We explain in Parts One and Two how the AACC with its 2011 World Conference is a sham and a shame. It is a sham because it purports to be a Christian organization and even has a statement of faith to indicate such; but, in spite of its outward Christian statement of faith, it functions as an organization that does not believe in the sufficiency of the Bible to deal with the issues of life. It is a shame that their offerings and orientations are primarily secular as we have demonstrated, and are clones at times of their secular counterparts. It is a sham and a shame to call this conference and its offerings “Christian.”
Special Events
Added to the secular clone-like offerings and topics is the AACC rampant commercialism that we revealed in Part Two. Another secular lookalike is found in the AACC “Special Events” as follows: “Silver Celebrity Golf Tournament”; “Let’s Get it Started Celebration Event…special concert”; “Rock the Block Silver Celebration…features award-winning comedian, Michael, Jr., and special guests, Newsong”; “Awakening: NxtGen Celebration…the future of Christian counseling is now”; “Pastor to Pastor Luncheon…to honor our pastoral leaders”; “A Silver Tie Affair Dinner Theater…& Silver Tie Banquet…special evening of elegance”; and “Light University Graduation…Commencement Exercise! Full cap and gown regalia.” (See our article on Light University.1) In addition, AACC provides “Networking Opportunities,” which all include the word “Christian,” but an in-depth look at all of them will reveal a dark underbelly of secularism.
Psychological Integration
Psychotherapy is not neutral. It involves values and morals. With respect to treatment, Dr. Thomas Szasz, author and professor of psychiatry, says that “psychotherapeutic interventions are not medical but moral in character.”2 Szasz would recommend against the wholesale integration of psychotherapy with its Christian façade by the AACC. Robert Watson and Stephen Morse state the obvious, that “values and moral judgments will always play a role in therapy, no matter how much the therapist attempts to push them to the background.”3
The vast variety of moral standards within the psychotherapeutic framework originate from human conceptions of morality. Psychotherapies have relative, changing, and unreliable morality and value systems and basically disregard God and His Word. Why have these many professing Christians and AACC, which claims to be Christian, fallen for this amalgamation of the world with the faith? Even if psychotherapists are Christians, the psychotherapeutic theories, by which they are required to practice if they are licensed, will undermine values and morals that are distinctly biblical. Psychotherapy is not able to deal adequately with either morality or guilt. Neither is it able to guide a person into a biblically sound, virtuous life. So all of this psychologizing of the faith (psychoheresy) practiced by those in the AACC will detract and subtract from the faith once delivered to the saints.
Based on our research and writings, which include both biblical and scientific reasons, we once again recommend that Christians not enter these licensed psychological professions and urge Christians not to enter into such unbiblical counseling that denies the sufficiency of Scripture for the very issues of life that Scripture addresses. While APA-approved Christian institutions, organizations such as the almost 50,000-member AACC, licensed therapists, and promoters of psychoheresy are truly the most guilty, Christian leaders who have a voice to be heard in opposition to this mania are also guilty for their silence or soft-speaking in not loudly warning God’s people.
While some Christian leaders are speaking out and condemning what we call psychoheresy, they are not speaking out specifically by naming names. Rarely do we hear even those Christian leaders who agree with us name names of individuals or organizations. Where are the pastors, theologians, and church leaders who are willing to speak out against this psychoheresy? Our recent book, Stop Counseling! Start Ministering! reveals why Christians should not become psychological counselors and why Christians should Stop Counseling! and Start Ministering the Word!
In conclusion, we have demonstrated why the AACC is a sham and a shame and have proven here and elsewhere why they are a quintessential last-days organization with a multitude of believers flocking after them as they are led down the psychotherapeutic primrose path.
(Endnotes)
1 Martin & Deidre Bobgan, “American Association of Christian Counselors: Biblical Charlatans,” www.psychoheresy-aware.org/aacc_charlatans_16-2.html.
2 Thomas S. Szasz. The Myth of Psychotherapy. Garden City: Doubleday/Anchor press, 1978, p. xvii.
3 Stephen J. Morse and Robert Watson, Jr., Psychotherapies: A Comparative Casebook (New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1977), p. 3.
(PsychoHeresy Awareness Letter, September-October 2011, Vol. 19, No. 5)