Time Magazine, Concern-Trolling for Holy Thursday: "Can Your Child Be Too Religious?"

I assure you the timing is purely coincidental.

I had wanted to link this when it posted, but I didn't want to give Time the concern-trolling hit-whoring traffic. So here's Newsbusters.

[I]f your child is immersed in scripture after school and prays regularly throughout the day, you may breathe a sigh of relief. She’s such a good girl. My boy is okay.

Or maybe not. Your child’s devotion may be a great thing, but there are some kids whose religious observances require a deeper look. For these children, an overzealous practice of their family faith — or even another faith — may be a sign of an underlying mental health issue or a coping mechanism for dealing with unaddressed trauma or stress.

Therapists in private practice report that they are seeing children and teens across a range of faiths whose religious practice can be problematic. The amount of time they spend praying, or in other acts of spiritual practice, is not as important, they say, as the quality of this devotion, and whether it helps the children or instead isolates them and undermines their schoolwork and relationships. Children with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), for example, may rigidly repeat holy verses, say Hail Mary’s or focus on other rituals less out of a deeper sense of faith but more as an expression of their disorder. “It looks positive but could be negative,” says Stephanie Mihalas, a UCLA professor and licensed clinical psychologist.

Obviously this is a story that could have been published at any time. They chose to publish it right before Easter just to garner some hits. Interest in Christian-related stories spikes twice a year, Easter and Christmas.

But the publicization of these stories, and these books, and these plays based on books, during Holy Week is purely coincidental.

Too Religious?"&bodytext=I assure you the timing is purely coincidental. I had wanted to link this when it posted, but I didn't want to give Time the concern-trolling hit-whoring traffic. So here's Newsbusters. [I]f your child is immersed in scripture after school...&topic=world_news"> posted by Ace at 04:12 PM

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