From: madhaus@netcom.com (Maddi Hausmann)
Subject: Re: THE MIND OF THE BIBLE BELIEVER
Organization: Society for Putting Things on Top of Other Things
Distribution: world,public
Date: Wed, 6 Jan 1993 22:49:00 GMT

mlee@post.RoyalRoads.ca (Malcolm Lee) writes: >
madhaus@netcom.com (Maddi Hausmann) writes: >|>
mlee@post.RoyalRoads.ca (Malcolm Lee) writes: >|> >
>|> 
>|> This is my major objection to Xianity.  It's a double-bind.
>|> Psychologically, it offers both condemnation and salvation.
>|> It tells you you're damned, but on the other hand, here's
>|> the way out.  This is POISON, pure and simple.  Everything
>|> we know about mental health says that this is an unhealthy
>|> belief system.
>|> 
>|> A system offers redemption that is *external*, then it
>|> can maintain control over its adherents.  And that is
>|> the intention.  Good psychological health requires the
>|> ability to accept oneself by oneself.
>|> 
>|> Read some Jung or Joseph Campbell.  Any religion that
>|> externalizes a godhead is at a primative stage in
>|> human development, including literal (fundamentalist
>|> and evangelical) Christianity.
>|> 
>|> >    I welcome your response.
>|> 
>|> Here it is.  Read some of the books others have referred
>|> to here, such as Cohen's book, and let us know if it made
>|> any impact.
>
>I thank you for your response.
>Understand that I do not speak from ignorance but rather, from experience.  I
>was a very avid, non-believer for 25 years of my life.  I had everything I had
>hoped to achieve in life (education and steady employment) and yet, there was
>still something missing.  I cannot begin to tell you how empty my life felt.  I
>had believed in all the things that we were taught would make us happy in this
>world . . . money, money and more money.  But I was NOT happy.  That was somthing
>wrong.

But here you set up a false dichotomy.  You claim because you were a
non-believer and were not happy that is was your non-belief that made
you unhappy.  I do not deny your feeling that something was missing,
as I myself have felt this and so have many other people I have
known.  What I object to is your assertion that only Christianity
could have changed this.  You see, I am not longer feeling that
something is missing, yet I am still not a believer.

>I'm not a Psych major and I can't fully explain it.  It was not until I came to
>know my Lord and Saviour that I gained a sense of purpose and fulfillment in my
>life.  I had friends around me but it was not the same as having the family of
>Christ around me.

But here I have given you some suggestions on how to explain it.
Don't just sit there and say you can't explain it; do some reading
and learn to understand it.  It won't be easy, but then again,
using your mind rarely is.

>This is my testimony, not just my opinion.  I don't worship a religion.  I worship
>the one and only God.  If my church should burn down or my pastor move away, I
>still have my faith in Christ Jesus.  I am still Christian.  He gives me the
>strength to continue on when my strength is gone.  I need Him and I love Him.  

I did not say you worshipped a religion.  I said you relied on something
external to yourself to validate your self-worth and that this is very
harmful to your mental health.  In this case the external validation
rests with Jesus, not with you.  The church or the pastor do not
matter as much because you can find another.  But if you were to stop
going to church and Bible study and the Christian fellowshop, you
would find your doubts re-emerging.  Please read the Cohen book.

>I don't see how you can find fault with this.

I find fault with a system that leads to:
   - Sexual dysfuction due to a body/mind duality
   - Sexual repression leading to high rates of child abuse
   - A refusal to use one's gifts as given, in this case your mind

>God loves, Man kills.

This is another dangerous poison in the Xian ethos.  All the evil
is assigned to Man, inotherwords, to you as a member of the family
of Man.  All the good is external; it is assigned to God and
Christ.  You are scum, they are holy.  They can save you, you
cannot save yourself.  This is dangerous because it sets you up
as self-hating and needing spiritual cleansing from Christ, or
actually, from a representative such as the church or your study
group.  Self-loathing leads to psychological problems.

You do not have to be a Psych major to learn about Psychology.
I strongly suggest you look into it.  

-- 
Maddi Hausmann                       |  The Truth is still The Truth, forsooth 
madhaus@netcom.com                   |  Even if believing It you refuse
Centigram Communications Corp        |  Complete disproof's uncouth and moot
San Jose California  408/428-3553    |  A Fundie's brain is dead.

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