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Christian Nationalism, Dominionism, the New Apostolic Reformation; A Discussion with Dr. André Gagné

2019-03-14T13:32:57-04:00March 14th, 2019|Blog|

André Gagné, Ph.D. This week, I have the pleasure of sharing an interview with Dr. André Gagné. We discuss his journey as a former evangelical pastor, his academic journey becoming a tenured professor and his work involving the New Apostolic Reformation (NAR).  André Gagné, Ph.D. is an Associate Professor and Graduate Program Director in the Department of Theological Studies at Concordia University in Montreal, Canada. He works on the Christian Right, fundamentalism, religious violence and the interpretation and reception of the Bible. In his public scholarship, Dr. Gagné seeks to explain how sacred texts and traditions are used by fundamentalist groups and individuals [...]

Dr. Bandy Lee and Dr. James Gilligan: Do We Surrender Our Moral Compass to Technical Rule?

2019-03-11T16:44:47-04:00March 7th, 2019|Blog|

On February 27, 2019, Dr. Bandy Lee and Dr. James Gilligan spoke at The Program in Psychiatry and the Law (the Harvard forensic think tank). The talk was entitled, "Do we surrender our moral compass to technical rule?" They further discuss the question, "Given our professional responsibility to society, if we see dangers to public health and wellbeing, should we refrain from speaking up in professional ways because of a technical rule?" Dr. Lee and Dr. Gilligan are both experts on violence.   Dr. Bandy Lee is an expert on violence on the faculty of Yale School of Medicine’s Law and Psychiatry Division who has served as [...]

Terror, Love & Brainwashing: A Discussion with Alexandra Stein About Extremist Political Cults

2019-02-28T12:54:32-04:00February 28th, 2019|Blog|

This week, I have the pleasure of interviewing Dr. Stein, a cult survivor and renowned expert on cults and totalitarianism. Alexandra Stein, Ph.D. is a writer and educator specializing in the social psychology of ideological extremism and other dangerous social relationships. She is an academic, having taught at the University of Minnesota, Birkbeck, and the University of London, now teaching at the Mary Ward Center. Dr. Stein is a Ph.D. sociologist and expert on social psychology. She teaches as an academic but gives talks, as well as, writes books.  Her memoir Inside Out: A Memoir of Entering and Breaking Out of a Minneapolis [...]

Leaving A White Nationalist Cult of Hate: Helping and Serving Others with Love

2019-02-14T12:10:10-04:00February 14th, 2019|Blog|

Arno Michaelis This is the blog I did a while back about my friend Arno Michaelis. This new video interview at the bottom of this blog with Arno Michaelis is eye-opening, to say the least. It is certainly very educational. Learn about this courageous person. I believe it will inspire you and give you hope. People can and do leave hate groups, neo-Nazism, and White supremacy groups and go on to become wonderful citizens. He describes what it was like to be so full of hate: "The bottom line is that living like that, where you hate every other human being on earth and you're terrified [...]

Human Trafficking: Learn to Recognize the Signs and Help Save a Life

2019-02-07T13:03:20-04:00February 7th, 2019|Blog|

Danielle Bastien, Henry Ford Health System Trafficking is a Large-Scale Issue of Undue Influence Meet Emergency Room nurse, Danielle Jordan Bastein. Kudos to her! Danielle has pioneered the development of a new protocol to more systematically identify warning factors for the ER that a patient might be a trafficking victim. Trafficking victims almost always suffer a myriad of health problems and it is in the ER, that an important opportunity to offer them help exists.  This crucial screening protocol would train nurses and other health care workers to ask the right questions and do the right assessment to flag a [...]

Yale Forensic Psychiatrist Bandy Lee Discusses the Dangerous Case of Donald Trump

2019-02-01T07:04:52-04:00January 28th, 2019|Blog|

Dr. Bandy Lee, a forensic psychiatrist on the faculty at the Yale School of Medicine and an expert on violence prevention, graciously accepted my invitation to speak at the Program in Psychiatry and the Law, a forensic think tank. (A video of her presentation is included at the end of the blog.) During her talk, she gives a personal account of how she came to publicly warn, along with other eminent experts, against the psychological dangerousness of President Trump. Dr. Lee discusses how there was a serious concern in the medical community over indicators of his mental instability. However, many [...]

America’s Violent Culture: Does It Start With Corporal Punishment?

2019-01-24T15:01:28-04:00January 24th, 2019|Blog|

Physical violence such as being hit, spanked, whipped with a belt, and paddled as a child is unfortunately done by parents. But did you know that it is legal in 19 states for school teachers to use corporal punishment? Often with a wooden paddle. Why? Is it the Proverbs 13:24 “Spare the rod, and spoil the child” that is what is giving the authority to do violence to children, even infants? I believe this is cruel and it teaches violence to children. Do people say, "Well, it was done to me and I turned out ok?" Do we just do to [...]

Exvangelicals Find a Voice and Speak Out Against Authoritarianism

2019-01-30T17:35:58-04:00January 17th, 2019|Blog|

  Dominionism A few weeks before the 2016 Presidential election, Stanford Russian history Ph.D. Dr. Christopher Stroop wrote an article, "After the Trump Tapes: Evangelical Authoritarianism Revisited." In it, he shared his concerns about what he saw was a powerful group of people publicly defined as white evangelical Christians who were supporting Trump and who exhibited the characteristics of an authoritarian movement. While many might not identify with the term Dominionism directly--the belief that Christians should take over America and the world and make it Christian in a very narrow way--they were Christian nationalists pursuing a de facto, and sometimes explicit, Dominionist [...]

Islamophobia and Psychiatry: Recognition, Prevention, and Treatment

2019-01-12T19:49:43-04:00January 12th, 2019|Blog|

  Introduction The book begins by covering the general and clinical challenges that are unique to Muslims, drawing from an internationally, ethnically, and intergenerationally diverse pool of experts.  The text covers not only how psychiatrists and other clinicians can intervene successfully with patients, but how we as clinicians can have a role in addressing other societally connected mental health challenges arising from Islamophobia. The text addresses three related but distinct areas of interest: Islamophobia as a destructive force, Islam as a religion that is threatened by stigma and misinformation, and the novel intersection of these forces with the field of psychiatry. [...]

Ending the Game: Explaining Coercion to Help People Heal

2019-02-13T16:31:44-04:00January 3rd, 2019|Blog|

Human Trafficking Human Trafficking is a form of undue influence and a serious global issue affecting an estimated 21 - 27 million worldwide. According to the Defense Department, "Human trafficking is a crime in which force, fraud or coercion is used to compel a person to perform labor, services or commercial sex. It affects all populations: adults, children, men, women, foreign nationals and U.S. citizens, and all economic classes." Pimps and traffickers control the environment, access to information, relationships – every aspect of a person’s life – using techniques that manipulate how a person thinks, feels and acts. Using [...]