An Oregon couple has been indicted on criminal charges for deliberately withholding medical care from their child who has serious eye problem. The parents felt prayer was sufficient.
Relatedly, many Christians are praying for Christopher Hitchens, who was recently diagnosed with esophageal cancer. Hitchens told an interviewer that he’s “touched by the thought.”
Religion blogger Michael Spencer predicts the coming evangelical collapse.
Horrifying: Russian Satanists found guilty of killing and eating four teenagers in a forest.
An Italian newspaper has hidden camera footage of three Catholic priests at a gay night party.
Someone was kind enough to compile a thorough timeline of the LDS Church’s involvement in anti-gay marriage politics.
My friend Zach argues that his fellow Mormons should have a more expansive view of the U.S. Constitution.
A journalist is arrested in Maldives on the suspicion that he’s an atheist and homosexual.
Sunstone, an independent Mormon magazine, has a fantastic two-part series on Glenn Beck called “Rough Stone Roaring.”
For the curious, you can listen to an audio recording of the LDS temple endowment ceremony.
Dr. Kenneth Howell of the University of Illinois was dismissed for discussing a natural law argument against homosexuality in a Catholic studies course. The school’s atheist club has come to his defense.
Augusta State University grad student Jennifer Keeton may face a similar fate. She claims she was told to alter her religious beliefs about homosexuality or be expelled.
Want a handy guide to debating theists for your iPhone or iTouch? There’s an app for that.
The Guardian reports that thousands of British girls will undergo genital mutilation this summer despite tough laws.
“Graduate student Jennifer Keeton was told by Augusta State University to alter her religious beliefs about homosexuality or be expelled.”
That’s what she claims. Actually she was told that she had to realise that its unethical for her to force her beliefs on others, like students who are gay, and until she amends her behaviour (not beliefs) she won’t get a degree.
If you don’t cite, it didn’t happen. I assume she’s an ass, but in the linked article the school didn’t give it’s point of view. I suspect you’re right, but unless you have additional information (and if you do, please share), it seems a little quick to decide what happened.
I amended my post. Thanks, Craig.
http://www.wrdw.com/schools/headlines/99146139.html
I am married to a psychologist (PhD in counseling psych) who is involved in graduate and training programs for MA and PhD students in clinical, counseling, and school psychology. I asked her about this situation.
Her view:
Psychologists and counselors are not spiritual or moral counselors. It is their job to remain morally and spiritually neutral on questions and issues that they see in the lives of their clients. This should cut in all directions – it is not their job to say there is something morally objectionable about homosexuality, nor is it their place to say that there is nothing morally objectionable about it. I must say that I (my wife did not say this) rather suspect that faculty and APA accreditors get more upset about the former than the latter. But the point is that, according to the APA guidelines, it would be unethical to advocate for one moral position over another.
None of this means that a counselor has to change her own moral views. What it means is this: to have APA accreditation a person and a program have to be either (a) willing and able to remain neutral on moral questions or (b) be willing to refer those clients with whom they do not feel they can help because of moral qualms.
As my wife said, being a counselor means knowing you are going to be dealing with any number of people and situations that you find morally problematic. She faces people, for instance, who are thinking of getting an abortion. But she is not a spiritual counselor. The ethical thing for her to do is to either try to help the person deal with their issues out of their (the client’s) own moral framework or, if the moral issue is too much for her to set aside, refer to the client to another psychologist.
She added that BYU has APA accreditation. That means that they, in theory, follow these APA ethical guidelines (which, she added, includes never referring a person to “reparation therapy” which the APA says is unethical).
For my part (my wife did not say this), I suppose that there could be another discussion about whether or not the APA ethical guidelines are always a good idea. It does lead to a privatization of moral value, which almost always implies a relativization of moral value (as if moral claims are not moral facts about which we can all engage). But I can see the case for their guidelines as well.
Bottom line in the case here: my wife did not want to say, given the amount of information that we have (and with a 5 day old baby she did not care to look more into it). But if this young woman is advocating and evangelizing moral points of view with her clients, then she is in fairly obvious violation of APA ethical guidelines.
From my personal experience going to BYU psychologists, they do follow those guidelines, though some do it better than others. I had a very positive experience in therapy at BYU, but I also had a less than religiously orthodox therapist, and I was at that point no longer wanting to stay celibate and in the church.
In the past (early 90s and before) at least some BYU therapists had been known to promote/advocate reparative therapy, but I believe that is no longer the case. BYU did semi-secretly for a long time perform electro-shock “therapy” on disturbingly many gay men from the 70s through the 90s, a practise the church still denies. Today though it’s almost always it’s the bishop that refers gay people to Evergreen and other reparative therapy groups.
I do think it’s rather obvious in this situation that Ms. Keeton is completely unsuited to being a counsellor. If she can’t grasp the concept that it’s unethical for her to force her religious views on a diverse student population, or to tell students with differing moral views that they’re wrong, then she hardly has any place being in psychology/therapy/counselling.
Thanks. Turns out she’s an ass after all (surprise!)
On Hitchens and those who are praying for him:
http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2010/hitch-lives.html
Good article. I have to suspect that if the Christian god exists, he really likes Hitchens. And not in some boring “god loves everyone” way. God speweth out the lukewarm, and Hitchens certainly isn’t lukewarm. Ha ha.
Alas, Hitchens may end up being bitter to the bitter end:
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/damianthompson/100049641/christopher-hitchens-im-sorry-that-i-probably-wont-live-to-see-the-death-of-elderly-criminal-benedict-xvi/
I agree with Hitchens. Ratzinger is a criminal.
Yawn.
I am trying to figure out which is less surprising, your agreeing that B16 is a “criminal” or your willingness to lob around all sorts of over-heated charges without any evidence.