Archive for the ‘Christian Psychology’ Category

Marketing Campaigns Continue for Materials that Supplant the Bible

February 23rd, 2008 by David Dansker

iss_topxx13.jpg.Credit:NASAEvery year more and more packages of small group curricula are marketed to churches under the pretense of helping pastors to do their job better. A popular theme this year is apologetics, and there are several products to choose from. Lee Strobel is broadcasting his “Investigation Faith” seminars, and his small group curriculum will be released this Fall. Strobel also endorses Garry Poole’s Seeker Small Groups (which is also endorsed by Nicky Gumbel, of The Alpha Course). Outreach Training’s Mark Mittelberg, who coauthored Becoming a Contagious Christian with Willow Creek’s Bill Hybels, encourages pastors to purchase their resources in order to get “key sharp lay leaders” to perform apologetics ministries, among other things.1

It seems that nothing has been left to chance, or the Holy Spirit, at Outreach Training; they have even chiseled four “laws” of outreach ministry, with several codices for each. The first law, according to Outreach, requires churches to create an “identity” by using the marketing technique of “branding.”2 Once the church designs a marketable image, they move on to work the sections in law number two which cover how to attract visitors. The first section in this law is titled “Doing Marketing God’s Way,” and it includes a particularly horrible take on the Pentecost, and advises that:

Churches and ministries should examine the communication channels (or media) available to them and strategize effective ways to use them for the Kingdom in their own communities.3

There seems, always, to be interspersed in these money making programs some talk about building something for the Kingdom, to lure the unlearned into thinking they are being extended an opportunity to construct an edifice to commemorate their meritorious sacrifices; if only to have it displayed as a small brick in the wall of the celestial city to come. All of this to be gained, claim the authors, by looking to the world’s method of marketing to know what to do. After all, this is the section on marketing, but it raises the critical point.

Are pastors allowing this shameless merchandising of the saints under their care because they really do need help doing their job; because they don’t know how to do it? What else to conclude but that too many young seminary graduates are actually psychology majors stopping over for the time being while they get up nerve to hang out their own shingles in practices elsewhere. Ambitious young men who are after more respectable and higher paying counseling jobs so that they can live in the houses they want to live in, and drive the cars they want to drive. Unless, of course, they could get the marketing right in one of these churches and build attendance into an income tsunami they could ride to prosperity on.

iss_topyy12.jpgThe authors of these programs counter that apologetics is some specialty ministry requiring their expertise and (well paid) assistance. They clamor that orchestrated attacks are mounting from the atheists, and time must be spent by pastors studying their arguments and crafting rebuttals. Yet, all atheism boils down to only one argument, and it is the easiest to rebut using only a book that pastors should already have in their possession.

The only thing that would establish atheism as the truth of the universe is the fact of Darwinian Evolution; and it is a theory that is almost effortlessly demolished, proved to be a universal lie, using only the first two chapters of Genesis. Are there not so many such men as are called pastors, who have faith in God and His word, who could teach from the first book in the Bible? Is it true that the best course for men in saving souls is that they should vex themselves by steeping their minds in the convoluted reasoning of reprobates and unregenerate men?

This is a digression of the worst sort. No such valuable time should be liberally applied to these pursuits, and especially not by pastors who admit, by their temptation to purchase these sordid professional development programs, that they lack familiarity with the Bible itself. Here is acquaintance on the subject of persuading those who would seek God, and what needs actually exists for supplementing the gospel. Open the book and read, even from the beginning. For our Lord spoke on this subject: “And he said unto him, If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead” (Luk 16:31).4

Notes:

1. Katherine T. Phan, “Apologists Ask Churches to Step Up Response to Militant Atheism,” Christian Post, February 13, 2008. http://www.christianpost.com/article/20080213/31176

_Apologists_Ask_Churches_to_Step_Up_Response_to_Militant_Atheism.htm

2. Resources, Outreach Training, http://www.outreachtraining.com/resources.html. (accessed February 20, 2008).

3. “Doing Marketing God’s Way,” From Outreach, Inc. Products Division. http://www.outreachtraining.com

/documents/DoingMarketingGodsWay.pdf. (accessed February 20, 2008).

4. This from our Lord’s account of two certain and particular men who died and received their separate and eternal reward, and here He quoth Abraham.

Posted in Hirelings, Theory of Evolution, Professional Development, Small Group, Christian Psychology, Doctrine of Nicolaitanes, Deception, Darwinian Evolution, Apologetics, Church Marketing, Apostasy Beat | 2 Comments »

Reframing Your God: Psychotherapy at the Pinnacle of Babel

September 23rd, 2007 by David Dansker

pia08939_modest2credit-nasa.jpg
Probably the single most powerful force plunging the Protestant church into apostasy is psychotherapy. With its pretense of science, aura of state licensing, and seductive dichotomy of body, spirit, and mind as equal parts in holistic health care; the pursuit of mental health, with its manufactured aliments and theoretical cures, has eclipsed the quest for spiritual growth and discernment.

For an example of how ludicrous these psychotherapy theories have become, and how brazen their attacks on the Christian faith, consider Reframe Your Life: Transforming Your Pain into Purpose, by Stephen Arterburn. The book description alone sounds an alarm:

Everyone needs a way to break free from the pain of their past. By explaining and illuminating a psychological technique known as ‘reframing,’ bestselling author Stephen Arterburn puts readers on the path to freedom from old wounds….

Reframe Your Life instructs readers on how to view hurtful events through a more informed frame of reference, allowing them to look at dark moments from a broader perspective than the events themselves and empowering them to step into a brighter future.1

But is this architectural exercise of creating a museum in the imagination where exhibits are constructed of past sins in order to dress them up in decorative framing “the path to freedom from old wounds,” or a menagerie created by psychotherapy which locks the wayward into a curatorial obligation of servitude to the past? Moreover, the pertinent question here is, should a Christian obtain this book to seek help?

Steve Arterburn is the founder of New Life Ministries, a counseling and treatment ministry, and the host of the nationally syndicated radio show “New Life Live.” Although Arterburn describes his ministry as “faith-based” on his website, a call to his counseling network revealed that the great majority of the counselors used by New Life are state licensed psychologists.

pia07569-br500.jpg. Credit:NASAIt should also be noted that the term faith-based does not mean exclusively Christian, or based on Christian doctrines. In fact, the most that Publishers Weekly could say in their review regarding any biblical principals to be found in Reframe Your Life was that “a gentle faith perspective is woven through the book, with a special section on Reframing Your God to help readers get their spiritual lives in harmony.”2

The sad truth is that for the person without God this psychobabble is the best the world has to offer: reinventing the past and flirtations with a customizable God concept. More tragically, it functions much like an inoculation to the real thing. For the Christian, this is psychoheresy: the mingling of psychological theories with biblical principals to compromise or contradict biblical Christianity. Indeed, a treatment in such a work devoted to reframing your God raises the question as to whether or not blasphemy is committed. Christians should not consult this work; much less support it by purchasing it.

Notes:


1. New Life Ministries, product description of Reframe Your Life: Transforming Your Pain into Purpose, By Stephen Arterburn (July 2007).

2. Publishers Weekly, review of Reframe Your Life: Transforming Your Pain into Purpose, By Stephen Arterburn (July 2007).

Posted in Teletherapists, Christian Psychology, Apostasy, Psychology, Psychotherapy, Psychoheresy Beat | 5 Comments »

“Psychobabble” Admitted Disease, Plague Continues to Strike Churches

March 5th, 2007 by David Dansker

satring1crop1.gif. Credit:NASA

Churches across the land will be exposed to compromise again this year as pastors relinquish their pulpits to psychologists. Already, speaking schedules are being booked at near capacity for these counselors to come in and take authority over flocks, and to instruct them in the intimacies of marriage and romance. Take for example Drs. Les and Leslie Parrott, clinical psychologist and marriage and family therapists. This year their “Becoming Soulmates Seminar” is being held at churches all over the country, and in Canada, and includes twenty-nine bookings to date.[i] The Parrotts have also appeared on Good Morning America, CBS This Morning, CNN, The View with Barbara Walters, NBC Nightly News, and Oprah; and their work has been published in Family Circle, Redbook, Men’s Health, Focus on the Family, Brides, and USA Today.[ii] Insight as to their message might be gleaned from another of their series also appearing at churches entitled Love Talk, which includes the book by the same name, online assessment, DVD’s, small group workbooks, and leader’s guide.

In Love Talk, the duo claims to translate “psychobabble” into an “easy to understand language,” which can be used by them to teach couples how to “speak each other’s language.”[iii] It is fitting that these psychologists have finally come to accept the arch pejorative of their craft as a descriptive neologism: babble means confusion of tongues.

The concern that pastors should have regarding these counselors is that they continue to be received by major audiences through popular, nationwide secular programs. By this it may be presumed that they cannot be preaching the exclusive message of the gospel. Indeed, when going to the world marketplace with their merchandise, they should cast a broad net. A look at their product description for Love Talk gives an idea of how broad:

In this six-session Zondervan GroupwareSmall Group Edition DVD curriculum, acclaimed relationship experts and real-life couple Les and Leslie Parrott are back with a wonderfully insightful guide for improving the single most important factor in any marriage or love relationship— communication![iv]

The term “any marriage” sounds all inclusive and applicable to the saved, unsaved, and unequally yoked, but do they expand their claim of nourishment and efficacy to explicitly extra-biblical unions? The terms taken together, “any marriage or love relationship” (emphasis added) would seem conclusive that they do. The point is that their product of therapy is designed and marketed to people in non-Christian, extra-biblical, romantic unions. It cannot be purely comprised of Christian corrections and reproofs, or even predominantly Christian. The short is that for the world this is a therapy of the world, but for the Christian to turn towards this instruction they turn away from biblical counsel.

Sincere, but negligent pastors are in for a rude awakening when they see and hear how Biblically anemic these programs are. In the aftermath, they will be scrambling to supplement them with scripture. Then will it finally occur to them that they had the material all along, could have done a better job; and that they did not need to hire famous, smiling faces, but only seek the face of God?

Notes:

 

(more…)

Posted in Christian Psychology, Celebrity Christians, Dr. Les Parrott, Love Talk, Teletherapists, Deception, Psychotherapy, Psychology, Psychiatry, Psychoheresy Beat | No Comments »

In Restoration of Ted Haggard, psychologists make high-profile convert

February 11th, 2007 by David Dansker

After undergoing several weeks of “intensive counseling,” Ted Haggard is supposedly only twelve steps from complete restoration. Released to pursue secular employment, he is being encouraged to continue in “Christian counseling,”1 and to join a sexual-addition program. The tune being played for him to do his twelve-step is piped by his restoration panel which includes H.B. London of Focus on the Family. London runs the FOM ministry to pastors, and would probably employ similar psychological treatments as relied upon by FOM’s founder, psychologist Dr. James Dobson. This therapy has been so successful that Haggard plans to study for his own master’s degree in psychology.

The 14,000 members of New Life Church, the church Haggard built, might not even notice the heresy in this latest development in what has become their saga. In their restoration process, the disgraced Sheppard of the flock was replaced by the likes of courageous associate pastor Bob Brendle.

While standing face to face with male prostitute Mike Jones, the instrument of Haggard’s downfall, Brendle leveled such decisive doctrinal prose as: “I don’t want to impose my religious beliefs on you.”2 This statement was uttered not in the private confines of Jones’ own castle, or in the neutral environment of his workplace, where he is similarly protected from proselytizing, but it was brazenly delivered in Brendle’s own work place, reputedly to be a house of God.

The concluding revelation to Brendle’s fiery opener was that he believed Jones was actually an instrument “God used to correct us.”3 The only correction Jones seemed to receive, however, was a church response that “was overwhelming warm.”4  If Jones finds no other repository of God’s word during his sojourning here, he will eventually experience a reception where it will be overwhelming hot.

In the aftermath of Haggard’s fall and restoration, all aspects of this truth have apparently been subordinated to truths in psychological therapy.  According to FOM’s London, who seems to classify Haggard’s past Christian pastorate and his redirection into the field of psychology as forays into “healing, helping professions,” a key factor in motivating a desire to help other people is “some sort of dysfunction or traumatic event in our lives.”5  This may be why Haggard is being restored to psychology, and eventually to such a high degree; he is receiving therapy for dysfunction, and not offering repentance for sin.

The former remedy stems from a clinical premise which uses jargon that might be used to describe catching a bad cold, and treated by the sterile administration of a hypodermic injection. The later circumstance sounds dirty, vile, and filthy; and requiring the trembling, sobbing, broken and desperate soul to fall prostrate before an Almighty, Holy, and forgiving God. Certainly one is more appealing to the flesh than the other. What a fine trophy Haggard will make in the halls of psychobabblers everywhere. A man at the pinnacle vocation of receiving and dispensing counsel from the creator of the universe, the author of mankind’s redemption, the finisher of his restoration through the plan of faith; a man who sank so low as to only be salvageable through the power of therapies authored by reprobate men.

Notes:

1 -2. Erick Gorski, “Haggard says he is ‘completely heterosexual‘,” Denver Post.com. Feburary 6, 2007. http://www.denverpost.com/ci_5164921
3 -4. The Christian Post, “Haggard’s Accuser Visits Megachurch,” January 29, 2007.
http://www.christianpost.com/article/20070129/
25472_Haggard%27s_Accuser_Visits_Megachurch.htm.
5. Gorski, “Haggard says he is ‘completely heterosexual’” (emphasis added).

Posted in Teletherapists, Christian Psychology, Psychiatry, Psychology, Psychotherapy, Psychoheresy Beat | 2 Comments »

Christian Psychologists: can’t shake the monkey on their back

November 28th, 2006 by David Dansker

newrings_cassini.jpgI reviewed the interview “Stress Management is Adrenaline Management” with Dr. Archibald Hart, Professor of Psychology at the Fuller Theological Seminary, on Focus on the Family with Dr. Dobson (Adrenaline and Stress I-III). I jotted down points raised in the interview in an outline to keep track of presentation, and I made a few comments next to some.

In all these explanations for behavior, addictions replace sin as the conditions to be cured of. Because the cause for the destructive behavior is sin, and psychology cannot offer a cure for sin; only the symptoms of sin are addressed in psychology.

a. You should manage it with medication.

b. Learn how to enjoy “low arousal” (medications for “low arousal” therapy are now part of psychologist’s prescriptions for problem students)

c. “We are all adrenaline addicts” (ostensibly we all should, or could, be on some type of medication and therapy. Note that psychology is the only practice that invents diseases in order to manufacture patients, although the pharmaceutical companies, another arm of the medical industry, are also upgrading degenerative complaints into “conditions” treatable by their products).

d. The definition of addiction is it has got to be damaging (”damaging” diagnosis carries some descriptions many would identify with; but it can also be highly subjective to psychologists theorize to be “healthy”; see diagnosis for “misuse of religious faith,” point “n”)

e. We are plagued with “hidden addictions” that we are unaware of (but that no doubt can be revealed in psychological counseling and or treated with the latest book and tape series authored by a psychologist.)

f. Anything used for escape of problems is addiction (this might included frequent Bible reading and prayer to escape the problems created by your flesh; and that is a fact of diagnosable disease in psychology; see point “n”).

g. Addictions are caused by unmet needs carried over into adulthood (all of these, by the way, and are identified as needs that can be met by what other people do with and for us; and there are no “unmet needs,” according to Maslov’s Hierarchy of Human Needs, that are met by God.).

h. �The biochemistry of the body, inappropriately triggered and over used that can be the bases for a hidden addiction� (this theory of Dr. Hart�s in compatible with the theories found biological evolution for explaining why we do what we do).

i. Dr. Hart actually goes to great lengths to avoid recognizing sin as a condition. When Dr. Hart shares a hypothetical case with Dr. Dobson on FOM, he reveals to those who know, or take time to discover, that he believes and teaches that psychological therapy is of equal importance, and equal power, to the word of God and, further, that the word of God without being coupled with psychology is incompetent. In the hypothetical case of a pastor who is �devout� in the practice of his faith, but occasionally is involved in pornography, the reason Dr. Hart advances for his lapse is an obsessive/compulsive disorders; not sin. Here, sin is being conveniently ignored because of Hart’s lucrative practice that he advanced at Fuller Theological Seminary where he teaches that pastor are not qualified to minister without also undergoing psychological therapy themselves’ no exceptions! For Dr. Dobson to let such heresy slid by the microphone despite that fact that he claims to be familiar with Hart�s work and publications, is easily diagnosable in terms of their own theory. Dobson experiences a sense of self aggrandizement (pleasure from his addiction) and validation (reinforcement) of his own long years of dedication to the study and propagation of psychological therapy thought Hart�s mirroring back to Dobson what Dobson wants desperately to believe. Hence, Dobson (like Hart) is in denial of the pernicious tenets (damages caused by their addiction to psychology) that Hart mixes into Christian doctrines.

j. In the absence of sin in his theories, causes for sinful behaviors are renamed to “underlying mechanism.” This is a clean clinical term that perpetuates the theory that people can be diagnosed and cured of sin by psychological therapy.

k. Dr. Hart claims to believe that “all addictions are ultimately aspects of sin,” but then quickly returns to ignoring sin in favor of treating “underlying mechanisms.”

l. The only “element of choice” for people who have lived in sin for long periods “is to seek [psychological] treatment.”

m. Hart claims to believe “that all healing begins with God,” but that God’s ability stops almost as soon as it begins, and that this only makes possible the “first [next] step to recognize that you need help from the outside,” particularly from a psychosocial program. This acknowledgment of God, albeit in a subordinate position to psychology, by psychologists on radio talk shows is what amounts to the occasional, obligatory, ‘plug’ for God. It is made only to endorse the psychologist’s own credentials, and to placate Christian audiences.

n. “People misuse their religious faith.” Hart asserts there is a diagnosable disorder, requiring treatment, where people rely too much on the power and intervention of God. The way it is diagnosed is through, of course, psychological theory. For example, if your are excited about God, and worship him in spirit, you could be looking for a “fix,” or if your sole dependency is on God for healing you be in “denial” of the fact that you must have psychological therapy, in addition to God�s therapy, if you are to receive healing. Point emphasized: psychology may at no time be dismissed!

In all these explanations for behavior, addictions replace sin as the condition to be cured of. Because the cause for the destructive behavior is sin, and psychology cannot offer a cure for sin; only the symptoms of sin are addressed in psychology.

The condition used by psychologist to describe elevated levels of “adrenaline, called upon at time when you really shouldn’t be in need of whats called the ‘fight of flight’ mechanism, that jacks you up, and calls on more energy,” are examined under the theory of Darwinian evolution, and not from a Biblical perspective. The “fight or flight” mechanism evolutional psychologists invented to explain reason for sudden surges in energy brought on by, for example, anger; is predicated on the evolutional theory that as man was evolving from the lower life forms that roamed the earth in a Neanderthal state of hunter-gatherer existence characterized by un-evolved reasoning skills, and the process of natural selection provided for him a means to survive the selection process and pass on his superior genes to a succeeding generation. Thus, being incapable of rational thought, or to take measures to otherwise insure his survivability, evolution gave him a means of releasing an extra burst of energy to either flee a life threatening situation when he came face to face with it, or to fight for his life if there were no means of escape and possibly survive the encounter.

Why this relic of our evolutionary past (according to the theory) plagues us today is not addressed by purveyors of books and tapes offering systems and treatments for correcting it, and for obvious reasons. The Bible gives an altogether different explanation for the reasons mankind becomes inflamed with anger or stimulated by certain behaviors in excess, and it is interesting to note that God does not appeal to evolutionary theory to explain this “mechanism.” On the other hand, the psychologist has no choice but to appeal to that theory for authority in his treatable/billable theories; having rejected the reasons provided by the author and finisher of our faith. It’s the monkey on his back.

 

Posted in Christian Psychology, Psychology, Psychotherapy, Psychoheresy Beat | No Comments »