For Christians who understand that human beings are more than matter that can be molded and medicated, the need for a book like this is even more obvious. Divine revelation and millennia of insight suggest that much of what passes for “psychological trauma” today is spiritual brokenness. Spiritual healing can take the form of counseling and medication, but to put it simply, no amount of psychotherapy alleviates our need for a Savior.  

As the old saying goes, “to a hammer, everything looks like a nail.” Among the hammers today is psychotherapy, and too many wielding it are convinced that every human problem is a nail. However, the unprecedented rise of mental health problems in Generation Z suggests that the overuse of this tool has done as much harm as good. 
In a bold new book, Abigail Shrier confronts the idea of psychology as an all-consuming ideology. In Bad Therapy: Why the Kids Aren’t Growing Up, Shrier argues that much of what is now taken for granted about psychological and emotional “trauma” is wrong and has left millions of young adults more “traumatized” than if they’d had no therapy at all.  
This thesis aligns with that of her previous book Irreversible Damage, which exposed the reckless push to medically transition gender-dysphoric kids, especially girls. This push has been driven by the mental health industry. In Bad Therapy, Shrier points out the many indications that the whole approach of our therapy-obsessed age is awry. Most obvious is that despite living in one of the most objectively prosperous and safe times in human history, our young people are, en masse, mentally sicker and emotionally sadder than ever. In fact, over 40% of young adults have a mental health diagnosis, twice the rate of the general population. So, the generation most treated for psychological wellbeing is doing the worst psychologically.  
How did we get to this point? In a podcast with former New York Times columnist Bari Weiss, Shrier told the story of her grandmother, Bess, who grew up during the Great Depression.
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One trip from Denver for church planting involved taking the stage to both Central City and Missouri City because several Presbyterians were interested in having churches organized. During the trip other settlements were visited with services held. It was an efficient way to reach what were often settlements located at sites where gold could be panned from streams or obtained from veins in rock. Wherever gold was found, communities of prospectors arose quickly.

Alexander Taylor was born December 4, 1803 to Richard and Isabella (Steel) Rankin in Dandridge, Tennessee. His parents were originally from Augusta County, Virginia and had moved for better opportunities in east Tennessee. Alexander was next to the last child born in a household of eleven sons and one daughter. The Baltimore Sun reported that according to Alexander’s memories of his home life
His mother became a sort of arbiter in all church matters, which were at that time in a greatly agitated state. She was a great theologian, and not afraid to express her opinion, so her house was the center for ministers, elders and all those interested in Presbyterianism and the various questions which occupied the minds of thinking people of that day.
What was the greatly agitated state of the Presbyterian Church during Rankin’s early life? As the eighteenth century turned to the nineteenth, the eastern Tennessee-Kentucky region experienced religious revivals such as the season at Cane Ridge in August 1801. The Synod of Kentucky of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America (PCUSA) was formed in 1802 with its constituent presbyteries Transylvania, West Lexington, and Washington having been transferred from the Synod of Virginia. Some members of the Synod believed the revivals represented a unique outpouring of the Holy Spirit showing the work of God, but others thought differently and instead attributed the apparent conversions to the machinations of man and a stirred-up emotional atmosphere. Within the new synod there was polarization as the supporters of revivalism called for reduced educational requirements for ministers and less adherence to the Westminster Standards, particularly its Calvinist soteriology, so that more passionate ministers could be trained more quickly. The desire for more ministers was well founded. In 1803 the General Assembly reported that the Synod of Kentucky had 37 ministers and 3 licentiates with no vacant churches, but the other six synods combined had 62 ministers without call. It would have been good if some of the ministers without call had made their way to the Synod of Kentucky and established churches committed to Scripture and the Westminster Standards in the wake of the Second Great Awakening, but this was unfortunately not the case. The General Assembly sent missionaries to the expanding frontier, but the supply could not keep up with the demand. In the end, the controversy was resolved by division. The Cumberland Presbyterian Church was formed in 1810 with ministers that were either expelled or had withdrawn from the Synod of Kentucky. So, the greatly agitated state of the Presbyterian Church into which Alexander Rankin was born had long-term effects on Tennessee and Kentucky Presbyterianism.
He went on to graduate Washington College in Tennessee, 1826. Washington was founded by the first Presbyterian minister to settle in Tennessee, Samuel Doak. Rankin’s education for the ministry was likely provided by a minister at Washington College. Rankin left Tennessee to be ordained an evangelist by the Presbytery of Cincinnati and worked as such until 1837 when he was installed the minister of a church in Fort Wayne, Indiana. The Fort Wayne Presbyterians had struggled since their earliest days when John Ross first preached in their settlement, but as the city grew Pastor Rankin worked with the existing congregation to bring harmony and he oversaw the addition of new members until he resigned in September 1843. For the next ten years it appears that his ministry involved supplying pulpits and serving brief calls in New York state, possibly in both Old and New School churches. From 1852 to 1859 he pastored the Breckinridge Street Church in Buffalo, New York. When he attended the Old School General Assembly in May 1859, Moderator William L. Breckinridge appointed him to the Committee of Publications and when deliberations about establishing the Presbyterian Theological Seminary of the Northwest (later McCormick) took place, he was nominated a candidate for two of the faculty chairs, neither of which he received. But most significant for Rankin was the Assembly’s Board of Domestic Missions appointment to be a missionary to the West. It was a difficult decision but after some consideration he accepted the call, left his family in Buffalo, and made his way to St. Louis to plan the journey to the Kansas Territory and then on to the rapidly growing city of Denver in the Utah Territory.
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In a recent video, renowned psychologist and thinker Jordan B. Peterson made a scathing critique of the Church. He challenged churches to invite young men back — to make church a place where they are welcome. Here are my thoughts on several of Peterson’s points.

Yesterday, Jordan B Peterson, a now-famous psychologist and philosopher, published a video on his YouTube channel: “Message to the Christian Churches”. At the time of writing, the video had received almost half a million views. In it, Peterson criticises the Church — particularly Western churches — for their adherence to Woke ideology and their treatment of young men.
Four points — critiques of either the Church as a whole or Christian people — stand out to me. They certainly ring true.

The Church has Gone Woke

Maybe this is too broad of a generalisation. Nonetheless, it is sadly true for many churches and Christian organisations in Australia and the West.
Peterson rightly points this out in his video.
He argues that Western culture, in general, has embraced a deviant version of Original Sin that imputes responsibility for any number of social ills (from systemic patriarchy to environmental abuse) to masculine tendencies — what he sarcastically calls “damnable male ambition”.
In response, according to Peterson, our culture attempts to inculcate men with an “extremely damaging ideology” that disillusions them and saps them of a healthy, adventurous spirit.
“… young men… have come to believe, in pain, that every deep impulse that moves them out into the world for the adventure of their life — even that impulse drawing them to women — is nothing but the manifestation of a spirit that is essentially satanic in nature.” (Peterson)
Peterson argues that this inculcation is undertaken from childhood when boys are “hectored” for their toy preferences, through to grade school, where they are trained to conform to “a docile, harmless obedience”.
 “… our young people face a demoralisation that is perhaps unparalleled.” (Peterson)
In my opinion, the issue here is not the adherence to and support of a particular ideological framework (i.e., what is sometimes called “Woke” ideology), per se. Rather, it is the fact that the church is not ascribing to God the fundamental place that He deserves.
The Christian Church is now often answering to a “higher” authority than God and His Word. That authority is our culture — one dominated by neo-paganism and the institutions and structures that enforce it.
Christian faith demands so much more than secondary adherence to certain Biblical principles. As Paul points out, Christians’ whole lives are living sacrifices — totally committed to the worship and service of Christ (Romans 12:1).
We are called to be transformed by the renovation of our minds. Instead, Christians so often fall into conformity to the pattern of this world (Romans 12:2).
Nevertheless, we should not dismiss the concerns raised by those who hold to Woke ideology. Often, they are tapping into a genuine concern — one that Scripture has an answer for.
John Calvin writes,
“All truth is from God; and consequently, if wicked men have said anything that is true and just, we ought not to reject it; for it has come from God.”
The Church is not obliged to reject outright all of the ideas the world presents.
Nevertheless, our authority is God. We should interpret all worldly ideas through the paradigm of a Scriptural worldview and reject anything that conflicts with His Word.

Low Expectations for Christian Young People

Towards the end of his video, Peterson implores Churches to welcome young people — young men in particular — back to church. He urges them: “Put up a billboard. Say, ‘Young men are welcome here’.”
“The Christian Church is there to remind people — young men included, and perhaps even first and foremost — that they have a woman to find, a garden to walk in, a family to nurture, an ark to build, a land to conquer, a ladder to heaven to build and the utter terrible catastrophe of life to face stalwartly — in truth, devoted to love, and without fear.” (Peterson)
Importantly, however, Peterson exhorts churches to explain to young men what they can do. “Ask more, not less, of those you are inviting,” he says. “Ask more of them than anyone ever has.”
This is significant.
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