Deadly Doctrine

Front Cover
Prometheus Books, 1992 - Psychology - 198 pages
The Christian religion presents itself as the way to contentment, spiritual health, and salvation. But is this really true? Dr. Wendell Watters offers a powerful argument, based on his many years of clinical experience with individuals, couples, and families, that Christianity's influence actually militates against human development in such vital areas as self-esteem, sexuality, and social interactions. The tragic end result of Christian conditioning is too often antisocial behavior, sexual dysfunction, poor psychological development, anxiety, and even major psychiatric illness.
Christian indoctrination is not simply a problem affecting individuals or single families; the noxious effects of its teachings over nearly two millennia pervade society at large, even those who are not Christians, and in ways that seriously undermine human welfare and the quality of life. Christianity's aggressive pronatalist policies have encouraged large families, despite parents' inability to cope either emotionally or financially. With this the Christian church has formulated rigid sexual roles, forbidding all practices not leading directly to conception. By actually promoting sexual ignorance and irresponsibility, Christianity has allowed the proliferation of such social ills as rape, child molestation, and pornography.
In the face of so much human suffering resulting from Christian doctrine, it is imperative that health care professionals, recognizing the Christian belief system as an addictive disease, develop a religious status examination to help evaluate how notions about life derived from Christian god-talk compromise individuals' healthy functioning. In failing to determine the role of oppressive religious beliefs in mental illness, physicians and other health care workers actually promote Christianity's continued stranglehold on human happiness and self-fulfillment.
 

Contents

Introduction
9
Its Doctrine and Strategies
25
Christianity the Family and SelfEsteem
47
Dependency Interdependency and SelfActualization
55
Pleasure Suffering and Guilt
75
Christianity Sexuality and Traditional Gender Roles
87
Christian Pronatalism and Human Sexual Suffering
115
Christianity and Major Psychiatric Illness
133
The Research Findings
153
Christianity and Health Care
163
Christian DoubleThink and Newspeak
171
Homo Religiosus or Homo Sapiens?
181
Bibliography
193
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