Christianness in lectures

Interesting debate we had today. (I may not have quite expressed it as I want to here)

It was in a lecture on Difference and Helping. We were doing an exercise involving some pairs of statements, like 'Mental health is socially affected' and 'Mental health involves a chemical inbalance' and we had to stand along a line at the point we agreed with the statements (with one at each end. It was all very informative - and we then had to discuss how our view would effect us as a counsellor.

One pair of statements chosen by two girls in the class was 'There is a God' and 'There isn't a God'. Most of the people at the 'There is a God' side were various forms of Christians and the like and people of other faiths. Most of the people went to the other side.

When we then discussed how it would effect us as counsellors the 'No God' side immediately attacked the 'God' side saying that they wouldn't be able to counsel people without bringing their God into it, that they'd force their faith on to people. Whereas they as the 'No God' side wouldn't do that and therefore it's better to not believe in God if you're a counsellor.

Now isn't that interesting. The people claiming to be non-judgemental and open to anything, were immediately attacking the God believing people and being judgemental towards them. I certainly wouldn't have liked any of them counselling me!

Someone in the middle made the best point though, saying that it's up to all of us to focus on the client and not ourselves. It doesn't matter what view of life you have if you're a trained professional - you should be able to be open and helpful whatever your client brings.

It's made me want to investigate other religions a bit - just so I can have an idea of where people are coming from.