I found reading this article gripping and it led to a lot of questions.
My first thought is how casual 'belief' or 'faith' in moderate Christians is what led JAC down this route. When society believes that not knowing God is a path to eternal damnation, then is it that surprising if someone with empathy and ambition makes it their mission to fix?
Obviously there is also a bit of the 'messiah' complex going on there - probably reinforced by other Christians and IG followers.
I was also thinking about how the dad felt, when he tried to talk his son out of what he was doing, but couldn't argue against the religious beliefs he'd previously taught him? At that point, if I were in his shoes, would I hold my hands up and say my faith had all been a big mistake, it was convenient to getting me where I am, but it doesn't really make sense. Or maybe I'd take the tack of 'don't be so extreme - be more moderate', something that really wasn't going to fly with JAC.
Also, as a father, I can't imagine raising a baby boy, a child, who becomes a young adult and then watching him take this path. The article made me think about how a father is a role-model to their children. His father went through a difficult time with his career and JAC was witness to this. I lead a stressful, busy life, I wonder what affect that will have on my kids outlook?
You can have a bit of messiah or jesus complex without having mental illness, and mental illness is a broad term for an entire field of medicine, so it's not very specific. I don't think we can call it mental illness unless we are trained psychiatrists and we'd assessed him.
My first thought is how casual 'belief' or 'faith' in moderate Christians is what led JAC down this route. When society believes that not knowing God is a path to eternal damnation, then is it that surprising if someone with empathy and ambition makes it their mission to fix?
Obviously there is also a bit of the 'messiah' complex going on there - probably reinforced by other Christians and IG followers.
I was also thinking about how the dad felt, when he tried to talk his son out of what he was doing, but couldn't argue against the religious beliefs he'd previously taught him? At that point, if I were in his shoes, would I hold my hands up and say my faith had all been a big mistake, it was convenient to getting me where I am, but it doesn't really make sense. Or maybe I'd take the tack of 'don't be so extreme - be more moderate', something that really wasn't going to fly with JAC.
Also, as a father, I can't imagine raising a baby boy, a child, who becomes a young adult and then watching him take this path. The article made me think about how a father is a role-model to their children. His father went through a difficult time with his career and JAC was witness to this. I lead a stressful, busy life, I wonder what affect that will have on my kids outlook?