I think, if I was pressed to say what heresy I hate most, it would have to be the worst of the "Word of Faith" movement, also known as "blab it and grab it" or "name it and claim it."

While this movement seems so friendly at first, with everyone telling you that you need only ask for what you need/want, it can get very nasty. For instance: if faith is a force like electricity(taught by Kenneth Copeland, among others) that you can use, then why are some prayers not answered? Because the asker didn't have enough faith, or the right kind of faith, or the right words to unlock the faith...and so on and so forth.

This in the end eliminates trust in God to know what he's doing. The believer ends up trusting only himself, and driving himself into madness when life simply does not go his way.

This is profoundly evil, and incredibly tempting. After all, isn't it nice to believe that God wants to give you only what you want? But this is evil, divisive, and deeply unbiblical.

In this view, how do you view the sick in your church? Oh, they must not have enough faith: I'm healthy, so God likes me better. Well, tell that to Joni Earickson Tada. How do you view the poor or homeless, on this view? Oh, they must not have faith enough for what they need. I don't need to help them, they need to help themselves.

If I had to pick my most hated heresy, this would be it.

Ok, so I know I haven't been blogging much lately; things have been crazy.

Yes, the art department is still being a pain in the neck. I think they're determined to give me a mental breakdown. The process goes something like this:

Joi: *doing something that she finds fascinating and really ejoys*

Art profs: Well, this isn't particularly relevant [tell me, by the way, was Van Gogh "relevant"? I'm no great artist, but relevant isn't the main criteria for art]. Why don't you look at these other artists and try to do this or that thing to your stuff.

Joi: *goes off and does something that seems to be more acceptable, even though she doesn't care as much about it*

Art profs: Why are you doing this stuff? I thought you liked the stuff you were doing earlier, why aren't you still doing it? You don't seem to care about this new stuff as much; you need to do work you're passionate about.

ARRRRGGGGGGHHHHHH!! I just want to get them off my back long enough to graduate!

"To be hurt, to feel lost,
To be left out in the dark,
To be kicked when you're down,
To feel like you've been pushed around,
To be on the edge of breaking down
And no-one's there to save you"

Is everyone in the art department like this? No. Have all my art classes been worthless? No. I had one art teacher who was EXCELLENT and taught me a lot. But he's gone now, and some of the other profs talk about how he was good, but his work was SO traditional, like it's a bad thing. BLEH!

In all my classes that were not taught by that prof, I cannot remember any discussions of objective beauty, aesthetics, optics, color theory, or realy philosophy of art; not even any mention of painters from before the 20th century(except in art history when it was necessary, and even then not all of those classes)! This is a trade school for art, not a liberal arts program. Shouldn't art majors spend a majority of time talking about these things? Aren't they essential to art?? Or am I just going mad?

I'm going to survive this, though, if for no other reason than to spite them. They can't keep me down.