John Shelby Spong, author of Why Christianity Must Change or Die and also Rescuing the Bible from Fundamentalism, has actually debated conservative Bible scholar William Lane Craig in an excellent youtube video called "The Great Resurrection Debate." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zsXzu4tcOTI With adequate knowledge and information at our disposal, we can be more convincing as we challenge the many false assumptions that people make about the most important issues in life.
Neo-conservative or neo-liberal foreign policy "experts," bent on conquering the world through the American Empire, just love it, I'm sure, when Christian fundamentalists think Israel can do no wrong because its preservation ties into their Battle of Armageddon beliefs about the End Times. No doubt the same "experts" just love it when average Americans are too self-preoccupied with meditation, football, electronic gadgets, food, relationship issues, and job stress to question the mainstream corporate media.
But in addition to the study of religion and the practice of spiritual disciplines, the study of psychology is also important. The study of psychology can also help people grow up and become emotionally mature. If more people had self understanding, our social problems would be less.
It is unfortunate that many children, parents, and other adults have not learned how to deal with their feelings and emotions; they don't know how the self concept is formed or about everyday ego-defense mechanisms that we use to protect our illusory egos. They have not learned about humanistic psychology, Abraham Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs and concept of Self-Actualization, and Carl Rogers's person-centered therapy, and about transpersonal (or trans-ego) psychology.
There is much that both children and adults can learn from books and workshops about nonviolent communication (sometimes it is called compassionate communication) to deal with our everyday interpersonal relationships. Psychologist Marshall B. Rosenberg is my favorite expert on the subject. Rosenberg said we need to focus on sharing observed facts, feelings, and personal needs rather than moral judgments of others. He also said, "When two people play the game, 'I'm right, you're wrong,' they both lose."
Our current schools--public, private, and parochial--also perpetuate capitalism and imperialism. They are either extensions of the government or give the worldview of a particular religious denomination. Moreover, I don't know of any private schools (including Montessori schools) that teach any radical, counter-culture ideas that are anti-Establishment.
As a retired school teacher, I have advocated neighborhood control of neighborhood schools for the last 40 years to remove the hierarchy and chain of command, top-down domination in the school system. The neighborhood surrounding each elementary public school could ideally become an intentional community. Neighborhood control of neighborhood schools would also restore the sense of neighborhood togetherness, an idea that has long been forgotten in a society that promotes rugged individualism. With neighborhood control of schools, would there be some elementary schools that teach ideas that you and I disagree with? Yes, of course. But it would encourage parents and neighbors to think deeply about educational philosophy and curriculum. In the age of the internet, a modern version of tribalism could potentially develop that would promote local diversity and local self-determination.
Here is another example of how just about everything we learn in our culture is wrong, and it shows the pernicious effects of production for profit. Recently my fiance's granddaughter--who was a straight-A student and winner of a piano-playing competition at the state level--had a psychotic break. In a 4-month period she was in and out of about five or six psychiatric facilities. She was given major anti-psychotic drugs such as Haldol and was told by all the "experts" that she had a chemical imbalance and would have to take anti-psychotic drugs for the rest of her life. She was more psychotic and disturbed at the end of that 4-month period than she was initially! I informed my fiance's daughter about the classic book Toxic Psychiatry: Why Therapy, Empathy and Love Must Replace the Drugs, Electroshock, and Biochemical Theories of the "New Psychiatry" by Peter R. Breggin, M.D.
The daughter and granddaughter left their stress-inducing environment and came to visit my fiance' and me for about a month. We provided a stress-free, very calm and accepting therapeutic environment, as the granddaughter was gradually weaned from all anti-psychotic drugs. Currently she is not displaying any psychotic speech; she is back in school, and it appears that she made a complete recovery.
It would not be fair for me to generalize about the psychiatric establishment based on this one-case scenario, but there is a growing, organized movement of psychiatric survivors who are exposing the close link between psychiatrists and the drug companies. It is all about profit.
Last week I learned that I'm going to be a grandfather for the first time at the age of 66. If I were going to raise a child today, I would not send her or him to a public school or even to a private school if all the issues discussed in this article were not part of the curriculum, which means that home schooling would be the choice, unless I could find some like-minded parents who could help start a free, parent-run private school.
With a new Cold War starting up again, fomented by US foreign policy and the corporate media--we each have to work until our dying day to save the world now.
Last month I cancelled cable TV. With its 2,000 channels, there was nothing worth watching, and I have no toleration for TV commercials every 10 minutes. With a digital antenna, I can still get about 10 channels on my small-screen TV. Watching youtube documentaries and searching the internet is a lot more entertaining and educational to me than watching a lot of violent or silly programs that don't teach me anything.
Any country that has the audacity to refuse to be a client state of the United States is targeted for regime change, and then it is demonized by the mouthpiece of the government, the corporate media. The plan to control the world had been orchestrated by Zbigniew Brzezinski years ago.
Growing up and living in the United States, we have all been brainwashed in so many ways. Here is another example of how we have been lied to. The most versatile plant on the planet for industrial, medical, agricultural, and recreational purposes is the marijuana-cannabis-hemp plant. It was made illegal in 1937 through a corporate smear campaign all because the corporations involved would lose money from its legality. Under capitalism you have to sell the best product at a lower price and eliminate your competitors, sometimes by hook or by crook. After you capture the market, then you can raise your prices.
The corporations have lied to us about food. When I was growing up, the meat and dairy industries made sure there were separate categories for meat and dairy on the food pyramid we studied in school. Now we know that a vegetarian, and ideally a vegan diet, would be better for ecological, health, and ethical reasons.
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