Criticism
There has been criticism of various aspects of the People of Praise. Some of this criticism asserts that the group has tended to focus its energy on the strength of its leaders and the weaknesses of its non-leaders. Dr. Adrian Reimers, currently a professor of philosophy at Notre Dame and a charter member who left the group in 1985, has criticized the group on a number of different levels. Dr. Reimers states that the People of Praise has set up a parallel structure to the Catholic Church by its claim that (among other things) its leaders ("Coordinators") exercised divine authority to which members should submit their spiritual and moral lives. Dr. Reimers also claims that in the People of Praise, "a heightened fear of the devil or evil spirits can be used to (a) put pressure on wavering members to stay in the group, (b) elevate the importance of the group and its leaders, and (c) enhance the leaders' control of the membership by reinforcing the notion that Satan can even work through good people and only the leaders can discern his designs, and (d) undermine members' confidence in their own judgement, especially about spiritual development." Dr. Reimers alleges that these characteristics have caused much psychological distress and has spiritually misled current and former members.
Read more about this topic: People Of Praise
Famous quotes containing the word criticism:
“I consider criticism merely a preliminary excitement, a statement of things a writer has to clear up in his own head sometime or other, probably antecedent to writing; of no value unless it come to fruit in the created work later.”
—Ezra Pound (1885–1972)
“Parents sometimes feel that if they don’t criticize their child, their child will never learn. Criticism doesn’t make people want to change; it makes them defensive.”
—Laurence Steinberg (20th century)
“The greater the decrease in the social significance of an art form, the sharper the distinction between criticism and enjoyment by the public. The conventional is uncritically enjoyed, and the truly new is criticized with aversion.”
—Walter Benjamin (1892–1940)