Friday, September 27, 2013

The Idolatrous Eye

"Do you see a man wise in his own eyes?  There is more hope for a fool than for him."  Pro. 26:12

The Proverbs are practical theology.  They are designed to provide answers for everyday living.  How very unlike the post-modern age wherein image reigns over character.

Persons today are profiles to be uploaded and perused by the anonymous others, or those who are part of the ancient past.  Persons today do not have a past they have adventures on a continuum or line that goes on forever.

So they live within the "moment" that moves effortlessly into the next moment.  No one is waiting for Godot today.  Today philosophical hedonism has morphed into an arcane nihilism.  It is not so much "what is, is right" today as is moral awfulness on display.

Do you see a man wise in his own eyes?  The ancient prophet/poet mused on a topic that defines the essence of non-thinking today.  People are bewildered by the brazen ability of the political 'elite' to speak unconscionable lies with unflappable bravado.

People today are wise in their own eyes.  The idolatrous 'eye' is built on lies.  How else to explain the ever weakening public capacity for new violations.  It is all well planned. It is all designed to wear down resistance to the moral and spiritual pollution that insists on destroying collective public health.  Secret groups and unnamed researchers are paid huge sums to create fear in all of us.

The idolatrous eye insists on believing only what it sees.  There is never a critical look into its incredible presuppositions.  The idolatrous eye is its own unquestioned premise.  The idolatrous eye is god-like in its hubris.  It is grandiose.  It is intoxicated with the metaphysical necessity of its inherent necessity.  The idolatrous eye is the Overman.  Or so he thinks he is.

When the eye doctor wants to examine a patient he uses an ophthalmic-scope.  It is a very important health screening tool.  When used by the eye doctor she/he can get a great deal of information that is relevant to many medical fields such as cardiology and neurology to name a few.

The Word of Yahweh is like the ophthalmic-scope.  It reveals a great amount of information about the state of an individual's spiritual (breath) eyes.  The ophthalmic-scope of the Word of Yahweh looks deep into the spiritual eyes of individuals and reveals the state of the inner or person.  Spiritual Cardiology as revealed by the Word of Yahweh unlocks the secrets of the idolatrous eye.

Nothing is hidden from the ophthalmic-scope of the Word of Yahweh.  The Word reveals that the one who is wise in his own eyes is in need of  the eye save of the Word, but the cardiac condition of the idolatrous eye will not come to the Fountain of Life.  He will not let Yahweh wash his eyes with the Holy Spirit.

The idolatrous eye will always see men as trees walking.  People will always be indistinct and mere outlines of the real thing.  The idolatrous eye will always attempt to fill in humanity with tortured vision.  The insensitive eye can only know its inherent insensitivity.  The one who is wise in his own eyes is in desperate need of the redemptive eye-salve that only the Iesous can provide.

I once suffered from idolatrous eye disease.  The Iesous gave me new eyes. He can do the same for you.

For more information about Dr. Rich and his teaching ministry, please follow this blog and visit his website.

Wednesday, September 25, 2013

The Therapy of Paraclesis (Comfort)

"Blessed be the Theos and Pater of our Lord Iesou Christos, the Pater of mercies and Theos of All comfort. Who comforts us in all of our tribulations, that we may be able to comfort those who are in any trouble, with the comfort with we ourselves are comforted by Theos.  For as the suffering of Christos abound in us, so our consolations also abounds through Christos."  II Cor. 1:3-5

One of the extraordinary benefits of Grace is the Paraklesis of the Iesous.  Paraklesis is his ministry of comfort to his own mediated through the Holy Spirit.  We read in the Graphe (Scriptures) that the Iesous learned...through the things he suffered.  The greatest and most gifted counselors have "suffered" through the problems of life too.  The Iesous entered into the human condition in a manner consistent with the Divine Imperative.

The Divine Imperative is the Christ Event.  The Christ Event is divine viewpoint of the human predicament. Man cannot be his own Savior.  It is only his hubris that leads him to believe that it is possible to save himself from this menacing darkness.  Man's reasoning is circular and at times hopelessly convoluted.  He believes that novelty or the reshuffling of old and trite ideas can change his condition.

Man wrestles with an intrinsic and chronic state that only gives the illusion of purposefulness.  Without Divine Revelation there is no answer.  Look at the world that man has created.  There is incredible pain and misery, and yet it is still believed that money, and "equal" rights can or will solve all problems.  It is the great lie of, what Buckminster Fuller calls "Lawyer Capitalism."

We live under tyranny and repression, mind you at the time it is soft tyranny, but what will the future hold? You do realize that the banking catastrophe of '08 was merely a step in planned confiscation of the wealth of the middle class.  History has many examples of what happens to countries who destroy the middle class.

Many believers lost property in '08 and had a hard time recovering from the loss of homes and jobs. However, God saw the evil manipulation of economy and He knows exactly who was behind it all. Persecution can take on many forms, and we must remember that the Iesous was persecuted too.

The reason why we must establish community with one another as believers is because we will need one another in the coming days.  Race or color of skin will not matter in the coming days.  It was once observed that Sunday was the most segregated day in the week because believers gather together with their "own kind" which is false doctrine.

We are collectively the Body of Christ.  We are not separated by the old things of the cosmic system  The cosmos is moving toward a radical monolithic government.  We will know the pressure of this movement. The Iesous will give us comfort as we face dark and disconcerting times.  Consider carefully that it is desired that people are fearful and constantly bewildered by the powers of the cosmos.

Believers are having a hard time in Egypt, Syria, and on the African Continent today.  The comfort that we receive from Iesous is to be shared with others who are of our Confession.  The love of God is not in one who hates his brother.  Such a person does not have eternal life abiding in his soul.  If one does not love his brother who he has seen, how can he love God who he has not seen?

Seriously, the church has had an internal war in America over race and skin color that has compromised its testimony.  In the New Testament documents the word witness as used in the book of Acts was a legal term. It meant a formal declaration of eye-witness first person experience. But when privilege is exalted over Truth there is suffering.

Who believes the church's witness today?  Who really believes's that we are co-sufferers with the Ieosus and that we co-share with the suffering of other members of the Body of Christ?  Will suffering cleanse the witness of the Church?  It seems historically that suffering has cleansed the witness of the Church.

What would happen in the world if believers came together over the person of the Ieosus?  What would happen in the world if the church demonstrated the love of the Ieosus without apology for race or face?  The Iesous walks within  His church as the One who sees all things.  Are you ready to join in the Divine Imperative and help the Body of Christ?

Suffering has the ability to focus our attention. Suffering has the ability to cleanse our lives of the dross of this world.  Your witness is needed today.  Let other believers really know who you are in Iesous and that you have walked the path of suffering and victory.  Encourage someone today.  We are members one of another. The faith in Iesous that we share with others can lift up a fallen face, and give hope.

The comfort of the Iesous is designed to come along side us in times of stress and hurt and give his own paraklesis (comfort) to us. We are precious to him.  We must be available for the Lord and his people.  Our hearts must be filled with the knowledge of his Word that heals the sin-sick soul.    

For more information about Dr. Rich and his teaching ministry, please follow his blog and visit his website.

Thursday, September 19, 2013

"Super-Over Come Evil With Good"

"Behold the wicked brings forth iniquity; yes, he conceives trouble and brings forth falsehood.  He made a pit and dug it out, and has fallen into the pit which he made.  His trouble shall return upon his own head, and his violent dealings shall come down on his own crown (head)."  Ps. 7:14-16

There is a law given here that is intrinsic to the world that Yahweh has made.  It is the Law of Reciprocity. The Law of Reciprocity states that one reaps what S/he has sown.  Yes, one can be dismissive of this law because it is found within the pages of an ancient song book.  However, this is not merely an ancient song book, it is the breath of Yahweh inscribed for all generations.  The message is therefore timeless.

The wicked are the theme in this passage.  Notice that as a class of individuals are referred to by an adjective i.e., the wicked.  The one word descriptor is enough.  It truncates the folly of such persons. Everything about their lives bespeaks a terrible future. Their metaphysics is weighted down with the odious and putrid smell of sulfur.  The behavior is described by the birth process.  There is the conception, growth, and then the birth of evil.  Interestingly, the wicked undergo the burdensome impregnation of iniquity and then nurture it until it is ready to be born.

Then the text turns to the "pit" word picture as following upon the heels of the birth of evil.  We are given here foreboding insight into the dark schemes of evil.  Evil is born with its termination as intrinsic to its existence.  This is a stillbirth but the unwary wicked do not know it.  They can only 'see,' if you will, their frightening motives moving out to produce preconceived havoc.

The attitudinal blindness of the wicked keep them from considering the self-injured destiny they have contrived to their own undoing.

The Old Testament documents are frank in teaching the "sphere of action that creates destiny."  But this is such a trite and meaningless teaching to the heirs of nano-technology, iphones, and the muddy mazes of violent, and sexually provocative "video" games.

Our culture has come to worship the reptilian cortex!  The social hypocrisy is not amusing.  Judges no longer want to sentence 'good' citizens for sexual crimes because now a new demographic is tagged.  A new social (class) pariah is needed to cover up the crimes of the controllers.  The human-robot hybrids are probably already among us.  (Surely such evil could never be among us).  

The clever ones are protected from the consequences of their actions by those who can make problems go away.  God is not mocked by the works of men.  The proposition is still true:  "All men are mortal."  It remains true until Yahweh ends the human experiment.  There are the trans-human-ers who believe that the human experiment will end when the ultimate software is created that will allow human consciousness to be uploaded into a supercomputer and then all will be well.

Human software is created by smart humans who are not perfect.  Mathematical philosophy is only as good as those who write it or model it on computers.  We will not have a Software Utopia.  It will still have the controllers and the controlled.  It is a self-mocking equation.

Yahweh sees all that we do as humans, and how humans have tried to kick him out of his own created order. "He who conceives trouble...brings forth falsehood."  The premise is deeply flawed.  Evil cannot win because it is existentially wanting.  Evil is naked malevolence.  Evil is a hollow soliloquy spoken on behalf of bewildered self-delusion.  Evil is the philosophical waif of the "Will To Power."

The trouble that the wicked unleashes is the dagger that will also puncture his own dark heart.  I know that the language is bold, but the topic demands appropriate discussion.  I once visited a winery where boomerangs were on display.  One was small and the one that caught my eyes was very large.  So I asked the sales clerk if he knew the story of the boomerangs.  He told me that the large one was for hunting.  It was an amazing weapon to behold.

The wicked are experts is conceiving and designing boomerangs.  The wicked are hunters.  They design precision weapons engineered to destroy their own lives.  They also pre-dig the pits to which their finely-honed boomerangs end their harassing journey.

Beloved do not spend your time meditating upon the ways of the wicked.  Do not be overcome by evil, but super-overcome evil with good.  Where sin did abound Grace super-abounded.  We are super-conquerors through the Iesous who loved us and died for us.  Allow the Holy Spirit to take control of your life and give you the peace of Iesous. God can super-handle the works of the wicked. Be blessed and live as unto the Lord always. Amen.

Tuesday, September 17, 2013

"Leaving The Weight of Empty Things"

"I will praise You with my whole heart; Before the gods I will sing praises to You.  I will worship toward Your holy temple, And praise Your name. For Your loving-kindness and Your truth; For You have magnified Your word above all Your name."  Ps. 138:1-2

The Poet has come to know the Face (presence) of Yahweh within his leb.  The Leb is the Hebrew word for heart or what was called at one time in the west the "Ghost in the Machine."  We are well pass such nonsense these days.  The Poet knew no such nonsense. He knew that he was more than the mere firing of neuro-circuits.  He knew that Yahweh had given him the breath of lives, and that he was a living soul.

It is very interesting that in the primal documents of Genesis breathe is prominent.  Breath is life, and without breath life vanishes.  So, we will not speak of the spiritual here we shall leave that term alone, and concentrate upon breath.  It takes breath to praise Yahweh.  The Poet has determined to praise Yahweh in a manner that befits his august personage.

Praise is a sacrifice. Praise is a sacrifice with the lips of breath.  There is a unity of being given by the sacred writer.  The entire soul (personality) of the poet must express praise to Yahweh because it is most appropriate as a continual act.  Praise is the answer of the soul to its primal calling.  This is the highest form of worship.

The poet is not in perplexity nor is he lost in a sea of bewilderment.  He understands the power of transcendent experience and has been surrendered to the power of praise.  He is beyond words and their symbolic power.  He has come into the presence of God through the vehicle of praise.  His whole heart is lifted up.

He knows the freedom that praise gives.  He has surrendered to praise and he shoots or throws praise toward God.  The poet moves toward the magnification of Yahweh within his soul.  He sings praises to God. He is compelled by the presence of God to shoot praise to him.  Praise, sing, and worship have taken over his personality because God is worthy.

He is cleansed of pornographic lust, he is cleansed of power lust, he is cleansed of money lust, he is free of insatiable greed, mere acquisition for the sake of acquisition.  He is free from the sin of pride and its deceptive ways. He has checked his ego at the door, so that he could praise God unencumbered by the weight of empty things.

How cumbersome the weight of empty things can be?  They intoxicate us with a vile elixir called the self. Listen to the divided praise that some singers give to God.  They cannot worship Him out of a pure heart because they are in love with self.  Their songs do not edify because they have bowed to the secret praise of the self that becomes most evident when they offer tainted praise.

Believing one, real worship is filled with the witness of the Un-created One who is the I AM THAT I AM. We are free when we possess this fertile knowledge.  Praise is prescriptive.  A fellow believer who was dying from cancer and who was placed on hospice told me that when her pain would become to much bear even through her medication she would turn her pain into prayer.

She taught me so much.  Beloved let go of affairs, let go of meaningless recognition, let go of anger, and revenge right now.  Get close to God and learn the power of praise.

For more information about Dr. Rich and his teaching ministry, please follow this blog and visit his website.

Tuesday, September 10, 2013

For The Soul In Search of Rest

"Now I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away. And there was no more sea."  Rev. 21:1

The Revelation is the unveiling of things to come.  It was written during a time of severe persecution in language that would confound the uninitiated.  The Revelation was written for the community of the constantly believing ones.  (There were those who had believed and somehow fallen away from the faith, and therefore not true believers).  God had caused the old regime to pass away.

But this document was written to comfort those who had remained steadfast in the faith, and who would not abandon their first love.  The Iesous must be your first love.  We love him because he first loved us.  "You in me, and I in you" are his words.  We rest in his words only do we not?  T. S. Eliot once wrote"...so many, so many, I had not thought death had undone so many."

Listen to the words of the politicians.  Are they not of an uncertain sound?  Can one truly hang one's hopes and dreams upon their disturbing ideological gas?   Listen to the "leaders" of the world.  Are they not filled with fear and dread?  Look at the the school system.  What have we gotten for our tax currency (there are no more dollars)?

Our government prints fiat currency not money.  Real money is created by real production or making something of value.  We no longer make anything of value to share with the markets of the world.  All of that wealth was transferred to countries with reasonable tax codes long ago.  Please notice that we borrow money from countries that have producing industries!  They can afford to make loans to us with our poor credit score because we have assets.  Assets that God gave to us, but are now fast eroding due to leaders who do not understand economics, or "The Wealth of Nations."  Such leaders think that Adam Smith was a rock star.

We, therefore, are left with placing immoral value upon homes, and agricultural goods that are vital to life. Laws are created to expunge true effort and reward on bogus social projects.  The new therapy is to create dependence upon the State.  Remember President Gerald Ford's words:  "A government that gives, is a government that can also take away."

We are long pass his words.  We are in the post-modern world where the arrogant deconstruction of traditional values is being carried on before our eyes without apology.  The old moral monism is being heralded as something radical.  In some way it is.  But, it is not new.

The new/old moral monism seeks to collapse the division that God made in the beginning.  The new moral monism will deify the power of the omni-competent State, and its unaccountable abuse of power. The State is accountable only to itself.

If only I could get people to read the political milieu that starts with compassionate humanism and ends in the slaughter of the innocents.

"...and there was no more sea," said the prophet.  Please remember that in the Word of God the sea is a picture of restless humanity.  It is a picture of humanity in search of existential satisfaction without God.

Bertrand Russell's eyes could not believe in eternal life because he was outraged over the inhumanity of man. He did not want to believe that such a creature would continue ad infinitum.

In the pages of the Gospel Document the Ieosus walks upon the sea.  He is never overwhelmed by the discontent of the angry waves.  He walks upon the sea as the Lord of All creation.  He walks upon the sea as a picture of the One who knows our collective discontent.

If your soul or psyche is in need of rest come to the Iesous.  He will rest you from being tossed and driven by the sea.  He alone can speak to the angry waves and say Peace, be still!  That is, be muzzled or hush and lie prostrate as commanded.

No politician can do what He does.  If you want to be done with the old sea, and its manufactured discontent, come to Iesous.  There is much more to say. We will do so at another time.  Blessings to you.

For more information about Dr. Rich and his teaching ministry, please follow his blog and visit his website.

Monday, September 9, 2013

"I Remember Your Name In The Night"

"I remember your Name in the night, O LORD, and I keep Your Law."  Psalm 119:55

There are times when the faithful ones are burdened with anxiety.  Such times are common to those who desire to walk with God as revealed in his Word.  One writer said:  "... there are times when we are on the battlefield and there are time when we are the battlefield."  When those things that we have depended upon for constancy and reassurance have seemed to vanish we may ask ourselves what these things mean?

There may not be a fast answer to such a question and we are then compelled to enter into a season of waiting.  The season of waiting invites us to examine where we are in our spiritual pilgrimage.  The season of waiting may seem like a long restless night.  James tells us to count it all joy when we are surrounded by trials.  I struggle with his words.

One compelling problem of significant content is quite enough is it not?  But when other problems are added to the original problematic issue like train cars and I have not yet found an answer to the original problem I am liable to become overwhelmed.  In the midst of allocating a bit of my finite attention here and there I can lose sight of God.

However, as I grow up spiritually I come to learn that problems are teaching events.  I resisted this idea as a spiritually immature person.  As a spiritually immature person problems were a nuisance to my idolatrous narcissism.  I missed the depth and purpose of problems by seeking out how to be rid of them as soon a possible.  But then problems came along that forced me to reconsider my ways, and then I began to appreciate problems.

It was when I performed a spiritual autopsy on a particular problem that disturbed me for a very long time , and one that kept me in the "night" that I learned to remember the Name of the LORD.  I saw that arrogance and self-help mantras were of  no value.  Through this particular problem God had began to break down my self-sufficiency.

I thought that my self-sufficiency was so carefully concealed and hidden everyone.  The night had come into my life by my own doing.  I had created the conditions that  led to the night season.  God, in his wisdom, had used the decisions that I had made to lead me back to Him.  God stepped into my circumstances and showed me a new way to live.

My night taught me that God's way for me can be hidden under the debris of decisions that I have made.  I learned that He gives me beauty for ashes.  If you are dealing with a chronic situation that feels like a long restless and sleepless night then you must remember the Name of God.

In Old Testament theology a name represents intrinsic character, and access to the power inherent in the Name. We have access to the power of God through his Name.  This is prescriptive knowing.  It is a knowing that unlocks the door to eternal power.  "I remember Your Name in the Night"  frees us to find our way through a night season that refuses to release us.

Joseph had a night season when he was abandoned in the well by his brothers.  David had a night season when he dwelt in the cave.  Job had a night season when his friends sought to impose upon him human viewpoint with critical theological dust!

You and I have the Lord of Light who gives songs in the night when we remember his Name.  Blessings to you.

For more information about Dr. Rich and his teaching ministry, please follow this blog and visit his website.  

Sunday, September 8, 2013

"We Were Like Grasshoppers" Beyond the Controlling Fiction of Poor Self-Image

"There we saw the giants (the descendants of Anak came from the giants); and we were like grasshoppers in our own sight, and so we were in their sight."  Numbers 13:33

The people of Yahweh had a long history of victories.  They had witnessed the deliverance from Egypt in the first person.  They experienced Salvation History.  It had not been passed down to them as oral tradition. No one redacted or editorialized the events of powerful deliverance by Yahweh.  Yahweh's people knew his mighty hand at work on their behalf.

Crushing servitude had been their lot for over four hundred years.  They smarted under the lash of Pharoah and built mighty cities for the king-god of Egypt.  Blood and mud were the existential constant of their lives. Born as slaves to die as slaves occupied the deep structures of their collective cultural psyche.  There was no prophetic word of hope for them until the coming of  Moses the prophet-poet.

Through Moses those whose lives were mired in the swill and will of hardened taskmasters received salvation.  Their lives had been a living death.  They had no hope.  And into their dark abyss Yahweh sent his servant Moses to destroy the Egyptian Ma'at.  Ma'at was the symbol of balance and control for the Egyptians.  Ma'at represented their controlling ethos.

Yahweh executed his judgement upon the deities of the Egyptians with the current Pharaoh deity too. Yahweh took on all of them and wrenched their political-dictatorial power from their lifeless hands.  The might of the Pharaoh god was found to be finite and temporal.  At the sea the people of Yahweh saw the Pharaoh and his hand picked troops drowned by the everlasting flood.  Yahweh, however, sits enthroned upon the flood.

With this history etched upon their minds one would think that any future events and difficulties would pale in comparison.  Surely every future trial and circumstance would be seen through the veil of deliverance by Yahweh's power.

The spies who had been sent from the various tribes had come back from the promised land with a report that tore down the will of the people.  The report of the spies was a collective summons to fear and suspicion.  The report of the spies sent a shattering dread among the people.  A spiritual "Auto De Fe" was set ablaze among the people.  The statement "...we were like grasshoppers in our own sight..."  broke the faith of the body politic.

The people believed the 'lie' of their representatives.  After all, their chosen leaders had gone into the promised land and found an impossible foe.  The situation was hopeless.  The defeated spies added the words "...and so we were in their sight."

How do we overcome the power of the collective lie?  Well, as always Yahweh has those close to him who see the victory over the impossible situation by faith.  Joshua and Caleb stepped forth and strongly refuted the 'lie' of the grasshopper mentality.

Joshua and Caleb refuted the slanderous and outrageous lie of the mutilated ones.  The mutilated ones are those who have no word from God, but they love to shower their twisted and stunted human viewpoint upon the people of faith.  Has someone told you that you are a grasshopper?  If so deeply consider the source and get away from their self destructive and other destructive viewpoint.

But they say "We saw the giants..."  but they have failed to remember the God who delivers his people from every Ma'at. There is no control outside of Yahweh's hand.  I am asking all of God's people to once and for all get rid of the 'grasshopper' mindset.  Its time to serve the Lord of Grace and Love through the Iesous. Their is no greater power than God's.  He is Almighty.

Notice the broken give and take of transference and counter-transference in the verse.  Why are we always so willing to take on a view of ourselves that is not within the pages of the Word of God? Today you must begin the counter intuitive work of learning to see yourself in the image of the Iesous.  The grasshopper mind is the mind of the past mired down by weight of an enslaved self-image.  God had set his people free, and yet there were those who had to manufacture a poor self-image because they could not believe in Yahweh's salvation.

It is better to see ourselves as lacking rather than as having the power to live free.  It's better to create the fiction of bondage than to walk in the life that God has provided in Iesous.  A poor self -image is ok if it is reinforced by others equally so disposed.  We are inviting persons to come to the Iesous and give up the fiction of the Ma'at for the new life of God though the cross of his Son.

The Iesous has come to open the doors of eternal life to those who want a new life.  God so loved the world that he gave his only Son that whosoever believes in Him would have eternal life.  Today, say yes to Iesous. God will give you a new self-image unencumbered by the Ma'at of the world.

God has come in the Iesous to overthrow the order of the world and its inherent system of order.  Indeed, the Ma'at of the world is dependent upon the ultimate order of Yahweh.  Therefore dependent order is arrogant order inasmuch as it is blind to its dependency upon the final order.

Ma'at is cosmic fiction in love with its reflection.  The spies who went into the promised land could not give up the Egyptian view of themselves.  They carried the Egyptian slave view of who they were into their new situation.  The old conquered the new within their new situation.  They could not see what God had done for them due to spiritual blindness.

Their blindness was contagious and filled with the pestilence of "grasshopper" beliefs.  The community suffered under their false testimony.  But God had two witnesses who stood up with him amidst the growing character assassination of God among the people.    

For more information about Dr. Rich and his teaching ministry, please follow this blog and visit his website.

Wednesday, September 4, 2013

"Tactics of Manipulation and Control" For Sexual Harassment

Sexual harassment permeates our culture.  Even the Centers For Disease Control has conducted extensive studies on the topic because it is pandemic, and does not seem to show any signs of slacking off. On the contrary, we are witnessing the meltdown of an ethos that has guided the American governmental, and business enterprises for generations.  Not that scandal of a sexual nature was not present in the business world, it was however, carefully hidden from public view.  The old system of hiding sexual harassment from the public has vanished.

The revelations of public and religious figures who have trampled upon the trust and integrity vouchsafed to them by the people through  irresponsible sexual behavior are almost daily events.  No one knows just how deep or far-reaching these sinister breaches of social mores may go. What is evident, however, is the fact that these events are reshaping the business landscape of the country.  It seems that the business community may require not only training in sexual harassment, but training in how to recognize the personality types that create the havoc of sexual harassment within a business community.

While there may not be a psychological milieu that can identify potential perpetrators of sexual harassment there are principles available to help recognize the "Tactics of Manipulation and Control" that create the environment of sexual harassment.  This information is also  for the timid or self-effacing types who submit to the tactic of the manipulator out of fear or intimidation.  (We also recognize that there are companies that pay victims of sexual harassment to keep quiet and not reveal the callow invasion of their persons by abusers).

In a marvelous book entitled "In Sheep's Clothing:  Understanding and Dealing with Manipulative People" George K.Simon, Jr., Ph. D. offers very practical and sobering insight into the world of manipulators.  In particular chapter nine addresses the issue of how to recognize the tactics of manipulation and control.  This chapter was of great importance to me because after years of counseling persons who were sexually abused as children this chapter gives information that helps to create healthy boundaries when one has to deal with an individual who preys upon with weak personal boundaries.

Simon's observes:  "Traditional models of human behavior and personality are not helpful when it comes to understanding the character disturbed individual...  All character-disordered individuals, especially aggressive personalities, use a variety of mental behaviors and interpersonal maneuvers to help ensure they get what they want.  The behaviors... enumerated in this chapter simultaneously accomplish several things that can lead to victimization...  It's not possible to list all the tactics a good manipulator is capable of using to hoodwink or gain advantage over others... However, a good manipulator will often throw so many of these at you at once that you might not realize how badly you've been manipulated until it's too late."

Let's face it the business arena has become the playground of the manipulator intending to practice sexual harassment.  He is fiendishly clever and opportunistic.  He truly walks about in sheep's clothing waiting and lurking about for a personality type upon which to ply his craft.  The following are some of the tactics that Simon's cites as used by the manipulator.

  • Minimization:  When using this maneuver, the aggressor is attempting to assert that his behavior isn't really as harmful or irresponsible as someone else may be claiming.   
  • Denial:  This "Who...Me?" tactic invites the victim to feel unjustified in confronting the aggressor about the inappropriateness of a behavior.  It's also the way the aggressor gives himself/herself permission to keep right on doing what they want to do.  
  • Diversion:  Manipulators use distraction and diversion techniques to keep the focus off their behavior, move us off-track, and keep themselves free to promote their self-serving hidden agendas.  Sometimes this can be very subtle.  

It is very important to become as astute a possible with the tactics of manipulators so as to avoid victimization in the business environment.  However, it is often difficult because a highly skilled tactician knows when he is up against an amateur who has some formal academic training in manipulative behavior but who is yet  not experientially qualified to competently negotiate his or her skill set in this dark area of human behavior.

Remember sexual harassment is the abuse of power, and it is therefore important to have one's head in "the game."  Corporate training in the behavior of manipulative tactics and control may not yet be mandated for businesses, but it should be.  As we have become more aware of the intrinsic presence of sexual harassment in the corporate world so must it become equally important to educate the workforce in psychological self-defense.

In my next submission I will explore more of the diabolic methods used by manipulators to disarm and defeat the unwary and unsuspecting individual who may or may not know that he or she has been targeted for manipulative advantage. "Sex In The Forbidden Zone" is no longer merely problematic it is a corporate pandemic disease that poses a grave and substantive threat to American business culture.

MVP Seminars provides sexual harassment training, coaching, and consultation for corporate and local government institutions who want their employees and management personnel to receive mandated sexual harassment training with uncompromising excellence.

For more information about Dr. Rich and his teaching ministry, please follow this blog and visit his website.