professional christians?
Today I had a stimulating conversation about Christian therapists, with one of my teammates, Justin. Justin is probably one of my more favorite people on the team. He is a white water kayaking guide on the weekends, he is super-sarcastic, and he laughs at my jokes. For some reason some of my other teammates don't seem to take him seriously, and I can tell he is tuned in to that fact.Anyway, tonight I found myself alone with him in the office and somehow our conversation turned to a Christian therapist who is working with one of his clients. Justin has lots of questions and concerns about methods being used by this therapist, and he mentioned them to me to get my perspective. I definitely see the basis for his concerns, and the question I posed to him is whether or not he feels that the methods are actually helping the child. Basically the therapist has advised the child that whenever he is having thoughts of a particular nature, he should snap the rubber band that is on his wrist and quote a Bible verse.
I have heard of the rubber band technique before, the idea being that the individual will associate the pain (of snapping the rubber band) with the negative behavior, and eventually begin to lessen the behavior in order to reduce the pain caused by the rubber band. But the Bible verse Justin mentioned to me had nothing to do at all with the particular behavior or issue in question. Justin and I both agreed that it wasn't the Bible verse that was an issue (as far as I was concerned, the therapist could have the kid quoting from the Koran), but more that the technique didn't seem relevant at all to the situation.
Justin is not a Christian, and admitted that he is very skeptical of people who are "very religious" and especially those who try to apply religion to a therapeutic treatment. Today I caught myself siding with him, in essence against this Christian professional. This discussion broadened, and I went off on a tirade about Christian professionals on the whole, and how so many times it seems that a lower standard is accepted as long as someone is a Christian. Too many times, as is most likely the case with this therapist, people gravitate to someone (or something) because she (or it) is aligned with their personal beliefs, and not because they actually expect to receive a quality product or service. It saddens me very much to admit to this, and I basically had to apologize to a very wide-eyed Justin who seemed a little regretful that he had opened up a subject about which I am obviously passionate.
Anyway, I am starting to think that it is better for people to sometimes find out you're a Christian after the fact - after you have already loved them and added beauty to their lives ... and maybe it's not about the label at all, maybe it's just about the life.
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