12 "Christian" Beliefs That Can Drive You Crazy Book

This book would've been perfect, had I read it when it came out in 1995. All 12 of these non-Christian beliefs were commonplace growing up. As an adult, we now parody many of these word-for-word. "Just give it to God" or "I can solve this by praying and going to church more." This isn't to say that Christian culture as a whole doesn't still struggle with holdovers of these beliefs. However, they do not seem to have as widespread acceptance as they did over 20 years ago.

I love Henry Cloud and believe that a lot of Christianity can benefit from insights learned from counseling. That being said, in the books of his that I've read, he has a horrible habit of Biblical proof-texting. That is to say, he finds some truth that he learns in counseling and then in order to hand that truth to a Christian audience, he uses out of context scriptures to give himself the authority. While I think a lot of what he's saying is true, anyone can play this game. Hence why I'm not a fan of proof-texting.

Finally, several of these beliefs are rehashed again, in a way I much preferred, in his book on Boundaries.

Overall, I did like some material for this book, but I ended up quitting less than halfway through because of the issues mentioned above.

Here are the 12 myths:

1: It's selfish to have my needs met
2: If I'm spiritual enough, I will have no pain or sinfulness
3: If I change my behavior, I will grow emotionally and spiritually
4: I just need to give it to the Lord
5: One Day I'll be finished with recovery
6: Leave the past behind
7: If I have God, I don't need people
8: 'Shoulds' are good
9: Guilt and Shame are good for me
10: If I make right choices, I will grow spiritually
11: Just doing the right thing is more important than why I do it
12: If I know the truth, I will grow