Big Questions About Templeton: How the Philanthropic Giant Legitimizes Faith Healing | Political Research Associates

Much ink has been spilled about the Templeton Foundation’s influence on research in the hard sciences. Zoologist and outspoken secular activist Richard Dawkins has quipped that the Templeton Prize is usually given “to a scientist who is prepared to say something nice about religion.” Jerry Coyne, a prominent American biologist, condemned Templeton’s mission as a “serious corruption of science” and warned of the “cronyism that has always infected Templeton,” particularly in relationship to its study of “Big Questions,” a somewhat vague field of inquiry centered on quandaries like the nature of free will, consciousness, and evil. Sean Carroll’s criticisms of Templeton are somewhat more measured; he does not think there is any hard evidence that “Templeton works in nefarious ways to influence the people it funds.” For Carroll, the problem isn’t that Templeton is anti-science, but rather that “their views on science are very wrong.” Quantum physicist Michael Brooks echoes these views in the New Scientist, contending that Templeton does a disservice not so much to science as to religion, by advancing a conception of religion so “stripped-down, vague and wooly” that it “puts the new Templeton religion comfortably beyond assault from questioners.”
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While the Foundation’s influence on the hard sciences has often been the focus of criticism, the social science- and healthcare-related research in which it engages can be far more problematic. The more subjective nature of the social sciences—and, to a lesser extent, healthcare—may make these fields more vulnerable to pseudoscientific concepts and dubious methodologies.

The ready acceptance of pseudoscience undergirds Templeton’s “history of seeding fields of study almost from scratch,” as Nathan Schneider describes it. In the early 1990s, the Foundation began heavily funding the National Institute for Healthcare Research (NIHR), an organization established “to ‘objectively’ examine the role that religion and spirituality might play in physical and mental health.” At the time, hardly any medical schools offered courses on religion. But today, after two decades of Templeton-promoted research, three-quarters of U.S. medical schools utilize spirituality within their curricula. This development was facilitated by a combination of awards given to NIHR researchers; an NIHR-derived, multi-volume literature review of religion and health research; and numerous Templeton Foundation-funded programs concerning the intersection between science, religion, and medicine.

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Many of the Godly exemplars profiled by Flame of Love are as sociated with the New Apostolic Reformation (NAR), a right-wing  Charismatic and Pentecostal movement organized around parachurch groups known as apostolic networks. The NAR is committed to the principle of spiritual warfare against evil spirits that it believes threaten the well-being of Christians. One such exemplar is Che Ahn, who founded the evangelical organization The Call along with Lou Engle, the Charismatic evangelist associated with the 2009-2010 Ugandan“Kill the Gays” bill.52 Poloma herself describes the two men’s close friendship in glowing terms.53

Ahn (like Heidi Baker, another exemplar) is a member of the Revival Alliance, a powerful apostolic network that oversees six other major apostolic networks.54 The leaders of five of these six subordinate ministries, along with several of their spouses, are among Flame of Love’s highlighted Godly exemplars. The STEPP study, too, is marked by such connections: Alliance member Randy Clark, founder of the evangelical Global Awakening ministry, has worked closely with Stephen Mory, one of the study’s co-authors.55 Moreover, Candy Gunther Brown herself has served on the board of directors of the Global Medical Research Institute, a prayer research organization that originated as a Global Awakening initiative, though independent of that ministry.56 Subjects for the STEPP study were primarily recruited at meetings cosponsored by Global Awakening and Baker’s Iris Ministries.57

The Revival Alliance leaders’ work incorporates some shocking ideas about a variety of issues, particularly mental healthcare. Baker is known for “‘expelling’ demons from children.”58 Another couple has helped promote the supernatural healing of autistic children59 through a particular form of Charismatic exorcism, or deliverance, called Sozo.60 As I wrote in my 2015 book The Failure of Evangelical Mental Health Care, Sozo’s healing practices seem little different from the long-discredited practice of recovered memory therapy. (Sozo leaders and proponents also maintain, in terms akin to the increasingly discredited diagnosis of multiple personality disorder, that individuals with bipolar disorder have “parts,” or people living inside of them who need to be integrated into a core personality.ii)

While the Flame of Love Project was ostensibly a scientific enterprise, in practice the project served primarily as a public relations project celebrating NAR leaders, as well as providing an academic justification for many of their beliefs and policy priorities, including their economic agenda. The Templeton Foundation has enjoyed a friendly association with a variety of right-wing groups and think tanks that share its support for open markets and entrepreneurship; the Heritage


Big Questions About Templeton: How the Philanthropic Giant Legitimizes Faith Healing | Political Research Associates

Can Harsh Fundamentalism Lead to Mental Illness? -- Science of Us

In a recent paper in Sociology of Religion, a team led by Christopher G. Ellison, a sociologist at the University of Texas at San Antonio, sought to unravel an ongoing mystery in religion research: studies about the relationship between prayer and mental health have yielded very mixed results, some suggesting a positive link, some a negative link, and some no link at all. To examine this in a more careful way, the team decided to approach the subject from a relatively new angle: What sort of relationship with God does the individual person praying have?

The connection between prayer and mental health is a complicated subject, because it's easy to tell multiple stories about how it might work, and it could be that more than one of them is true. For example, while it's easy to imagine that prayer helps reduce stress and anxiety among those who practice it, it's also easy to imagine that particularly troubled people would turn to prayer more often, or that people who are already low in stress and anxiety are serene enough to pray a lot.

Maybe, Ellison and his team said, asking what the relationship between prayer and mental health is isn't a specific enough question. To add more nuance to the subject, they turned to attachment theory, the idea that people, influenced by early experiences with their parents, develop a style of interacting with relationship partners and close friends that fits into one of three different patterns.

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What's fascinating and provocative here is the implication of adaptive versus maladaptive religiosity. Could it be that certain harsher perceptions of God make people particularly prone to mental illness? It certainly makes some intuitive sense — particularly to a nonbeliever like myself — but this is an area in which the findings are pretty new, so there's a lot more research to be done.

Can Harsh Fundamentalism Lead to Mental Illness? -- Science of Us

FFRF objects to judge's courtroom behavior - Freedom From Religion Foundation

The Freedom From Religion Foundation is contesting blatantly unconstitutional conduct by a judge in Montgomery County, Texas.

After FFRF was alerted that Justice of the Peace Wayne Mack was opening court sessions illegally with Christian prayer, FFRF Staff Attorney Sam Grover sent him a letter of complaint Sept. 18.

According to a local complainant present in August in Mack's court, the judge stated: “We are going to say a prayer. If any of you are offended by that, you can leave into the hallway and your case will not be affected.” Mack then introduced a minister who read from the bible at length before those in attendance were asked to bow their heads and pray.

Grover cited relevant court cases while noting, "Your courtroom prayer practice does not promote public confidence or create the appearance of impartiality."

FFRF, a nationwide state-church watchdog with more than 21,000 members and 900 in Texas, is also filing a complaint with the State Commission on Judicial Conduct in Austin.

While Mack didn't formally respond to FFRF as requested, he instead has scheduled a "full buffet prayer breakfast" Oct. 23 at a Conroe convention center. At that time, he says in an Oct. 10 email, "I will be addressing [FFRF's] demand." He tells "Pastors & People of Faith" that "I need your help to take a stand."

FFRF objects to judge's courtroom behavior - Freedom From Religion Foundation

Arizona School Provides Room for Muslims to Pray | Todd Starnes

More bloviating by Todd Starnes, per usual, he misses the whole point,,,

The Christian cleansing in Orange County Florida stands in stark contrast to the accommodation being given to Muslim students in Tucson Arizona. Television station KVOA reports that Muslims attending Desert View High School have been given access to a room to conduct their prayers during class.

School officials say everything is by the book. That may be the case but do they provide private accommodations for the Catholics to pray? or the Pentecostals?

Versus,,,

"Students are to be permitted to pray or engage in religious activities or expression in the same manner and to the same extent as students are permitted to engage in non-religious activities or expression, before, during and after the school day."

Favela told the News 4 Tucson Investigators, "Our policy is very clear about allowing and accommodating this. It is not a violation in the sense that we are not promoting it. It would be a violation of church and state issues if we were promoting these views."

First the school in Arizona is not promoting or endorsing one specific religion over another as in Florida. When educators (teachers, administrators and staff -volunteer or paid) are in the public schools, they are wearing their government hats. They cannot establish or encourage religion in the classroom or at school sponsored events.

Second, an accommodation is being made, but what Starnes misses, this accommodation is being made to prevent a disruption in normal school functioning. Consider this, would you rather these 4-6 students pull out their prayer rugs, perform whatever ritual(s) necessary, commence with said prayer etc., smack dab in the middle of an ongoing class presentation? Or, would you rather these 4-6 students go to a separate room, just as Christian clubs do at the same public schools?

If anything, what this incident highlight is why religion should not be in public schools at all; the rituals and the magic need to stay at home and/or places of worship.

Arizona School Provides Room for Muslims to Pray | Todd Starnes

Pat Robertson Recalls Doctor Raising Patient From The Dead With Prayer | Right Wing Watch

After the 700 Club ran a story on the importance of prayer for doctors and patients, host Pat Robertson told a story about how a board member of Regent University, the school Robertson founded, used prayer to bring a dead man back to life.

Pat Robertson Recalls Doctor Raising Patient From The Dead With Prayer | Right Wing Watch

Discovering Reason: God’s Plan and Prayer – Are They Compatible?

Something to think about! Some of his reasoning is why I say you cannot have freewill in an Omni-God belief system,,,

Many Christians believe their God (Yahweh) has a perfect plan for their life and that everything happens according to his divine plan. However, many Christians also believe in the power of prayer. I don’t think many Christians have given much thought to the compatibility of these two concepts. They also haven’t given much thought to God having a plan and freewill - but that’s a different discussion.

Let’s assume it’s true that a God exists who has a divine plan for our lives. If this is true, why are believers praying to this God asking him to intervene in some way? If God has a plan, aren't those who pray just believers who don't trust God's plan? It would be arrogant of us to think we have a better plan than God, and by praying we are basically asking God to alter his plan.

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But this is where their cognitive dissonance comes into play - believers want to believe in these two concepts because one is comforting and the other is a possible way to improve their life or the lives of others. If prayer worked, it would also be the easiest way to improve our life because it requires little to no effort at all and when given a task we usually will choose the easiest way to accomplish it. If we believe prayer works, we feel like we did something to make a difference without doing anything at all - and this is tragic for those who need real help.

Discovering Reason: God’s Plan and Prayer – Are They Compatible?

Half of Evangelicals Believe Prayer Can Heal Mental Illness

The headline is a bit scarier than the content. But this statement is what concerns me, "But he worries some Christians see mental illness as a character flaw rather than a medical condition." Based on some of the comments, I know why it scares me. And yes spirituality is IMHO can help, NOT religion,,,

Christians will go to the doctor if they break their leg, he says. But some may try to pray away serious mental illness.

“They forget that the key part of mental illness is the word illness,” he says. “In a typical evangelical church, half the people believe mental illness can be solved by prayer and Bible study alone.”

LifeWay Research asked four questions about mental illness as part of a telephone survey of 1,001 Americans conducted Sept. 6-10.

Thirty-five percent agree with the statement, “With just Bible study and prayer, ALONE, people with serious mental illness like depression, bipolar disorder and schizophrenia could overcome mental illness.”

Responses are split by both faith and age.

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Tim Clinton, president of the Forest, Va.-based American Association of Christians Counselors, says spirituality can play a crucial role in treating mental illness.

He calls it “soul care.”

Half of Evangelicals Believe Prayer Can Heal Mental Illness