{"id":31999,"date":"2023-03-23T05:33:44","date_gmt":"2023-03-23T12:33:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/?p=31999"},"modified":"2023-03-25T11:45:55","modified_gmt":"2023-03-25T18:45:55","slug":"the-voices-in-our-heads","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/the-voices-in-our-heads\/","title":{"rendered":"The Voices in Our Heads"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0My parents were first generation Christians who each experienced a radical life change when they accepted Christ. \u00a0My mother converted from Judaism to Christianity through a neighbor who convinced her Jesus was the Son of God; while my father walked the aisles to \u201cJust As I Am\u201d at a Billy Graham Crusade. \u00a0To say my early upbringing in the faith was intense is an understatement. \u00a0From learning to spell \u201cresurrection\u201d to daily Bible readings after dinner, where all the neighborhood children would join us if they happened to knock on the door, I heard the message loud and clear: God has something to say that is important. \u00a0So for a while I listened, I even wholeheartedly believed until the day my Dad drove our family to the Bill Gothard seminars. <\/span><\/p>\n

In reading Bobby Duffy\u2019s book, <\/span>Why We are Nearly Wrong about Everything<\/span><\/em>,<\/em> I looked up a few words to keep in mind the differences between the words <\/span>bias<\/span>\u00a0and <\/span>heuristics<\/span>. <\/span>Bias<\/span> can be defined as, a disproportionate weight in favor or or against an idea or thing, usually in a way that is closed-minded, prejudicial, or unfair. Or as Daniel Kahneman calls them\u2013\u201dSystematic errors.\u201d<\/span>[1]<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0<\/span>Heuristics<\/span>\u00a0can be defined as, \u201cAny approach to problem solving or self-discovery that employs a practical method that is not guaranteed to be optimal or perfect or rational but is sufficient for reaching an immediate short-term goal.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

By the time I reached chapter 11 in Duffy\u2019s book, <\/span>Dealing with our Delusions<\/span><\/em>[2]<\/a><\/sup>, I was convinced to write about my experience with the most delusional teachings I\u2019ve ever received, how I learned at an early age to recognize bias and the ways I relied on my availability heuristics<\/span>[3]<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0to simplify cognitive overload.<\/span><\/p>\n

Bill Gothard was a graduate of Wheaton College who founded the Institute of Basic Life Principles where he taught ultra fundamentalist views on family life based on the Bible. A hyper-conservative minister, he emphasized the man or husband as authority and head of the household; he claimed women should submit to their husbands without question, and children should be homeschooled. \u00a0Using the image of an umbrella, Gothard created a workbook showing God\u2019s proper authority structure: God is the big umbrella, man is the umbrella under God and then women\/children are the smaller umbrellas under the man. <\/span><\/p>\n

As I\u2019ve written before on our DLGP <\/span>blog,<\/a><\/span>[4]<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0 I sincerely loved God, prayer and the Church as a young, sensitive girl. \u00a0My first introduction to Bill Gothard\u2019s teaching entered my life when I was 13-years-old. \u00a0Gothard\u2019s foundational premise? \u00a0If you abide by his (Gothard\u2019s) seven principles God will bless your life.<\/span>[5]<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0Here are some of the first teachings I heard as I sat down in the Philadelphia Convention Center with thousands of people: <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u201cThe most godly hairstyle for women is long and curled, preferably blond.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cCabbage Patch dolls are demonic because they cause infertility and difficult births.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cYou will be protected from harm if you obey these teachings and if you don\u2019t follow the teachings, you will have one disaster after another.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cRock and Roll music is from the devil. Just listen to the beats and you will hear Satan\u2019s voice.\u201d<\/span>[6]<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n

Nothing Bill Gothard taught matched the mental pictures in my head of who God was nor reflected God\u2019s radical love from Scripture in our nightly readings with my parents. As Marshall McLuhan<\/span>[7]<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0theorized in the 1960s, the medium places a filter on the message that significantly influences how the message is interpreted. My teenage brain was underdeveloped in problem solving; yet, when I heard him blaming the way women dressed causing the opposite sex to sin, a warning bell rang in my ears. Bill Gothard was my first introduction to bias. \u00a0Immediately, I turned to my Dad and announced I was leaving and never coming back. It wasn\u2019t until graduate school in my early 20s that I learned t<\/em><\/span>o pay attention to the mental shortcuts I relied on for simplifying problems so I could avoid cognitive overload<\/span><\/em>. Outside of the Holy Spirit\u2019s help, I have no clue what rose up within me to not focus only on what was out there, what I was being told. From that point forward, I viewed every Christian teacher with some skepticism. \u00a0Both Duffy and Kahneman say that\u2019s exactly the point: it\u2019s partly how we think that causes us to misperceive the world.<\/span>[8]<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0<\/span>[9]<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0 I am <\/span>still<\/strong> <\/span>learning<\/strong> to think well without misperceptions.<\/span><\/p>\n

When I pray about what kind of leader and teacher I want to be, I am encouraged by last week\u2019s reading when Simon Walker says, \u201cAs leaders, the crucial quality we need is the courage to stop. The courage to wait and be still.\u201d<\/span>[10]<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n

I want to be a leader and teacher who doesn\u2019t exaggerate which, \u201cleads to delusion, while a tendency to \u201cdownplay\u201d leads to accurate assessment<\/span>[11]<\/a><\/sup>. \u00a0Duffy reminds me that my errors are not because I am deliberately misled, but \u201cour delusions need to be seen as arising from a complex system of forces, both in our heads and in the world, that reinforce each other.\u201d<\/span>[12]<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0What is it like for you when you are still and waiting on God as a leader, thinker and communicator? How does waiting and being still help you think rightly?<\/p>\n

\n
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[1]<\/a>\u00a0Kahneman, Daniel. <\/span>Thinking, Fast and Slow<\/span>. 1st edition. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2011.<\/span><\/p>\n

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[2]<\/a>\u00a0Duffy, Bobby. <\/span>Why We\u2019re Wrong About Nearly Everything: A Theory of Human Misunderstanding<\/span>. Illustrated edition. New York: Basic Books, 2019.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n

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[3]<\/a>\u00a0Kahneman, <\/span>Thinking, Fast and Slow<\/span>. \u00a0on p. 7, the author writes about availability heuristic, a mental shortcut simplifying problems to avoid cognitive overload.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n

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[4]<\/a>\u00a0https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/?s=The+Writing+Life<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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[5]<\/a>\u00a0https:\/\/iblp.org\/about-iblp\/iblp-history\/bill-gothard<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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[6]<\/a>\u00a0<\/span>https:\/\/podcasts.apple.com\/us\/podcast\/saved-by-the-city\/id1557930520<\/a><\/span>\u00a0 The hosts interview a Bill Gothard \u201csurvivor.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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[7]<\/a>\u00a0McLuhan, Marshall, and Quentin Fiore. <\/span>The Medium Is the Massage<\/span>. 1st edition. Berkeley, CA: Gingko Press, 2001.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n

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[8]<\/a>\u00a0Kahneman, <\/span>Thinking, Fast and Slow<\/span>.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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[9]<\/a>\u00a0Duffy, <\/span>Why We\u2019re Wrong About Nearly Everything<\/span>.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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[10]<\/a>\u00a0Walker, Simon P. <\/span>Leading Out of Who You Are: Discovering the Secret of Undefended Leadership<\/span>. Piquant Editions, 2007.<\/span><\/p>\n

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[11]<\/a>\u00a0Duffy, <\/span>Why We\u2019re Wrong About Nearly Everything<\/span>.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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[12]<\/a>\u00a0Duffy, <\/span>Why We\u2019re Wrong About Nearly Everything<\/span>.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0My parents were first generation Christians who each experienced a radical life change when they accepted Christ. \u00a0My mother converted from Judaism to Christianity through a neighbor who convinced her Jesus was the Son of God; while my father walked the aisles to \u201cJust As I Am\u201d at a Billy Graham Crusade. \u00a0To say my […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":180,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[2718,2719,2640,2203,2720,2705,2717,2069,2055,2052,2073],"class_list":["post-31999","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-bestill","tag-dlgp02-savedbythecity","tag-duffy","tag-leadershipidentity","tag-psalm4610","tag-simonwalker","tag-themediumisthemessage","tag-bias","tag-heuristics","tag-kahneman","tag-leadership-kahneman","cohort-dlgp02"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31999","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/180"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31999"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31999\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32039,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31999\/revisions\/32039"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31999"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31999"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31999"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}