The Psycho Spiritual Approach
"This world we live in "ain't heaven."
Multitudes of problems which constantly beset believers and unbelievers
alike make that very apparent. But Jesus said that He came that we might
have life, even a more abundant life (Jn 10:10), and His words indicate
His willingness to help those who commit their lives to Him. His offer
is not only incredibly wonderful (after all, He's the almighty God!); it
is the only true help available. God alone knows every thought,
every action, every variable, how they interact, and what good or evil
they will produce. The Spirit of Christ is our personal counselor. God's
Word is our only true counseling manual, containing His insights, His
corrections, His tender mercies, and His healing balm for whatever
afflicts our heart and soul.
Even so, a staggering number of His own
want "a second opinion."
This ominous trend taking place among
today's evangelicals is greatly diminishing an already threadbare
reliance upon the Word of God. It's particularly dangerous because much
of it sounds biblical, and its chief promoters are for the most part
highly influential evangelical leaders. This trend involves approaching
life, solving its problems, increasing its benefits, even enriching
one's relationship with the Lord, through psychospiritual concepts,
techniques and methods.
The term "psychospiritual" will not
likely be found in your dictionary, so here is our definition: Simply
stated, it involves adding psychology to things spiritual. That would
include one or more of the following innovations: supplementing
spiritual content with psychological teachings; interpreting or
explaining the spiritual through psychological concepts; validating
the spiritual through the alleged science of psychology; integrating
the spiritual with psychology. The term applies to the spiritualizing of
psychology as well. For example, transpersonal psychology, the field's
latest stage, has a vocabulary and concepts which are blatantly
religious. Consider this quote in the Association for Humanistic
Psychology (AHP) Newsletter: "AHP has always held spiritual
concerns close to its heart....We have championed the return of spirit
to therapy."
We reject all psychology which implicitly
or explicitly professes a) to have scientific understanding of the inner
(mental, emotional, moral) workings of man, b) to have an objective
knowledge of his nature, and/or c) to offer the cure for the problems of
man's soul. We recognize that there are endeavors which would come under
the umbrella of psychology and which fall outside the above description
and its related concerns. However, the very few exceptions to the
multibillion-dollar field of psychotherapy and its accompanying markets
are hardly a redeeming factor. Psychological counseling is a religious
wolf in pseudoscientific clothing. As Martin and Deidre Bobgan have
stated (and impressively documented in their many books on the subject),
"psychological explanations about life and psychological solutions to
life's problems are questionable at best, detrimental at worst, and
spiritual counterfeits at least." The bottom line regarding the
psychospiritual approach isit is a delusion.
True spirituality has nothing to do with
psychology (1 Cor 2:11), a fake science based primarily on man's
rationalizations, i.e., self-deceptions. True spirituality isn't
something to which man's wisdom (1 Cor 1:20) can contribute, nor
can man validate the teachings of the Scriptures. As a Christian,
true spirituality is a product only of our submission and obedience by
His grace to His Word (Jn 14:15). The idea that man can add anything to
God's way is utter folly. Who would even dare? Yet as obvious as that
answer should be, the psychospiritual delusion continues to grow.
Last summer 50,000-plus gathered in
Colorado for the Promise Keepers Christian Men's Conference. Colorado
football coach Bill McCartney, founder of the organization, declared in
his address, "We're going to contest anything that sets itself up
against the name of Jesus Christ." Obviously, the coach hasn't "scouted"
psychospirituality. Two of the main speakers at the conference were
psychologist James Dobson and psychology popularizer Gary Smalley. Of
even more concern than what attendees heard from the speakers is the
fact that each man received a complimentary hardback copy of The
MasculineJourney: Understanding the Six Stages of Manhood by
psychotherapist Robert Hicks (foreword by psychologist John Trent).
The book, written to help "provide
directions for a man's life so that he doesn't get lost along the way,"
is mainly pychologically biased conjecture centering around six Hebrew
words. In chapter after chapter, subjective insights into manhood are
offered through quotes by a host of secular authors with a psychological
bent, including Carl Jung, inner-healing therapist Leanne Payne,
transpersonal psychiatrist/spiritualist Elizabeth Kübler-Ross, and Sam
Keen, former theologian in residence at Esalen, the New Age/Eastern
mystical therapeutic center south of San Francisco. Keen's books feature
vicious diatribes against biblical Christianity.
The author of The Masculine Journey,
who is also a pastor and seminary professor of pastoral theology,
demonstrates what a perverting influence a psychospiritual bias can
have. Consider the following small sampling of quotes (his and others)
related to just two of man's alleged stages. The phallic stage:
"Possessing a penis places unique requirements upon men before God in
how they are to worship Him. We are called to worship God as phallic
kinds of guys, not as some sort of androgynous, neutered nonmales, or
the feminized males so popular in many feminist-enlightened churches."
"I believe Jesus was phallic with all the inherent phallic passions we
experience as men." This seems to be either the result of Freudian
brainwashing or hanging out in locker rooms. Either way it's
blasphemous.
Regarding man's (emotionally) wounded
stage: "In order for men to discover what manhood is all about, they
must descend into the deep places of their own souls and find their
accumulated grief." "I am convinced many men in our society today are
lashing out at women, at society, at bosses, even at Godall because
they do not understand the wounding experience." "The story of
Jacob...illustrates a young man having been severely wounded by a
dysfunctional family system." You have to be totally indoctrinated by
inner-healing psychobabble to derive even a jot of such nonsense from
the Bible.
There are just too many biblically
erroneous teachings in Hicks' book to cover here. Most involve his
interpretations based upon psychology. Where do you find male and female
categories of emotional woundedness? or anatomically related
worship? Where do you find understanding manhood as a key to a
godly life? You don't if you simply take Scripture at its word: "There
is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is
neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus (Gal 3:28)
At the end of the book we find this
statement: "Promise Keepers wants to provide men's materials like this
book...." Dr. James Dobson, on a recent radio broadcast, held out great
hope that Promise Keepers would stir the coals of revival among men in
this country. That is indeed a worthwhile hope, but it grieves us deeply
to see that the sparks of truth are being fanned into false flames by
the winds of psychospirituality. The unbiblical preoccupation of this
Christian men's movement is with man himself and from man's perspective.
It can only truly live up to Coach McCartney's contending for the faith
exhortation by getting back to the basics of the faith. The emphasis has
to be focusing on God himself, getting to know Him and His way through
His Word. If not, it is at best doomed to a grace-barren, fleshly form
of godliness. Sadly, attendees were encouraged in a postconference
follow-up letter to purchase the study guide and to form The
Masculine Journey study groups.
Whereas Hicks' book is designed to appeal
to men, an even more destructive psychospiritual offering has been
published for women. As a prolific author, television personality (Focal
Point), radio broadcaster (The Chapel of the Air), and
popular speaker at Christian women's conferences, Karen Mains has few
peers when it comes to influence upon evangelical women. Presently she
is chairperson of the trustee board for InterVarsity Christian
Fellowship/USA and on the Board of Reference of Renovaré (Richard
Foster's Christian mysticism organization). Her latest book Lonely No
More is an exercise in journaling, i.e., writing down one's
spiritual experiences, thoughts, emotions, dream interpretations,
communications with God (and vice versa). In it she reveals her
innermost "wounds," aspirationsand has an axe or two to grind.
The psychospiritual aspects of the book
are reflected primarily in its inner-healing foundation, a
mixture of Freudian/Jungian concepts and spiritual beliefs, practices
and techniques. Karen received training in inner healing at the School
of Pastoral Care established by Agnes Sanford, and considers Sanford
disciple and inner-healing/spiritual therapist Leanne Payne to be one of
her personal "spiritual directors" (see The Seduction of Christianity
regarding the occultic aspects of Agnes Sanford and inner healing).
Inner loneliness and deep soul wounds,
resulting from husband David's workaholism and lack of sensitivity to
her needs, from Christian males resenting her leadership qualities, and
from past experiences of repressive evangelical restrictions
(theological and cultural), are among the "emotional hurts" Mains
attempts to deal with throughout her book. The route of psychospiritual
self-therapy through which she leads the reader is a deadly swamp of
subjectivity infested with Jungian dream analysis, symbolic imagery,
shamanic visualization, interactive communication with dream entities,
projections from the (Freudian) subconscious, and mystical contemplative
prayer and fasting. Her Jungian "spiritual director," a Roman Catholic
nun and director of novice training, becomes her guide on her soul
journey.
Karen reassures her (more than likely
evangelical) reader that "spiritual directors are a part of the Catholic
tradition,...who stand beside others in their spiritual pilgrimages and
assist them...in the practice of gazing Godward. Some Catholic
seminaries offer advanced degrees in spiritual direction." Rather than
reassuring, it's particularly frightening that a woman who claims to be
"a historical evangelical" and "well aware of the dangers of
undisciplined subjectivity" would buy such spiritual mockery, let alone
try to pass it off as beneficial in knowing God.
In qualifying her admittedly "subjective
experiences of the supernatural," she offers that the experiences "must
not offend Scripture, orthodox doctrine or the traditions of the
historical saints who have made the pilgrimage before me." The latter
two "qualifiers" might be of value to Roman Catholics but certainly not
to a Berean (Acts 17:10-11). And there is abundant evidence throughout
the book that her penchant for the psychospiritual has corrupted
whatever biblical sense she may have had. Consider the following:
Through my hardships I discover
there's a small part of myself that hasn't grown whole along with the
rest of me. It's been maimed by neglect during years of married life. I
call it my "idiot-self." I'm discovering that this malnourished orphan
needs to be nursed and nurtured. I must find the idiot-self creeping
about in the infrastructure of my soul....Self of my self, this
abandoned child is very much a part of me....I understand that in some
way, I, the intuitive, introverted, feeling-proficient female, have
become the substitute for [my husband] David's own female self, his
anima, to use the Jungian terminology. He...functions for me as my
animus....I have abdicated to my husband my own maleness....
(Concerning Mains' "malnourished orphan
child within" and "Eddie Bishop," another entity which appears to her in
recurring dreams, see March 1994 "Q&A.")
In addition to the book's Jungian and
mystical preoccupation with self, the author offers the basic thesis of
humanistic and Christian psychology: "My great concern is loving David;
my great concern is loving myself. I know I will not care for him well
until I learn to care for myself well." That is not the way Jesus put it
nor is it the way of sacrificial love He both demonstrated and promises
to live through us.
Although Lonely No More may be its
author's most blatant exposure of what she believes, she and her husband
David have championed psychospirituality for decades, from their radio
and television shows to the material used in their 50-Day Spiritual
Adventure for churches.
The books addressed above are merely two
among hundreds like them currently offered at your local Christian
bookstore. Psychospirituality is being offered by and for Christians in
every medium available. It is big-time. The two top-rated Christian
radio programs are hosted by a psychologist and two psychiatrists: Drs.
James Dobson, Frank Minirth and Paul Meier. Christian psychotherapeutic
centers, the biggest advertisers on Christian radio, overflow with
believers. Psychological evaluation of those desiring to go into the
mission field is becoming the rule; some missions organizations even
offer or require training in psychological counseling. And with the
blessing of numerous evangelical luminaries, a psychology-influenced
gospel is being exported worldwide.
Is psychospirituality what the body of
Christ needs today, even though it was unknown to believers for nearly
two millennia? What's the fruit of this new thing? Can it add anything
of genuine spiritual value to what has been readily available from the
Holy Spirit since the beginning of the church? Is it a necessary
supplement in order to produce love, joy, peace, longsuffering,
kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control in the
life of a believer? Pray and encourage fellow believers in Christ to
drink from the Lord's pure, life-giving and grace-abundant waters rather
than from spiritually toxic streams polluted by psychospirituality. Pray
also that, just as Nehemiah was given the spiritual fortitude to throw
the subversive Tobiah the Ammonite (Neh 13:4-8) and all his belongings
out of God's temple, so too will God's people have similar strength and
courage to jettison from His church the psychospiritual approach with
all of its destructive baggage." By T.A McMahon of The Berean Call
- www.thebereancall.org
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