have to agree with Adams in his diagnosis, even if I disagree with him on the cure.

Jay Adams on Self-Esteem Movement

2010-08-29T09:35:00.000-07:00

Jay Adams had some interesting, if problematic things, to say on the self-esteem movement in a recent blog entry: "I want you to know that I do not enjoy criticizing others who have gone wrong in their counseling. I believe, however, that this criticism is fair and honest—and needed. But “too critical?” How can one be too critical of those who misrepresent our Lord Jesus Christ? Take for instance the “need” pyramid of Abraham Maslow that has led to much wrong thinking and even serious misinterpretation of Scripture on the part of “Christian” counselors. When the self-actualization, self-esteem movement came along, there were many who hopped on board. In order to justify using this non-Christian, unbiblical belief system, there were those who taught that God had to redeem us because we were so valuable to him. This theology, which bases the saving death of Christ upon our supposed great worth, flatly contradicts the biblical teaching about grace. There was nothing in us to commend us to God; our redemption issued purely out of His undeserved mercy and goodness."

Now, basically I agree with Adams in his contention that the self-esteem movement gained too much power in the evangelical church over the last forty years. The prosperity gospel preached by Rick Warren and Joel Olsteen is a direct result of that movement, and Olsteen and Warren's preaching has motivated a whole generation of egocentric, self-centered theology in the evangelical church that cares very little for what's happening elsewhere in the world. In many ways, I respect the old time political evangelicalism a lot better than the Warren\Olsteen gospel. What I disagree with Adams on is that we are not valuable to God. Even from a literalist position, this is an extremely dubious position. Jesus came into the world because he "loved it so much." I realize that there are other verses that would contradict John 3:16, but I think that any sense of human rights that can come out of Christianity has to emphasize the dignity, though not necessarily the goodness, of the human person. We are all brothers and sisters in this world, whether or not we are loved by God, and that entitles our brothers and sisters to our respect and compassion.

A request towards new exorcism filmmakers

2010-08-27T03:14:00.000-07:00

A post from my other blog that I thought you might find of interest:

Well, with the new release of The Last Exorcism, and the continuing popularity of films like The Exorcism for Emily Rose, I thought it would be a good idea to caution science fiction producers not to follow the same path. These new films on exorcism clearly exploit mentally ill populations, which after all are the victims of exorcisms. The mentally ill often have no choice as to whether or not to get an exorcism, as the recent scandals concerning Mercy Ministries Australia testifies to. Exorcism is not some cool religious rite tailor-made for horror movies, but an abusive, denigrating religious practice, primarily aimed at the mentally ill. It has no place in any modern religion, still less as the subject for exploitative Hollywood films. Fortunately, to my knowledge, only Space 1999, among major sci-fi series, has had an exorcism in it, though that Scotty-murder episode in the original Star Trek got pretty darn close. Hopefully, science fiction television won't follow the examples of horror films.

Jay Adams to answer objections

2010-08-26T02:51:00.000-07:00

According to Jay Adams blog, he is currently working on a book that answers objections from his critics. This may prove to be an interesting read, if simply because Adams has tended to avoid answering such questions in the past. The central issue for me, however, is whether his views on mental illness have evolved at all from Competent to Counsel and his other works (and yes I've read more than just CTC). I also think it might benefit Adams to rethink the process of nouthetic confrontation, putting less power in the hands of the counselor, as that is the main reason why the process has been prone to abuse. We'll see what happens.

To Be Poor and Mentally Ill

2010-08-25T06:39:00.000-07:00

I'm not poor yet, but I'm approaching it. I've cut off my relationship with my parents, and have told my family that I don't want any financial help. I have $1200 in the bank, which has to last me the next four weeks, including phone and internet bills (I need both for work). Poverty, of course, is hard on anyone, but it's hardest on the mentally ill. The more financial pressure a mentally ill person is placed under, the more likely that person is to break. According to the Office of Minority Health "In 2006, adults living below the poverty level were four times more likely to have serious psychological distress as compared to adults over twice the poverty level." I suspect that a good deal of mentally ill people end up in poverty because they can not maintain a stable enough emotional environment to keep a job, nor a stable financial environment to keep them on their medication. I am very lucky in this regard, as I get health insurance through the state. But the spectre of poverty has always scared me. I know I am only one level removed from not being able to afford my meds, meds without which I can not survive. I just hope I never reach that level.

Pray for Jay Adams

2010-08-24T05:44:00.000-07:00

As much as I may disagree with Mr. Adams, please pray for him (or send kind wishes), as he's currently in the hospital. Whatever my disagreements with the man, he does have a powerful intellect, and that part of him, at least, I'd be sorry to see leave this world. Take care, Jay, and my prayers are with you.

Mercy Ministries New Sex Trafficking News Outlet

2010-08-23T07:40:00.000-07:00

Mercy Ministries now apparently has a sex trafficking news outlet on its website. I feel really conflicted about this. On one hand, it's good that Christians are becoming more concerned about this issue, particularly as Westerners have been exploiting people sexually in the Third World, but particularly South East Asia, for many years now. And I do believe Nancy sincerely wants to help. But at the same time, I shudder to think at what Mercy will tell victims of sex trafficking, if it ever becomes involved full time in the anti-sex trade movement. I particularly am concerned, given Mercy's previous track record, that it will ask sex trafficking victims to eventually forgive their abusers, perhaps ask them far too soon. So, please keep your eye on this issue, and hopefully it won't work out as badly as I'm anticipating it will.

Sean the Blogonaut on Hillsong

2010-08-19T12:12:00.000-07:00

Sean has reported previously on Gloria Jeans. Now, Hillsong is trying to distance themselves from Gloria Jeans. This despite several high-profile members of Hillsong are also high profile members of Gloria Jeans. Much thanks to Sean for his excellent reporting on this issue. Hillsong clearly needs to be more honest and transparent to its members and to the public. No chance of that happening any time soon. And even less chance of Gloria Jeans doing right by the Australian nation.

Sean the Blogonaut on Gloria Jeans

2010-08-18T01:49:00.000-07:00

See Sean the Blogonaut's latest post on Gloria Jeans. Apparently, the former prominent Mercy backer is in serious financial crisis. So sad that they will be unable to offer exorcisms-for-coffee in the near future. Well, score one for the good guys, I guess.

One of Last Letters from Stan Farmer

2010-08-16T02:18:00.000-07:00

The latest and perhaps one of the last missives from Stan Farmer. Less offensive material than normal, with no baiting of the mentally ill, and only a few snide comments about the state of the national economy thanks to Obama. What that has to do with helping mentally ill people is, of course, beyond me, but then again I don't run His Mansion.
On another note, I am planning to re-read The Ambiguity of Good, Kurt Gerstein's biography. It still troubles me that I find this SS officer more admirable than any human being I have heard of, including Christ. It makes it difficult to worship Christ when you know that someone else tried to save 6 million lives at the cost of his own, and his own moral worth. That Gerstein is still considered a war criminal in some circles and Stan Farmer a hero, is of infinite disappointment to me.