<<I do not take the critique of a standing General Authority’s position lightly...>> But the critique of FORMER GAs? Hey, that's the church's approved way of dealing with the crackpot things former leaders said were gospel.
<<...relationship with self that needs to be developed in a shame-free environment...>> The church doesn't want a shame-free environment. Shame is the church's fuel. No shame, no need for an institution to tell you how to live (which produces more shame. of course).
But I was very interested to see scab picking on a list of depression-linked behaviors. I was a horrible scab picker when I was young. Looking back, I see that I was probably also depressed. And I was a good Mormon boy. Oh, I forgot, living The Gospel® makes you Truly Happy®, not depressed.
Bravo to Natasha Helfer Parker for this straight-forward response to Tad R. Callister's lecture on morality given to Mormoney church members. And thanks for sharing the article on this thread.
I found her response well-written, easy to follow, and full of facts as to why she found much of Callister's admonitions to be contrary to what she has learned both from being being trained in her field and from working in this area.
Stands out as yet another vivid example of a GA putting his foot in his mouth by not doing homework in the area he is attempting to be an expert on. What a joke.
I sincerely thank Natasha Helfer for her courage in taking Callister on and thank her for sharing her expertise with us. I wish her happiness and joy and commend her willingness to be a counselor who helps others understand a part of life that is often not talked about.
The article to which she is responding is thoroughly disingenuous, bigoted, and harmful.
A spectacular contradiction (on SSA/SSM):
"Some would have us believe that the Church’s stand against samegender physical relationships is a temporary policy and not an eternal doctrine. Such a belief would be at odds with the scriptures, with the words of mod ern prophets, and with the plan of sal vation, all of which teach the necessity of eternal marriage between a man and a woman as a condition to exaltation."
Right--because the Church has NEVER retracted scriptural or prophetic statements. Ever. Really.
Ms. Parker is a LCMFT -- a licensed clinical marriage and family therapist. What this generally means is that she has a Master's degree in marriage and family therapy and a minimum of 2,000 of supervised counseling experience before receiving certification. In other words, she is an educated, experienced, and certified professional counselor.
I love that she is speaking truth to power. It is high time that professional counselors tell the Mormon church that many of its pronouncements and policies are *wrong*.
His attitude is like 40 years behind the times, not to mention emotionally damaging. No wonder young people are leaving the Morg in record numbers.
I thought the author's strongest statement was "Although I enjoy the work I do – I do not enjoy the fact that this type of approach coming from this type of authority guarantees that I will have no shortage of business as an LDS sex therapist for many years to come. This article successfully sets us back about 35 years."
Nice to see a Mormon mental health professional state that the preaching of a church leader damages Mormons' lives. Now the question is, will Callister read this article and get a clue?
At least the majority of the comments I read supported the therapist.
I cut myself in middle school. There was a girl I liked and I took a knife and cut her initials into my arm. I don't know what she must have thought about it, though we did date later. The cuts were made with a pocket knife and just deep enough to bleed, no deeper. While I was cutting, all the pain in my life was displaced by the pain of my flesh. I could forget about my violent father and his extremist church. If only for a few moments.
My take is that he's being very aggressive with the morality issue hoping for a life-long promotion from his current position in the presidency of the 70 to the next available Q12 opening. He will be 70-years old Dec 2015, and is close to being turned out to the emeritus pasture unless perhaps Monson or Packer croak in a timely fashion.
It's talks like Callister's that makes me think I should just go ahead and resign and cut all ties with this organisation. The backward rhetoric that spews from the mouths of non-experts who proclaim to speak for God is just so harmful. I'm glad his incompetent rambling was thoroughly exposed.
I read the article and the critique. The lengths they go to control the youth, it's ridiculous. They tell them that the Lord condemns perfectly harmless and NORMAL activity.
Excuse my french, but I have to save my kids from this crazy mind fuck of a church.
I hated the part of the article where she states she's just a lowly female and doesn't have the priesthood. Ummm...the truth is the truth, with or without a penis.
On the one hand they say that "The Lord" put the sex drive in men so that they would marry (cuz the ONLY reason a guy would marry is to get laid).
But, they say, it's sin to even THINK about getting laid with anyone other than your lawful, opposite-sex spouse.
So "The Lord" put this drive in you that you are not supposed to even think about if you're unmarried.
And he did it to get you horny enough to go to the trouble of getting married. But, while you're horny you're not supposed to think about sex or get aroused.
Mormonism is insanity distilled, and concentrated.
This type of bullsh!t was used on my son as struggled on his mission. He came home totally messed up. I'm still angry about it. We got him a real counselor and things are way better for him.
I sent the article to an LDS member who is also a renowned expert in this exact field (PhD in the subject matter, private practise etc) and he completely agreed with it. He has seen firsthand just how damaging the GA/SP/Bishop rhetoric can be and has had to try and provide counselling to members/missionaries who have been seriously messed up by such talks.
GAs really are completely clueless and they tend to ignore the amazing advances in our understanding of neuroscience, in favour of their prideful supposed appeal to PH authority. The sad thing is that most members have been conditioned to readily accept such BS and ignore those who really are experts.... who only speak the 'philosophies of men'.
How many more people need to be unnecessarily psychologically damaged by charlatans? Wolves in sheep's clothing indeed.
Well done article. She is too open, thinks too much about things rationally, and actually has healthy attitudes about the primary control topics that prevent her from being a strongly controlled place. What happens when she realizes that everything the brethren have said is fear based, the book of Mormon too. What happens when all of these things getting piled on her shelf get heavier and more disgusting to her.
She won't last long in the cult, she has already started to pull back the curtain and question the man behind it, just waiting for the last piece to click.