Spirituality vs. Religious Extremism

This book is groundbreaking. It is a must for all because of religious education that has been a major force in most people’s development. This book is especially important for professionals who are uncomfortable with religious belief. Often therapists fear confronting clients’ religious statements. I hope this book gives the clinician permission to intervene in the life-destroying shallowness of religious addiction. I further hope many people can break through their denial and see just how damaged they’ve been by religious abuse. As Freud pointed out in The Future of an Illusion, one of the assumptions of dysfunctional faith is that one loses faith by questioning faith. It takes courage to go against the terrors of hell and judgment that our wounded child fears. Only by questioning our faith can we emerge with a mature faith.

In his book To Have or To Be, Erich Fromm describes religion as “not necessarily having to do with a concept of God, but as any group-shared system of thought and action that offers the individual a frame of orientation and an object of devotion.” As Fromm suggests, religions and beliefs systems seem to be divided into two camps: those that believe that human nature is essentially good and focus on our innate dignity, and those that maintain that humans are inherently evil and base.

This corresponds with my own definition of religion as being essentially a set of man-made principles about God, focusing on a teacher or prophet, in contrast to spirituality, which is the process of becoming a positive and creative person. Moreover, this definition allows us to look not only at organized religion, but also any group or belief system that either generates dysfunction or is used dysfunctionally.

When those beliefs inspire us to develop our creative potential, whether spiritually as individuals or culturally as a society, those beliefs move us forward and may be seen as healthy. When they limit or paralyze us, or are used by ourselves or others to oppress and victimize us, they can be regarded as unhealthy (Booth, 1998, p. 19–20).

William James, in The Varieties of Religious Experience, quotes something similar:

A child who is early taught that he is God’s child, that he may live and  move and have his being in God, and that he has, therefore, infinite strength at hand for the conquering of any difficulty, will take life more easily, and probably will make more of it, than one who is told that he is born the child of wrath and wholly incapable of good (Booth, 1998, p. 21).

Clearly, the idea of original sin, being born inherently weak and inadequate, has had a negative effect on us as individuals and as a society. I am often asked why God would tell us that if it weren’t true. I suggest that perhaps God never said this. I recognize that I am treading on the core beliefs of those who depend on a literal, fundamentalist interpretation of scriptures. I would never deny anyone the choice of interpretation of the scriptures of any religion or belief system. However, certain changes occurred in Christianity and in the way the Bible evolved that leave room for many interpretations. My objection has never been to fundamentalism; rather, it is to the insistence that I or anyone else is eternally damned for believing in a different interpretation. 

Religious addiction is built on absolute, unquestioning, uncritical acceptance of a set of teachings. On this foundation abuses are committed in the name of God. The key ingredients are fear, shame, power, and control. No matter what the religion of belief system, fear and shame are manipulated by those wanting power and control (Booth, 1998, p. 24).