Michael, obviously you’ve been paying WAY too much attention to that Jesus guy. He was always saying crazy stuff like that.

There are are five more stages, each one a bit more complex and abstract. “Morality” moves from the child-like and egocentric “fear-of-punnishment” to a more mature sense of morality based upon “principled conscience” and universal ethical principles. It’s a morality based on EMPATHY — not an arbritary and confusing list of do’s and don’ts and threats of eternal torture if you got the list wrong. We must think beyond ourselves and ask “how should I treat my fellow human being?” It’s “do unto others”.

The Rage Therapy video illustrates a misguided technique that was designed to facilitate a reasonable goal: emotional catharsis and lessening of depression. There are better ways to get there, just as I believe there are much better ways than beating pillows and screaming to work toward alignment of action with attitude.

Secularists as well as Reorientation therapists are capable of it (anyone who believes my experiences and values have a right to highjack your therapeutic goals can do it).

Honoring the pace, goals, sensations and values of the client is honoring the image of God in them (we each are the fingerprints of God, unique), and the soveriegnty of God working in them.

Anger is a greatly misunderstood and misused emotion in psychology…

I think the technique used in this video is very common for some cults, which use the “compress and release” method to break down a sense of self and break down attachments that might compete with the cult and increase the level of attachment and bond with the cult.

What about parental right to tell their minor kids that they can’t engage in sexual behaviors?

I digress.

I would prefer a cuddly God…

I agree, obeying God out of fear alone is the most restricted kind of relationship…shrinking in the shadows, risking nothing, carefully gathering merit points, hoping the amount to enough to appease.

Morality based upon fear of retribution is a weak, self-serving morality…but I think it is the trump card that God holds and is willing to use when all else fails (like obeying out of love, compassion, to be the hands and heart of God on earth).

“God is Watching Us…from a distance” –Bette Midler

Hell to me is a place that tells me and ensures that I no longer have choice in my life. That I am solely at the mercy of a whimsical and capricious diety and that I must act as a robot to the dictates of some power outside of myself.

Because I do not believe that God is some mad monarch that delights in punishing his creation for living according to the way he created them, I can hardly believe the notion of eternal punishment for living consistent with the orientation God designed for me.

Anon2, you most certainly have choices in your life. And I don’t know ANYONE who would say that you have no choice as to whether you can seek to structure your life according to your values. But if you need to achieve a different orientation in order to find peace, then I am certain that indeed your life must be Hell.

I also agree that we need to really look at the forces that may propel a client into therapy to change their sexual orientation in the first place. The threat of being tossed by God’s angels into a fiery and everlasting Hell, simply for loving, making love to and being committed to my male life-partner. is an idea I strongly reject. I don’t believe in that sort of God. In my mind, that’s an irrational and abusive idea for a “therapist” to reinforce in a client. (I don’t think Warren does this, by the way.)

I don’t think gays go to Hell for acting on their sexual orientation any more than I believe He actually commanded his people in the Old Testament to commit genocide (including children and babies) — and yet the Bible says He did. Sometimes, I think the Biblical authors got it wrong. Our “morality” ought to be based on the Golden Rule, not the threat of Hell.