COMPARE:
Vladimir
Lenin
"To rely upon
conviction, devotion, and other excellent spiritual
qualities; that is not to be taken seriously in
politics."
"There can be
nothing more abominable than religion."
"If we can
effectively kill the national pride and patriotism
of just one generation, we will have won that
country. Therefore, there must be continued
propaganda abroad to undermine the loyalty of
citizens in general, and teenagers in particular. By
making drugs of various kinds readily available, by
creating the necessary attitude of chaos, idleness
and worthlessness, and by preparing him
psychologically and politically, we can succeed." -
Vladimir Lenin
"We can and must
write in a language which sows among the masses
hate, revulsion, and scorn toward those who disagree
with us."
Samuel Adams,
Governor of Massachusetts, one of our Founding
Fathers.
His resistance to
British rule resulted in the Boston Tea Party in
1773.
In 1790 – in a
letter to his cousin John Adams, our second
president…
“Let diviners and
philosophers, statesmen and patriots, unite their
endeavors to renovate the age, by impressing the
minds of men with the importance of educating their
little boys and girls, of inculcating in the minds
of youth the fear and love of the Deity… leading
them in the study and practice of the exalted
virtues of the Christian system.”
John Adams,
our second President…
“Statesmen may plan
and speculate for liberty, but it is religion and
morality alone, which can establish the principles
upon which freedom can securely stand.”
“We have no
government armed in power capable of contending in
human passions unbridled by morality and religion…
Our Constitution was made only for a moral and
religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the
government of any other.”
Benjamin Rush,
a signer of the Declaration of Independence…
“We profess to be
republicans and yet we neglect the only means of
establishing and perpetuating our republican forms
of government. That is the universal education of
our youth in the principles of Christianity by means
of the Bible.”
“The only
foundation for a republic is to be lain in
religion. Without this there can be no virtue, and
without virtue there can be no liberty, and liberty
is the object and life of all republican
governments.”
Charles Carroll,
another signer of the Declaration of Independence,
“Without morals, a
republic cannot survive any length of time; they
therefore who are decrying the Christian religion …
are undermining the solid foundation of morals, the
best security for the duration of free governments.”
Patrick Henry
“The Great pillars
of all government and social life are virtue,
morality, and religion. This is the armor, and this
alone, that renders us invincible.”
George Washington’s Farewell Address…
“Of all the
dispositions and habits, which lead to political
prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable
supports. … In vain would that man claim the
tribute of patriotism who should labor to subvert
these great pillars of human happiness, these
firmest props of the duties of men and citizens… And
let us with caution indulge the supposition that
morality can be maintained without religion…reason
and experience both forbid us to expect that
national morality can prevail in exclusion of
religious principles.”
NEA – National Education Association –
1892 – issued a warning about the secular
progression of the public schools – a recent
experiment in American History.
“If the study of
the Bible is to be excluded from all state schools;
if the inculcation of the principles of Christianity
is to have no place in the daily program; if the
worship of God is to form no part of the general
exercises of these public elementary schools; then
the good of the state would be better served by
restoring all schools to church control.”
Noah Webster considered
education useless without the Bible.
In 1836 he wrote - “In my view, the Christian
religion is the most important and one of the first
things in which children, under a free government
ought to be instructed…No truth is more evident to
my mind than that the Christian religion must be the
basis of any government intended to secure the
rights and privileges of a free people.”
Daniel Webster,
and early Secretary of State,
“To preserve
government we must also preserve morals. Morality
rests on religion; if you destroy the foundation,
the superstructure must fall. When the public mind
becomes impaired and corrupt, laws
are a nullity and Constitutions are a waste of
paper.”
In 1887 Alexander Tyler, a
Scottish history professor at the university of
Edinburgh, had this to say about the fall of the
Athenian republic some 2,000 years prior:
"A democracy is
always temporary in nature; it simply cannot exist
as a permanent form of government. A democracy will
continue to exist up until the time that voters
discover that they can vote themselves generous
gifts from the public treasury. From that moment
on, the majority always votes for the candidates who
promise the most benefits from the public treasury,
with the result that every democracy will finally
collapse over loose fiscal policy, (which is) always
followed by a dictatorship."
Isaiah 59:14–15 (NKJV)
14 Justice
is turned back,
And
righteousness stands afar off;
For truth is
fallen in the street,
And equity
cannot enter.
15 So
truth fails,
And he who
departs from evil makes himself a prey.
Then the LORD
saw it, and it displeased Him
That there was
no justice.
Blaisé Pascal:
https://i.pinimg.com/originals/a4/bb/16/a4bb16560a3e15cd8f9a14b08c68b76c.jpg
Frédéric Bastiat
"The Law" http://bastiat.org/en/the_law.html
Blog – Christian
Counseling
By Guy Ascherman, MA, LMFT, LPCC, Life Coach
I want to use this series of blogs to address
the validity of Christian Psychotherapy and
Family Therapy, and the bias against a Christian
orientation of psychology in academic circles,
and thus the influence upon the profession and
practice of individual and family therapy.
I live and practice individual and family
counseling in Shasta County, California. In this
county, the 10 largest faith groups include
Roman Catholic, Mormon, Christian and Missionary
Alliance, Independent Evangelical, Independent
Baptist, Southern Baptist, Assembly of God,
Seventh Day Adventist, Nazarene, and United
Methodist. Twenty-Seven percent of the
population in Shasta County claims to have a
religious affiliation. Of this 27%, 18.9% fall
in the category of these top 10 groups, and
25.9% fall in the category of Christian.
Non-Christian religious traditions include
Baha’I, Hindu, Muslim, Jewish, Sikh, and
Buddhist. Combined, these non-Christian
religious affiliates represent 1.1% of Shasta
County’s population.1
Outside of California, the percentage of the
population aligning with the Christian faith is
much larger. Forty-nine percent of the
population in the United States has a religious
affiliation, again with an overwhelming number
of them being Christian. Chances that a family
counselor or psychotherapist will have a
Christian client are substantial, even
inevitable. Having a thorough understanding of
the various aspects the Christian faith is
essential for a credible therapist, but most
graduate programs in Counseling Psychology say
little or nothing about the Christian faith.
Many testify that their own personal experience
in grad school was void of any meaningful
discussion of Christian therapy, and this does
not appear to be an isolated instance. For
example, my textbook for family therapy states:
“Throughout most of the twentieth century
psychotherapists have scrupulously avoided
bringing spirituality and religion into the
counseling room. We’ve wanted to be viewed as
respectable clinicians…”2
“A survey of over three thousand articles in
family therapy journals found less than one
percent that mentioned religion in a positive
light.”3
_________________________________________________________________
-
Center for
Religion and Civic Culture.
-
Nichols and
Swartz. 2001. Family Therapy: Concepts and
Methods. pp.328-329.
-
Kelly, E. 1992.
Religion in family therapy journals: A
review of Marital and Family Therapy, ed.
New York: Hawthorne Press.
The false stereotype that one cannot be a
Christian therapist and also a respectable
practitioner has unfortunately caused the
academic community to steer clear of Christian
Therapy among the many other orientations
typically taught. One can only hope that this
bias can be reversed in the years to come, so
that the vast numbers of Christians in the US
can be treated effectively. As to spirituality
in the therapy room, it is interesting that
Christianity seems to be getting left out but
non-Christian spiritual views are not. This
might be understood as a typical post-modern
response to the Christian view that truth does
exist and the law of non-contradiction isolates
it from any other claims to truth, whatever the
source. Truth is a quality of completeness that
cannot be exceeded. It stands in contrast to
relative or subjective truth, which finds a
comfortable audience in university settings.
Rightfully, both Christian and secular
psychology understand the subjective nature of
the emotional experiences of our clients, but a
Christian frames the emotional world as needing
parameters based upon the existence of unvarying
and permanent life foundations.
The bias against absolute Truth and against
Christian therapy is undeniable. It is also an
observation and personal experience that even
Christian Universities do not always teach
Christian Therapy as a viable orientation.
Christian universities often focus on a secular
medical model without introducing graduate
students to the valid place the Christian
worldview holds, or warn of the
inappropriateness of using secular or alternate
spiritual interventions with a Christian
population. Additionally, many therapists who
themselves are personally aligned with the
Christian faith are intimidated by the
professional psychotherapy culture and have
incorrectly been led to believe that
Christianity should not be brought into the
therapy room. Operating from the standpoint of
the client’s world view, whatever it may be, is
ethically required, or the therapist should
refer the client to a therapist who is
comfortable with Christianity.
“But is it possible to explore a family’s
spiritual world without proselytizing or losing
sight of the problem solving mission of therapy?
Hawaiian therapist Paul Pearsall says it’s not
only possible, it’s critical. He believes that
people’s answers to those larger questions and
the degree to which they live in harmony with
their answers are intimately related to their
emotional and physical health. He thinks that
people need to feel connected – not only to
their spouses and children, but also to
something greater – to their ancestors, to a
higher power, to an explanatory system that
gives meaning to their lives and makes them feel
loved.”1
It is encouraging to get this small
acknowledgement from Nichols and Swartz, however
their own textbook commits only 1 page to this
subject, and concludes with:
“It will be interesting to see how this new
spiritual emphasis affects family therapy… Yet
the reluctance to impose, or the fear of being
put on the spot about one’s own belief’s, will
likely keep spirituality from being a central
theme for some time to come.1
_________________________________________________________________
-
Nichols and
Swartz. 2001. Family Therapy: Concepts and
Methods. pp.328-329.
It has been my observation in Shasta County that
spirituality in the therapy room is increasing,
but not in the Christian worldview. Some in our
community feel very comfortable utilizing New
Age and Eastern Philosophy in their therapy.
Certainly this is ethical if this is what the
client is seeking. If Christian philosophy
represents the single largest category of
citizens, it is equally ethical to use, and
equally ethical to teach in graduate programs. I
hear reports and have read articles that the
bias against Christian counseling in the
academic circles is pervasive across the United
States.
On November 30, 2014, Psychology Today published
an article on their web page on the subject of
mindfulness and its association with Buddhism.
The proponents of mindfulness view their
approach to psychotherapy as being a gateway
into the Buddhist philosophy. In their own
words:
“Right mindfulness is the seventh aspect of the
eightfold path of Buddhist awakening…
Promoters of “secular” mindfulness avoid using
the loaded words “Buddhism” or “religion,” and
may even steer clear of mentioning
“spirituality” or “meditation.” But
the practice is essentially similar to that
taught in many Buddhist basics classes. And the
hope, expressed by certain key leaders in the
secular mindfulness movement, is that
introductory classes … (provide) at least some
of them with a doorway into deeper, explicitly
Buddhist meditation.”
Coming from a publication that largely
represents secular psychology today, this
statement reinforces the prejudice that favors
eastern mysticism and philosophy but holds
Christianity at arms length to say the least.
Prior to the middle of the 19th century, most
counseling in the western world was based upon a
Christian philosophy. With the advancement of
rationalism, secularism, modernism, and
post-modernism over the past 150 years,
Christian philosophy and counseling continues to
fall more and more out of favor because in
academic circles the idea that absolute truth
even exists is deemed as prejudice against
subjective truth. But we must ask: Is society
improving? Is emotional health improving? Are
families doing better? Granted, there has never
been a perfect world, but are we moving closer
or further away from a healthier and more stable
life?
Prior to the 19th century, the Bible held a
prominent place in understanding psychological
health. The word “psyche” appears 105 times in
the Greek New Testament. It is translated mostly
as “soul,” “life,” and “heart.” The Bible is a
psychology book, teaching us about love, life
and emotions, and has been used for thousands of
years. Is secular or eastern philosophy making
improvements over centuries old approaches to
understanding life? If not, isn’t it time to
reconsider the unnecessary biases against
Christian counseling, and at the very least use
a Christian worldview for the 25-49% of our
population that desire it? And shouldn’t it at
least be incorporated into our graduate programs
as an orientation that is as effective as any
other secular or eastern view?