From: unk...@googlegroups.com   
      
   SATURDAY, NOV 1, 2014 07:00 AM CDT   
      
   The sad, twisted truth about conservative Christianity's effect on the mind   
   Research reveals religious beliefs can alter brain function, making us more   
   prone to anxiety and depression   
      
   MARLENE WINELL AND VALERIE TARICO, ALTERNET   
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   TOPICS: ALTERNET, CHRISTIANITY, CONSERVATIVES, BIBLE, LIFE NEWS, POLITICS NEWS   
      
   The sad, twisted truth about conservative Christianity's effect on the mind   
   (Credit: Stocksnapper via Shutterstock)   
   This article originally appeared on AlterNet.   
   AlterNet "I am 30 years old and I am struggling to find sanity. Between the   
   Christian schools, homeschooling, the Christian group home (indoctrinating   
   work camp) and different churches in different cities, I am a psychological,   
   emotional and spiritual    
   mess." -A former Evangelical   
      
   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.   
      
   But the reality is far more complex. It is true that symptoms like depression   
   or panic attacks most often strike those of us who are vulnerable, perhaps   
   because of genetics or perhaps because situational stressors have worn us   
   down. But certain aspects    
   of Christian beliefs and Christian living also can create those stressors,   
   even setting up multigenerational patterns of abuse, trauma, and self-abuse.   
   Also, over time some religious beliefs can create habitual thought patterns   
   that actually alter brain    
   function, making it difficult for people to heal or grow.   
      
   The purveyors of religion insist that their product is so powerful it can   
   transform a life, but somehow, magically, it has no risks. In reality, when a   
   medicine is powerful, it usually has the potential to be toxic, especially in   
   the wrong combination or    
   at the wrong dose. And religion is powerful medicine!   
      
   In this discussion, we focus on the variants of Christianity that are based on   
   a literal interpretation of the Bible. These include Evangelical and   
   fundamentalist churches, the Church of Latter Day Saints, and other   
   conservative sects. These groups share    
   the characteristics of requiring conformity for membership, a view that humans   
   need salvation, and a focus on the spiritual world as superior to the natural   
   world. These views are in contrast to liberal, progressive Christian churches   
   with a humanistic    
   viewpoint, a focus on the present, and social justice.   
      
   Religion Exploits Normal Human Mental Processes.   
      
   To understand the power of religion, it is helpful to understand a bit about   
   the structure of the human mind. Much of our mental activity has little to do   
   with rationality and is utterly inaccessible to the conscious mind. The   
   preferences, intentions and    
   decisions that shape our lives are in turn shaped by memories and associations   
   that can get laid down before we even develop the capacity for rational   
   analysis.   
      
   Aspects of cognition like these determine how we go through life, what causes   
   us distress, which goals we pursue and which we abandon, how we respond to   
   failure, how we respond when other people hurt us--and how we respond when we   
   hurt them. Religion    
   derives its power in large part because it shapes these unconscious processes:   
   the frames, metaphors, intuitions and emotions that operate before we even   
   have a chance at conscious thought.   
      
   Some Religious Beliefs and Practices are More Harmful Than Others.   
      
   When it comes to psychological damage, certain religious beliefs and practices   
   are reliably more toxic than others.   
      
   Janet Heimlich is an investigative journalist who has explored religious child   
   maltreatment, which describes abuse and neglect in the service of religious   
   belief. In her book, Breaking their Will,Heimlich identifies three   
   characteristics of religious    
   groups that are particularly prone to harming children. Clinical work with   
   reclaimers, that is, people who are reclaiming their lives and in recovery   
   from toxic religion, suggests that these same qualities put adults at risk,   
   along with a particular set    
   of manipulations found in fundamentalist Christian churches and biblical   
   literalism.   
      
   1) Authoritarianism,creates a rigid power hierarchy and demands unquestioning   
   obedience. In major theistic religions, this hierarchy has a god or gods at   
   the top, represented by powerful church leaders who have power over male   
   believers, who in turn have    
   power over females and children. Authoritarian Christian sects often teach   
   that "male headship" is God's will. Parents may go so far as beating or   
   starving their children on the authority of godly leaders. A book titled, To   
   Train Up a Child,by minister    
   Michael Pearl and his wife Debi, has been found in the homes of three   
   Christian adoptive families who have punished their children to death.   
      
   2) Isolation or separatism,is promoted as a means of maintaining spiritual   
   purity. Evangelical Christians warn against being "unequally yoked" with   
   nonbelievers in marriages and even friendships. New converts often are   
   encouraged to pull away from    
   extended family members and old friends, except when there may be   
   opportunities to convert them. Some churches encourage older members to take   
   in young single adults and house them within a godly context until they find   
   spiritually compatible partners, a    
   process known by cult analysts as "shepherding." Home schoolers and the   
   Christian equivalent of madrassas cut off children from outside sources of   
   information, often teaching rote learning and unquestioning obedience rather   
   than broad curiosity.   
      
      
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    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)