Posted on 11/01/2014 3:37:19 PM PDT by Faith Presses On
If a former believer says that Christianity made her depressed, obsessive, or post-traumatic, she is likely to be dismissed as an exaggerator. She might describe panic attacks about the rapture; moods that swung from ecstasy about God’s overwhelming love to suicidal self-loathing about repeated sins; or an obsession with sexual purity.
A symptom like one of these clearly has a religious component, yet many people instinctively blame the victim. They will say that the wounded former believer was prone to anxiety or depression or obsession in the first place—that his Christianity somehow got corrupted by his predisposition to psychological problems. Or they will say that he wasn’t a real Christian. If only he had prayed in faith believing or loved God with all his heart, soul and mind, if only he had really been saved—then he would have experienced the peace that passes all understanding.
(Excerpt) Read more at salon.com ...
Thought police come in the name of health.
What the author is talking about IS religion, not Christianity.
Christianity, following Christ, does not result in the kinds of behaviors she talks about.
Being religious can.
This is repulsive, bigoted, nonsensical trash. Even from Salon this is just bad.
“The sad, twisted truth about the effect of abortion on the mind “
“The sad, twisted truth about the effect of homosexuality on the mind”
“The sad, twisted truth about the effect of the welfare state on the mind”
I love the smell of liberal desperation in the morning...
it smells like......winning!
“To date, parents are afforded the right to teach their own children whatever doctrines they like, no matter how heinous, degrading, or mentally unhealthy. Even helping professionals largely perceive Christianity as benign. This will need to change for treatment methods to be developed and people to get help that allows them to truly reclaim their lives.”
The article’s first two paragraphs dkn’t really give a true picture of what it’s driving at, which is to make Christianity a mental illness.
Belief in global warming is a religious belief.
This parallels Lena Dunham’s problems to a T. Her parents doctrines had pictures of vagina’s on their walls, no matter how mentally unhealthy that was for small children. Perverts are raising children to be victims, schools and the pop-culture want them to be sexually active before they are ready,
This will need to change for treatments to be developed and people to get help that allow them to reclaim their lives.
With what they plan to do, too - they’ve coined a syndrome name and plan to attack Christian parenting. I have heard atheists say for years they want religious upbringing to be illegal. They have had some success now with reparative therapy. Since I formerly lived as a lesbian, it espexially troibles me to see a SBc leader apologize for it when homosexuality and sexual immorality in general truly cause so much destruction.
Ladies, on behalf of conservative Christianity and its Head, I’d like to apologize for bringing you Western civilization. How rude of us. We won’t do it again. We promise.
From what I’ve heard, Christianity cures a lot more depression than it has ever caused.
Perhaps this person doesn’t understand real Christianity. If she did, she wouldn’t have these issues. She’d have peace.
While homosexuality, transsexuality, pedophilia, et al are normalized. Go figure.
The atheist authors have no foundation for ANY of their preachy, abstract normative concepts and standards. Naturalism certainly doesn't provide any basis for the notion of right or wrong ways to form or hold beliefs. The entire piece is incoherent. Not that that stops them from putting their foolishness on full display, though.
By the way, Salon, if I want to read AlterNet or somebody else’s stuff, I can find their sites myself.
Must I go and read it?
I think I’ve got too vivid an insight as it is.
.
Is christianity a threat? are they lopping off heads, mutilating womens genitals, beating and raping thier daughters and thier wives? Killing them if they disrespect the male in the family? These idiots are mental
The sad, twisted truth about liberal’s worship of government effect on the mind
What they do is use aspects which can be abused that are seen in a very small percentage of conservative Christianity to characterize it as a whole, while in reality conservative Christians are happier than the sour puss whining libs.
94% of the above described themselves as "absolutely committed to Christianity. 96% of Evangelicals say they possess "traditional or family-oriented values," and 64% say they are "mostly conservative on political and social issues."Only 8% said they were lonely, "in serious debt" (9%), or "stressed out" (16%). ^ 5
57% of those who are affiliate themselves with a non-Christian group say they are "deeply spiritual." 87% of such non-Christian religious [in America] claim to be happy with their life. 56% said they were concerned about the future and 68% about the moral condition of the U.S. ^5
Evangelicals averaged 6% participation in each of eight behaviors, (exposure to pornography, using profanity in public, gambling, gossiping, engaging in sexual intercourse with someone to whom they were not married, retaliating against someone, getting drunk, and lying.) http://www.barna.org/barna-update/article/16-teensnext-gen/25-young-adults-and-liberals-struggle-with-morality Note : unlike other pollsters, Bara evangelicals, being a movement, are not identified by religious denomination or self-identification, but according to responses to basic criteria: See http://www.barna.org/barna-update/article/13-culture/111-survey-explores-who-qualifies-as-an-evangelical?tmpl=component&print=1&layout=default&page= and http://www.peacebyjesus.com/RC-Stats_vs._Evang.html
Skeptics (atheist or agnostic) averaged five times the level (29%) of evangelicals. Common acts among skeptics included exposure to pornography (50%), gossip (34%) and drunkenness (33%) http://www.barna.org/barna-update/article/16-teensnext-gen/25-young-adults-and-liberals-struggle-with-morality
While only representing 10% of the population, the segment of the prison population which self-identifies as non-religious is approximately twice as large as found in the general population.” http://www.adherents.com/misc/adh_prison.html
Among 5 groups, American atheists and agnostics were the segment most likely to describe themselves as being politically liberal (32%) and were the group least likely to describe themselves as being conservative (4%) http://www.barna.org/barna-update/article/5-barna-update/66-american-faith-is-diverse-as-shown-among-five-faith-based-segments?tmpl=component&print=1&layout=default&page=
70% of self-proclaimed atheists and agnostics affirmed abortion should be legal in all or most circumstances, while 60% approve of clergy performing gay marriages, and 90% approve of cohabitation. ^
More than three out of four of self-proclaimed atheists and agnostics embrace pornography as a moral behavior; and 66% deem drunkenness and using profanity to be morally acceptable acts. ^
75% of the above say that all moral truth is relative to the person and circumstances; only 10% believe in absolute moral truth. ^
Self-proclaimed American atheists and agnostics were the group that is least concerned (41%) about the moral condition of the nation. ^
No.
You can stick with the rest of us FReepers who comment on threads without reading the article.
No point in ruining a good tradition.
It’s a sewer in thinking and you will feel contaminated by the time you’re done with it.
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