ROLE OF TOXIC FAITH
Toxic Faith by Stephen Arterburn & Jack Felton (Oliver-Nelson, 1991)
FROM Toxic Faith (a summary by B. Jackson)
This is Part C entitled 10 Rules of a Toxic Faith System
1. The leader must be in control of every aspect at all times
REPLY BY PATRICK GORMLEY
1 There is no such thing as a system where the leader attempts to rule every
part of the life of others for that cannot be done. Any inappropriate control is
toxic. A toxic faith may limit itself to interfering in marriage and that
is enough to make it a disgrace.
The leader is most likely to want to be in control not of everything but of
the things he or she considers important to her or him. In the case of a
Catholic priest, it may simply be the wish to dictate to others what they must
believe. It is too much pressure on a religious leader to attempt to be in
control all the time.
2. When problems arise, find a guilty party to blame immediately
REPLY BY PATRICK GORMLEY
2. Christians blame Satan when things go wrong and they love blaming the media
for their problems as Christians as well. Adam and Eve get the blame for
original sin and our wish to be independent of God.
When Catholic treatments for sin, the sacraments, blatantly fail, the Church
says it is the recipients fault for not being sincere enough.
3. Don't make mistakes
REPLY BY PATRICK GORMLEY
3. The Church supposedly hates sin for it does damage. Mistakes do damage
too. They often do worse damage than sin. Deliberate or not, the wrong action
will be seen as evil.
4. Never point out the reality of a situation
REPLY BY PATRICK GORMLEY
Any human organisation is in danger of that. But religion because it besots
people with the promise of salvation and scares them half to death makes this
problem virtually inevitable. An example, the mothers of Ireland had to have
known that priests were sexually abusing their children - they did nothing and
indeed punished their children for complaining. The priest was a man of God and
even if he did evil he didn't do evil.
Religion protects its notions from being shown implausible or wrong by
telling you that God has the full information and you do not.
5. Never express your feelings unless they are positive
REPLY BY PATRICK GORMLEY
Christianity certainly never taught that - and it is ironically one of its
endless flaws.
6. Don't ask questions, especially if they are tough ones
REPLY BY PATRICK GORMLEY
6. The Catholic Church says that if you don't understand its doctrines you
must pray for understanding. It adds that many of these doctrines are mysteries
that only God understands. Here is an example, God is said to forbid
contraception no matter how much good it seems to do for he knows better than
us.
7. Don't do anything outside your role
REPLY BY PATRICK GORMLEY
7. The Catholic Church lays down a role for women that gives them less
advantages in life than men.
8. Don't trust anyone
REPLY BY PATRICK GORMLEY
Even the worst of religions needs its people to trust somebody. Each religion
argues that it is right therefore it makes out that those who contradict it are
untrustworthy.
9. Nothing is more important than giving money to the organization
REPLY BY PATRICK GORMLEY
No religion is that blatant. The problem is not one of religion being solely
about money but of religion taking people's money when it has no counselling
role, tells them rubbish and makes huge claims and provides no evidence or at
least dodgy evidence?
10. At all costs, keep up the image of the organization or the family
REPLY BY PATRICK GORMLEY
10. Catholics were conditioned by their parents and the bishops to look up to
the bishops and priests as demi-gods. This led to Ireland doing nothing about
the open secret of clerical sexual abuse. And the bishops covered up the crimes
of their priests and gave them new parishes to find new flesh. The excuse that
they thought that moving the priest would help is glaring. That could not have
been their motivation at all. Nobody is that stupid. Plus they knew from
experience that moving only moved the problem elsewhere.
Conclusion
1. If Jim Jones was a 10 and totally healthy is a 0 then most families and
churches would fall somewhere on the spectrum. Healthy would go from few to some
toxic behaviours, unhealthy from frequent to compulsive toxic behaviours. How
toxic we were is a matter of debate. There is no question that I/we had
dysfunction. How much is (in my opinion) a fruitless sidetrack. Whether it is
one cancer cell or a thousand, let's call it cancer and ask God to root it out.
2. This book was extremely helpful to me because it gave me crucial insight into
what was happening to us. If we understand what toxic faith is and what drives
it, we can recognise it and choose never to walk in it in any degree.
Condensed by Bill Jackson
