Embrace Sanity

Ethical and joyful living after Religion

  • A Century of Trauma, Part 2: How Each War Affected America’s Trauma

    Henry Lang came to Downton Abbey to take over as the Valet to the Lord Grantham when the Lord’s previous valet had to leave suddenly. This fictional account of a household of the English aristocracy is originally set during the early days of World War 1. The writers of Downton Abbey researched how the war…

  • A Century of Trauma
    Part One: What We Are Facing

    † In 1998, the broadcaster Tom Brokaw published one of the most significant cultural books of the 20th century. He called it “The Greatest Generation”. It told the story of a generation of men and women who survived the Great Depression and then immediately went on to fight and win in World War II. There…

  • The Six Stages of Deconstruction

    (This 2004 article appeared in its original form on the MTPastor blogger site I used to manage. The number of people experiencing Deconstruction has greatly increased since then. I decided it could use an overhaul). “Tearing things apart is a powerful aspect of human nature.” –Patti Smith Greg and I had gone to high school…

  • How Parent Teen Exchanges Work

    A mother called me one afternoon all angry and confused. She got my name from her friend, one of my counseling clients. She agreed to meet me so she could discuss how to handle a disagreement between she and her daughter. “Mike, I went into my daughter’s room and looked through all of her drawers….

  • Reviewing the Introduction of Jay Adams’ “Competent to Counsel”

    As a sophomore studying theology in 1975, I read the textbook for my Pastoral Counseling class and was shocked. Though at that stage in my life I had taken no psychology courses–that would come several years later–I knew enough about the basic philosophy of psychology to suspect this textbook was not accurate. Little did I…

  • Conflating The Preacher with Expertise

    He stood in his pulpit and looked intently at the 500 people attending. Then he made his pronouncement: “All mental illness at some level is the result of sin in a person’s life.” He went on to explain how depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder, mania, PTSD, eating disorders, OCD, and a host of other disorders were…

  • Cursing, Swearing, and Cussing Explained

    Before, you start reading, I am going to warn you explicitly and nicely. I will be using the “F” word several times. And not a bleeped out version of it. There is a reason for it. This is a very serious explanation of words and how we use them. I am concerned that people are…

Purpose of this Website

In this blog, we investigate the harmful effects of religion on the mind. Also, the current trends in trauma therapy will be explored.