THE BOOK TOXIC FAITH ON NON-TOXIC FAITH
Toxic Faith by Stephen Arterburn & Jack Felton (Oliver-Nelson, 1991)
FROM Toxic Faith (a summary by B. Jackson)
This is Part D entitled Characteristics of Healthy Faith
1. Focusing on a personal relationship with God in Christ, not religion
REPLY BY PATRICK GORMLEY
1. Protestants see God as their personal saviour. That means that spirituality
is merely between the believer and his or her God. This is individualism.
Brainwashing is less likely.
2. Looking to God to meet the needs for security and significance
REPLY BY PATRICK GORMLEY
2.Looking to God for help and comfort will only add the problem of guilt to a
person who is so depressed that they are unable to look. It is better for us to
live without belief in God even if it means we will be less happy than for us to
propagate a belief that torments many of those who suffer the most.
3. Growing in faith as evidenced by walking into pain
REPLY BY PATRICK GORMLEY
3.An atheist can accept pain better than a Christian can. If I think there is no
God to help me, I have no choice but to accept the pain. Indeed it is good to
take risks in order to toughen myself up. If I think there is a God, I may
reason that I have no choice but to accept the pain for he is letting it happen
for a reason and he will not change his plan. The atheist accepts pain because
it is inevitable. The believer accepts it though God can stop it but won't. That
is acceptance with a big big but. It is not authentic acceptance.
4. Respect for the personhood of others
REPLY BY PATRICK GORMLEY
4. Christians cheapen respect for people by pretending that your sins are to be
thought of as separate from you. That really demands that the evil person be
viewed the same as the saint. It is hypocritical for Christians send evil people
to jail and judge them.
5. Serving others for their sake
REPLY BY PATRICK GORMLEY
5. Serving others for their sake is unhealthy. The healthy person should balance
what is good for herself with what is good for others.
6. Being vulnerable
REPLY BY PATRICK GORMLEY
6. People like us to feel vulnerable when appropriate and when the intention is
to create rapport with those who are in any kind of trouble. But the Bible
claims that its message can give us a sense of invulnerability no matter what
happens for God is all-powerful and our stronghold. The vulnerability
requirement contradicts Toxic Faith's assertion that we must always feel safe in
God.
7. A trusting atmosphere
REPLY BY PATRICK GORMLEY
Christians can only get along when they forget their beliefs. How is telling
people that it is bad to intend to harm for it hurts people and hurts God
supposed to help people trust? The atheist settles for leaving God out. Making
evil out to be worse than what it is, is slander
8. Celebrating uniqueness by recognizing people's spiritual gifts
REPLY BY PATRICK GORMLEY
8. Every religion recognises alleged gifts from God and celebrates the
differences but between parameters. For example, Catholics recognise speaking in
tongues as being from God and deny the gifts of a person who claims that God
gave him the power to consecrate the Eucharist without the intermediary of a
bishop. People having different alleged gifts does not mean that manipulating
and brainwashing is less likely.
9. Relationships being the heart of everything
REPLY BY PATRICK GORMLEY
9. Relationships cannot be everything to a Christian. The only exception is a
relationship with God.
10. People being taught to think
REPLY BY PATRICK GORMLEY
10. Religions never teach the people how to think. Do they teach them the basic
laws of logic? Those laws are really different forms of the rule that a is not b
in the same way as it is a and at the same time. Anything varying from that is
self-refuting. A contradiction is self-refutation. It is against your own
dignity to let somebody be a self-refuter. They are trying to be inauthentic
towards you. Say something politely.
Faith claims to be helped along by reason but beyond it. That means that you are
taking a chance. What if what you think is beyond reason but is to be believed?
It could be something against reason that is being mistaken for being beyond
reason.
11. Balanced thinking rather than extremes in black and white
REPLY BY PATRICK GORMLEY
11. The notion that God comes first automatically endorses extremist thinking.
It is putting belief in an entity above all things.
12. Non-defensive
REPLY BY PATRICK GORMLEY
How a faith that says you might go to Hell forever at death and that Satan is
the god of this world and a Jesus who said that the whole world was in the hand
of the Devil, the supreme fan of evil, can ask people to be non-defensive is a
mystery.
13. Non-judgmental
REPLY BY PATRICK GORMLEY
Christianity says that sin has ruined God's creation, and forced Jesus to become
man to die on the cross to atone for it and will take people to Hell to suffer
forever. Obviously we should welcome being judged. It might save us from
damnation. And to say that our sins put Jesus on the cross is judgemental.
Nobody believes that people should be judged when there is no proof that they
have done what they are accused of.
14. Reality-based
REPLY BY PATRICK GORMLEY
The Old Testament of the Bible and the Book of Mormon claim to record history.
The faiths based on them try to corrupt history. No valid historian takes them
seriously. We know that the Book of Mormon history is fictitious but if enough
Mormons became historians it would ruin history forever.
Religion threatens our knowledge of the past.
15. Able to embrace our emotions
REPLY BY PATRICK GORMLEY
If sin is as bad as Christianity says, then we should fear any feeling that
invites us to sin.
16. Able to embrace our humanity as evidenced in the ability to allow for
mistakes
REPLY BY PATRICK GORMLEY
How can a religion that says human nature is sinful - ie we sin because we are
sinners and it is not the case that we are sinners because we sin - seriously
make point 16?
17. The ability to laugh
REPLY BY PATRICK GORMLEY
I'd not be as keen on laughing if I really believed that people could suffer in
Hell for all eternity.
If God comes first that is no laughing matter. God cannot have a sense of humour
for you need to be able to be surprised to have it. And God knows all so he
cannot be surprised. Is putting such a being first going to make you more
humorous? No.
4.
A. I think that each of the toxic roles is actually a counterfeit for genuine
gifts and roles in the kingdom of God:
a. A person receives a vision from God to start a certain type of ministry, be
it church or Sunday school. They articulate that vision and impart it to a group
of people who partner with them to fulfil it, not to gain identity but as an
outflow of the gifts of the Spirit exercised in faith. The difference between
the persecutor and the true godly leader is motive and degree of control. The
true leader obeys by faith and is secure enough to not be controlling. He/she
does not lay down in front of the people and do what they say because of being
afraid of them (cf. 1 Sam. 15.24), nor do they lord it over those they lead. The
leader definitely leads but as a servant and an example to the flock
b. True leaders gladly submit themselves to a group of people with whom they can
know and be known. They trust their council and value relationship with them
above pursuit of the vision. They wait for them so they can walk together
REPLY BY PATRICK GORMLEY
Despite talk about the leader having to be really a servant the fact is that a
true leader is not a servant. He is an authority and a superior. A leader
playing at being a servant is not a servant.
1. The persecutor is the counterfeit for the real gift of leadership which God
gives to a man or woman by the Holy Spirit
REPLY BY PATRICK GORMLEY
God himself sanctioned persecution in the Bible. The apostle Paul and Jesus both
wanted people hated and ostracised for breaching Christian morality.
2. The co-conspirator is the counterfeit for true eldership and government
a. Leaders need an accountability and decision-making structure around them.
They (leader and eldership) function together as coequals with different
functions based on giftedness. Those who serve the leader who is serving them do
so as those who already have an identity in God and are merely walking out their
response to God's grace according to the measure of their faith. They are
"elding" for the right reason
b. They are not "yes men" but neither are they of an interdependent spirit. They
recognize the leadership gifting on the point person and trust in what God has
put on him/her. They also trust that the leader understands how the elders
complement that leadership and know that he/she will listen and heed
their council. While the leader leads by giving direction and going first, they
govern the church together
REPLY BY PATRICK GORMLEY
Not a single word is given in the Bible for helping accountability and decision
making among the leadership. It preaches what leadership should be but gives no
guidance in helping it be what it says it should be.
3. The enablers are the counterfeit for the true servant workforce in the church
a. Jesus told us to pray for labourers in the harvest, for the harvest was
plentiful but the workers were few. Nehemiah saw to it that it was the people's
job to build the wall around Jerusalem, not his. He saw to it that they had
whatever they needed, training, supplies, etc.
b. The true workforce of the church is serving according to their spiritual
gifts by faith and not for a sense of belonging and worth. They are not passive
co-dependents who would enable the sickness of leadership because they need the
sick system for their pain medication. They know they are not gifted in
government so they trust that gifting on the eldership. But they also know that
if they had a question, even a hard one, that the leaders would be open to their
concern and make proper adjustments when necessary. They serve God, not the
leader or vision, with joy in their hearts
REPLY BY PATRICK GORMLEY
An enabler in this case is a person who enables a religion to do evil. Merely
being part of its structure or seeming to be is contributing to its evil. The
less need you have to be in the religion the more you are to blame for the
problems. You are keeping up a system which creates the conditions for bad
things to happen.
That is why Roman Catholics who think the Vatican is seriously evil are only
hypocrites. And that is what they will be until they defect and depart.
4. The victims are the counterfeit for the godfearer fringe
a. These are those that attend the larger meetings and are trying to decide if
they want to give themselves to the local church. Many are Christians who have
had bad experiences in the church and are hesitant; some are frightened "pew
sitters" who need to be loved into the family and joyful service, others are non
Christians who are checking out the faith.
b. Whichever category, they are the fishing pond out of which disciples are
made. Jesus chose 12 then 70 out of the crowd that followed him. What makes the
difference whether these people become disciples or victims? Everything depends
on the actions and motives of the group they are walking among. Is it healthy,
glorifying Jesus and honouring personhood or is it toxic, glorifying the leader
and denying personhood? Motive is everything.
REPLY BY PATRICK GORMLEY
This is interestingly humanistic. There is no mention of Christianity's
irresponsible doctrine, "God is all-powerful. Thus you must trust in him to
change hearts. Even the worst of sinners can change overnight. God is always
waiting to transform them and all they need to do is ask."
5. Outcasts are the courageous detractors in the toxic system who are trying to
bring health to something sick
Just as God will try to heal something that is sick, Satan will try to destroy
something that is healthy. In the healthy system will be found both rebels and
wolves
a. Rebels are Christians who for whatever reasons have enough wounding to create
problems for members in the flock because of their sin. They are good people who
are just not conscious of what they are doing and why. They may be caught in a
sin and need to be restored gently (Gal. 6.1). They may be acting out
congregational pain that they have not been able to understand. Whatever the
case, the flock is called to a process of lovingly winning these rebels through
ardent pursuit outlined in Matthew 18. This passage begins by talking about true
shepherds who make lost sheep their priority. It then says we are to go to our
brother who is in sin and try to win him. We are to offer numerous opportunities
for repentance, each with a higher relational price. If losing relationship is
worth something to the rebel (this is what separates rebels from wolves), then
he/she will eventually repent and have a genuine heart change. The key to this
process is love. The parable of the unmerciful servant which follows in the text
highlights how the atmosphere needs to be permeated with forgiveness
b. There is a difference between the rebel and the wolf. Rebels are good people
with wounds who need to be loved back to health. Wolves are divisive people with
hardened hearts who the enemy has planted with a strategy to destroy the
fellowship. Titus says, "Warn a divisive person once, then twice, then have
nothing to do with him" (3.10). Paul told the Corinthians to expel a wicked man
from their midst (1 Cor. 5.13).
Discerning rebels from wolves and treating them accordingly is one of the jobs
of eldership (even wolves are to be treated lovingly and with respect as human
beings!). The difference is in the heart and the heart must be discerned.
REPLY BY PATRICK GORMLEY
This suggests that rebels are believers who have something against their Church
for reasons they might not fully understand. It is said that sometimes it is
necessary to end the relationship with the rebel to get them back on track. But
read Matthew 18. Jesus said that the rebel was to be treated as a tax collector
or a publican! In other words, treated with contempt not love.
Christianity when it follows Jesus properly is a toxic religion. Jesus said in
Matthew 18 that the person is the problem - no love sinner and hate sin there!
The Bible text quoted does not distinguish between a rebel and a wolf. The wolf
has to be a rebel. The rebel is a wolf for his intention is to cause division
and trouble and to draw others into it. The text is manipulated because Jackson
does not want to urge the Churches to expel all who stubbornly rebel. It's bad
for the collection plate.
FINALLY
Faith being non-toxic is not enough. It needs to be helpful. Nobody can verify
when or if it is helpful. They can only talk about what healthy faith looks
like.
