What You Need To Know
About Thought Viruses
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A thought virus is...
an unconscious thinking pattern...
that infects perceptions of reality...
and replaces thinking with beliefs...
that make accurate knowledge impossible
Beliefs about the world and other people that are built up from defective perceptions of reality...act like the body's immune system does with real viruses...though with a major difference.
Those defective beliefs act as a barrier to immunize a person from objective facts that would actually cure the thought virus and delete it from your mental operating system.
And while the physical immune system strives for good health by protecting the body from harm...the poorly formed beliefs that make up the thought virus's immune system work to preserve defective thinking.
The beliefs that come from a thinking virus actually shield you from useful contact with reality.
And that is not a good thing for anyone...like a minister...who intervenes in other people's lives.
And like any virus...a mental virus can infect the thinking of the ministry of anyone...anywhere. And the religious defenses of grace...sacraments...vows do not protect the minister from the effects of an uncritically accepting mind.
It was reported in the press a few years ago that a seminary in
Austria had a large collection of pornography some that featured the
seminarians and the faculty.
The bishop's response to press inquiries was
that it was "Only boyish pranks."
With our definition of ministry as...
Religious activity...that brings
both minister and people closer to God
you can see that religious formation of students for ministry is a religious activity...
And in the example above...ministry got derailed because a thinking virus...that "boys will be boys"...led to producing pornographic films with ministry formation students.
And this does not bring both the minister and the people closer to God.
Thinking viruses that trick the mind into believing that non-ministry is ministry are nothing new.
In Matthew's gospel Jesus warns about the evil effects of non-ministry passing itself off as ministry. (Mt 7:21ff)
To read other examples from the clinical record of thinking
disorders that create serious boundary problems
and interfere with the divine purpose and goal of ministry...click on
the following links...
We have all had the experience of changing our beliefs about people and experiences. And the defective beliefs that are symptoms of such irrationality can be changed as well.
And you already have the most powerful means to prevent these mental viruses...and that is the eleven word definition of ministry that allows you to see immediately whether or not you are engaged in ministry...which can only be religious activity...or when you are doing something else entirely.
And much of your ministry work will be helping people to recognize thought virus thinking that has its impact on their lives...and on their relationship to God.
And the good news is that...unlike some physical viruses... a thinking virus can be prevented and cured.
Download a FREE ebook on how to do this by clicking on the ebook cover below...
Or you can...
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