Social Issues Today: Reducing or Ending School Shootings; My Thoughts

(I wrote this in March of 2018, but the ideas are still valid)
If you're tired of seeing these school shootings happen, the answer is not to fight against the second amendment, but to fight for practical and philosophical changes at school campuses and in society as a whole.  There are a few answers to this issue, some practical and immediate some philosophical.  I doubt this is exhaustive, but they are practical, and worth consideration in the public debate.
Some immediate and practical solutions.
• Put more armed guards at schools, one at every entry/exit in schools.
• Put gated fences around the perimeter around the main buildings as the first deterrent.
• Give everyone that needs to be in the school a key card to access the gated fence and the building. Students, teachers, guards, etc.        
• Every student that graduates or has been suspended, their key card is automatically deactivated.
• Teachers should attend mandatory self-defense classes that specifically teach how to disarm someone if in their judgment they can do so safely.·        
• The Federal, State, and local Government agencies need to fund school security and impose a school security tax and corporations and allowing them to write it off as a gift or investment.
• Parenting Classes emphasizing Attachment Styles.   
• Male Mentoring programs for young men.        
• Re-institute Apprenticeship programs for young men at school teaching them woodworking, mechanics, construction, and other job-related skills.  Additionally, give them college credits for the classes and partner with companies to give them a paying intern job while in school.
• Teach the young men how to manage their money from the apprenticeship program.  Make monetary management a requisite to graduation.
Philosophically
There has been an inexplicable movement by some states to create children or teen rights.  In California children as young as 13 can refuse counseling and medical treatment; all without parental assents or consent.  What that means is that the state has taken the illogical position that a child, whose brain and worldview has not even fully developed, are capable of making rational decisions that will benefit themselves and society.  Sometimes they may, sometimes they may not because they are still developing cognitively. For God’s sake, that's what teachers, mentors, and parents are for, and when the state takes that power of influence away from the adults then the state is going to create pathological children and adults who feel they are entitled to have their way and if they don't get what they want then they become resentful towards society and, at the extremes, either kill someone or themselves. These movements seem to be born of social constructs that have absolutely zero empirical evidence of viability and social benefit.  We need a return to sound moral and ethical judgments by all the caregivers of the child.
It seems the moral relativism has taken over society so that some educators have unwittingly become part of the problem.  I'm sure they didn't' do it on purpose and their Utopian vision seemed good at the time, However, when there are implied or direct philosophical instructions that a everyone has a right to their choices without any consideration to the effects upon society for those choices, that's when all hell breaks loose in society. That is exactly where we are at today.  Consequently, educators need to take some level of responsibility for creating the social chaos that is abounding in America.
I'm a graduate student in professional counseling, and as a consequence of my studies, I have come to the conclusion that my own profession needs to take some responsibility for some of the illogical theories that are being promulgated as essential to human growth and development. It would take more space than a Facebook comment box to dwell on that issue, but the overly restrictive values system of the ACA seems to be more of a deterrent than benefit to helping unstable individuals develop values that are beneficial to society. For instance, James Holmes, the Colorado theater killer, could have been stopped if his school counselor would have placed him on the 72-hour psychiatric watch list that his college had in place.  Why was that not done? 
I don't know for sure, and this is just speculation, but it may have had something to do with the archaic and outdated stance of the ACA on client confidentiality and not imposing values upon a client.  The counseling and psychiatric community need to come to grips with the fact that we are educators also and need to take responsibility to protect society as well as the individual.  I shudder to think that Cruz was seen by the school counselor, diagnosed as unstable, and then protected because of client confidentiality or values imposition conflicts.

The Social Trickle-Down Effect of Healthy Families

Excerpt:
"But as Bowen discovered, the family remains with us wherever we go. As we shall see, unresolved emotional reactivity to our parents is the most important unfinished business of our lives" (Nichols & Schwartz, 2005).

I'm really enjoying learning about Family Systems. It makes so much sense as to how some individuals develop personality disorders or some type of behavior/cognitive dysfunction. Reminds me of the scripture that states, "Train up a child in the way he should go and when he is old he shall not depart from it" (Proverbs 22:6, KJV).

Some people never reach their full potential in life because their dysfunctional family is still with them. They hear the voices of parents criticizing them for nearly everything they do or say. If their employer corrects them and they shrivel in a panic because it reminds them of their overbearing father or an abusive uncle/aunt. Conversely, some succeed because their emotional intelligence is a direct result of a healthy family environment as a child.

No need to be discouraged because Jesus can and will heal. He heals through scripture, wisdom, counselors, and time.

How does a Family Systems Counseling Theory relate to social issues? Some of the following social issues began or were cognitively formulated in the family of origin in some cases.

• Alcoholism
• Abortion
• Suicide
• Drug Abuse
• Poverty
• Eating Disorder
• Homelessness
• Racial profiling
• Welfare abuse
• HIV/AIDS
• Obesity

Alcoholism and/or drug abuse may be the best example. Some families have a history of Alcohol abuse which passes down from generation to generation, also known as Intergenerational Transmission. Alcohol and Drug abuse within a family has a direct effect on family conflict, sexual satisfaction, work ethic, job security, financial status, nutrition, the mental health status of the one abusing substances as well as the family, and finally, but not exclusively, social relationships.
Understanding family dynamics, history, and conflict resolution skills can benefit society by lowering the cost of health-related issues, lowering crime, reduce DUI related deaths and injuries, reduce caseloads of social workers and the courts, increase job productivity and satisfaction, and the list goes on Ad-Infinitum. These theories are important and practical, not just for families, but because of the trickle effect a healthy family has on social norms and social stability.



Reference:


Nichols, M. P., & Schwartz, R. C. (2005). Family therapy: Concepts and methods. Princeton, NJ: Recording for the Blind & Dyslexic.

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Disclaimer:

I’m not a professional counselor yet and so none of what I say or write should be construed as counseling or therapy. I’m posting as a pastor with some experience in pastoral counseling and as a Graduate Student in a professional counseling program who also has a B.S. in Psychology.


If you are having issues with your body image, or other mental health issues, I suggest seeking the services of a professional therapist.*

Social Issues Today: Religion, Psychology, Counseling, Projection and Displacement

     It is amazing how well Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT) works and especially how similar it is to the biblical model of change and growth. I can't tell you how many people I have met who used to believe that God hated them or was angry with them and pointed to things going wrong in their life as proof. Many think that this is a spiritual problem and some think counselors should leave that alone because it's rooted in religion and values. But truthfully these real-life scenarios are no different than viewing this as a relationship and whether it is a functional or dysfunctional relationship. 

     It's amazing that people can read and understand from scripture that God is love, he promises to never abandon them, he promises to provide for them, he promises to restore them if they lose their way, promises to heal their broken heart and all without one shred of condemnation. His parenting style is absolutely the functional Authoritative style vs the dysfunctional Authoritarian, Negligent, and Permissive styles. Yet, knowing all of this some people still have abandonment issues with God, often exhibiting an anxious attachment style to God, while having obsessive thoughts and self-talk of shame, condemnation, and rejection play in their heads concerning Gods attitude towards them.

        I have observed several common patterns in Christian normal and abnormal behavior and oddly enough some are due to a psychoanalysis principle. Some project their own self-rejection upon God and believe that he rejects them because it is too painful or creates too much anxiety to consider the reasons for their own self-rejection.  Sometimes individuals (some not all) displace their anger and frustration with God towards others. I knew a person who was angry with God for real injustices in his life, but he took that anger out on his family.  Sometimes they hold irrational beliefs about God that contradict what they know the bible says about Gods character. The belief is irrational because there is no evidence of its validity and yet it creates one or more psychological dysfunctions such as anxiety, anger, guilt, or toxic shame to name a few. They are living in a state of cognitive dissonance in their relationship with God and they often relieve that anxiety by turning to dysfunctional or addictive behaviors such as self-rejection, multiple sex partners, unprotected sex, drugs or alcohol abuse, spousal abuse, and other such behaviors.

     What's interesting is that I have known men and women who believed that their mate did not love them regardless of evidence to the contrary. Those mate's irrational beliefs and a Christians irrational belief concerning their relationship to God are eerily similar, in fact, almost identical with similar behavioral outcomes. That obviously does not apply to everyone, but there is a segment of the Christian population that holds these irrational beliefs and behaviors. That is where CBT can help people in the church (and obviously outside of the church too) because a counselor is not dealing with a religious belief but an irrational relational perception. Some examples of how CBT and Biblical CBT are similar are from Hebrews which states that the word of God is able to divide between soul and spirit. In Christian theology, it is taught that the spirit is completely perfect at the new birth, but the soul needs to go through the process of gradual transformation (theologically termed sanctification). The soul is considered the cognitive, emotional, and decision-making area of a person in Christian teaching. Christians are also instructed to renew their minds so that their behavior can be changed (Romans 12:2)  Sounds similar to CBT and Reality Therapy (RT) which states, "Psychological dysfunction results when we make bad choices" (Murdoch, 2017, p.367). What will we (present graduate students) be doing as future therapists? We will enter into a mutual collaboration with the client to change irrational thoughts and behaviors, to reduce anxiety, and enhance personal relationships ( I understand there is much more, but that is it in a nutshell,). 

     That's exactly what God/Jesus does with us if we understand his character correctly. He is called the Counselor and loves to talk with us through his word and collaborate with us to reduce anxiety and develop strong relationships. RT also states that one of the most important drives in human beings is the drive to experience love. This all sounds so similar to the desire for normal, loving relations and the desire to experience a loving, normal relationship with God; and in both types of relationships anxiety is created when an individual makes poor choices or embraces irrational beliefs about their mate/God that may have developed in their family of origin, poor caretakers, poor mentors etc. So ultimately the way CBT or even psychoanalysis relates to Christian individuals is to use them as tools to reconcile the Christian in their mind with their God who loves them far more than they can comprehend or imagine.

     Does this sound far-fetched?  Is it really possible to project onto God our own internal abnormalities, cognitive distortions and valueless worldviews? Consider these words of Adolf Hitler in a speech he gave in 1922. 

"My feelings as a Christian points me to my Lord and Savior as a fighter. It points me to the man who once in loneliness, surrounded by a few followers, recognized these Jews for what they were and summoned men to fight against them and who, God's truth! was greatest not as a sufferer but as a fighter. In boundless love as a Christian and as a man I read through the passage which tells us how the Lord at last rose in His might and seized the scourge to drive out of the Temple the brood of vipers and adders. ...Today, after two thousand years, with deepest emotion I recognize more profoundly than ever before the fact that it was for this that He had to shed his blood upon the Cross". ...
(Adolf Hitler, speech on April 12, 1922)

     Did you know these are the words of a man who at one point in his youth contemplated becoming a priest while attending a Catholic school? Notice the projection and displacement in Hitler's statements. He projected upon the Lord and Savior his own anger and violent behavior by seeing God as a fighter against the Jewish people! Less than twenty years later he was living this irrational belief concerning God in the most dysfunctional and diabolical behavior imaginable. I doubt CBT would have helped Hitler, but the point is that some people project their own inner conflicts upon God and either become angry with him or justify their abnormal behavior as approved by God. Granted, this is an extreme example but does hold some lessons for us today.

     This has incredible and profound social implications because if a person can successfully project what is inside of them upon God and then displace their anger, self-rejection, etc etc., upon society then all forms of abnormal behavior and dangerous ideologies proceed and infect homes, workplaces, churches, schools and other institutions with the dangerous notion that it is either Gods fault or God approves of their decision to hurt, maim, or kill others. Some would read this and conclude that we must do away with religion. The problem is not with religion but in the suppression of absolute values and normal moral development by our institutions. 

     As a future counselor, I fear that most of my clientele will be restricted to the Christian community. I'm not being discriminatory, nor favoring one group over another and it's not that I don't want to help everyone but it seems as though the ACA's values parameters are so restrictive that any type of counseling that requires even a mediocre level of moral development is taboo. Whether we like it or not we live in a society of moral relativism that has, in my humble opinion, developed a society of people demanding their rights regardless of how it may harm others. Additionally, we have given the impression that everyone is good, evil does not exist, and/or that whatever is good for me is okay and whatever is good for you is okay.  That's a recipe for moral and societal chaos which seems to be what we have at this time. I am 61 years old and I can truthfully say that when I went to school or worked as a teen, we never had the level of violence, resentment, vitriol, and near lawlessness as we have today. 

     Sooner or later our institutions such as counseling profession, the ACA, schools, higher educational institutes, as well as Government institutions, will be forced to deal with this and create some type of values counseling or education rooted in law versus non-scientific ideological theories. The outcome of the past 50 -70 years of ideological moral relativism is self-evident; people have lost their way, are making poor moral choices, and are more egocentric than any time in modern history. The cognitive outcome is that it's creating psychological dysfunction (Murdoch, 2017, p.367) and moral chaos.  If I read Piaget and Kohlberg's theories about moral development correctly then we are regressing morally as a society instead of progressing. Just consider Piaget's concept of respect for authority at 12 years of age;

"Mutual respect for authority and peers allows children to value their own opinions and abilities and judge other people realistically. Children should obey rules because of mutual concern for the rights of others". (Montgomery Community College & Hodges, n.d.)

     Our society has produced people today who want to kill policeman simply because they are police. In other words, there has been a profound loss of respect for authority, because of some injustices that may be real or perceived. When any segment of society deals with real or perceived injustice by killing others they are only creating more injustice, as well as moral and social chaos. Maybe there is a values-based therapy and education system that I'm not aware of; if there is we are in desperate need of more such therapy.

References:

Montgomery Community College, & Hodges, J. (n.d.). PIAGET’S THEORY ON MORAL DEVELOPMENT [Pdf]. Retrieved from http://faculty.mc3.edu/jhodges/PIAGETmoral%20theory%20.pdf

Murdoch, N. L. (2017). Theories of Counseling and Psychotherapy: A Case Approach. Boston, MA: Pearson.