07 January 2012

Dean Gotcher Says Psychological Manipulation A Threat To Biblical Morality. Lectures Saturday and Sunday.

By Benjamin Adkins | ResonateNews.com contributor

Can anyone imagine being called by God to read psychology textbooks for five years straight?

That's one experience of many for lecturer Dean Gotcher as he once again journeys across the U.S. on his mission to expose “dialectical deceit.”

This weekend Gotcher brings his unique presentation to East Texas. Drawing upon the writings of psychology, Marxism, Bloom's Taxonomy and the Bible, Gotcher demonstrates the common thread of man's reasoning known as “the dialectic” and contrasts this with the Bible's instruction to “trust in the lord with all of your heart” in Proverbs 3:5.

This, he said, illustrates how dialectical thinking leads to a “paradigm shift” away from trust in God and what he has instructed (didactically) for believers, into a paradigm of thinking concerned strictly with the longings of the flesh.

Attendees of Gotcher's lecture this weekend will hear his subject taught skillfully for literally the price of a steak meal or ice cream sundae. The only cost to the audience of Gotcher's lectures is an optional meal or food item purchased at the lecture's location.

Gotcher (pronounced “Go-sher”) started off as a trained teacher and seminary student who eloped to a career in construction. Gradually, he said, God brought him to a path that would have him spend years reading psychology texts and studying, through university, the various governmental systems of such places as the Soviet states and Communist Yugoslavia, and their philosophical underpinnings. Today, he said, having amassed decades of research on the subject, he does his best attempting to inform Christians of the harm being done in how we “think.”

He comes to East Texas to speak about the term he coined, called “diaprax,” and its widespread use throughout our society. “Diaprax” is the combination of two terms: “Dialectic,” which is a method of thinking derived from no less than two conflicting positions, and “praxis,” which from the Greek means “to practice.” In combination “diaprax” is an abbreviation which means "to practice the dialectic.”WHEN: Today.
TIME: 1 to 4 p.m. WHERE: Come Together and Fair Trading Company, 116 East Dallas St. (Texas Highway 64) Canton, Texas.
COST: Free
INFORMATION: (903) 567-1133

WHEN: Today
TIME: 7:30 p.m.
WHERE : The Dairy Palace 2301 North Trade Days Blvd. Canton, Texas

WHEN: Sunday
TIME: 2 to 4:30 p.m. & 6 to 9 p.m.
WHERE: Ryan's Family Steakhouse 5626 South Broadway Ave. Tyler, Texas

Click here for information on Dean Gotcher. A video lecture by Dean Gotcher on 'diaprax' can be found on YouTube.

"The devil doesn't have to destroy Christians if he can get them to reason the very truths God has given, in his word, out of existence,”  Gotcher said in a lecture about Christianity in the Soviet Union. “This was something that was accomplished remarkably well by transformational Marxists. Previously, a traditional Marxist would just shoot you. A transformational Marxist gets you to shoot your own principles through 'dialog' by convincing you to compromise. The merging of Marxist theory with psychology led to creation of transformational Marxism."

Gotcher relates that the best way to do this is to get individual believers, who are not aware of the dialectic, to sit down in a group together with nonbelievers and a facilitator. The facilitator is trained in how to 'facilitate' a transformational dialogue within the group regarding how everyone, each individually, 'feels' and 'thinks' about this or that particular topic.

When this applies to issues of morality or spirituality there must be absolutes, Gotcher says. Using the social and relationship pressure applied by group dynamics, dialectical reasoning allows these absolutes to be reduced down to nothing more than opinions and 'dialogued' out of existence. Eventually, a compromise through a 'consensus' is reached among the group which allows parties to come to an agreement and preserve relationships. There's just one problem, Gotcher says: If one is a Christian called to 'love the Lord with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind,' you cannot accept the world's standard and reject God's.”

He describes the scenario this way: Young Christians, completely unaware, are placed in a group with a professor who, whether he knows it or not, is trained in how to use dialectical manipulation to facilitate change. By the time the end of the semester is reached many of these individuals will have their beliefs transformed, if not erased, and their mind filled with doubt. Only those who refuse to compromise, and instead stand as a witness for righteousness, and with it, social martyrdom rather than conformity, avoid participating in the deception. Even within the church, dialectical thinking has become quite prevalent. Christians today often make decisions based upon how they or others 'feel' or 'think' instead of first upon what 'God said' in his word, Gotcher said.

COMMUNICATION TRANSFORMATION

One of the major topics discussed during Gotcher's lectures is the transformation communication through the restructuring of language. Anytime the dialectic is used by a party to deceive, it requires the use of “transformational language.” If someone says, “This book is the word of God,” that statement communicates something quite different than if the same person says, “I think this book is the word of God,” Gotcher says. Or perhaps one might say, “I feel that this book is the word of God” The latter two are merely opinions. The first is a statement of faith. The first is composed of traditional language, which is concerned with the facts of 'what is' and 'what is not.' The Bible is written in this language. It says “thou shalt” and “thou shalt not.” The latter two are transformational, and are concerned with what man thinks or feels about the book. In order to change the last two statements, one need only change the opinion of the person making the statements Gotcher says.

Another example Gotcher employs is that the Bible reads, “Trust in the Lord with all of your heart and lean not on your own understanding.” Also, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of understanding.” The concept of relying on God and his reasoning rather than one's own is a constant struggle for man found through the Bible, Gotcher says.

When Jesus was tempted in the wilderness, he did not talk about his feelings or his opinions. He said “It is written...” and proceeds to quote Scripture as the word of God. Following this example, Gotcher said, Christians are to rely first on what the father has said, not what the world says, or our flesh's need to be accepted and justified by the world.

The bottom line for Christians, Gotcher says, is to either trust God, what is said through Scripture and which instructs us out of his righteousness (didactic), or we trust our own thoughts, feelings, and sensuous wants (dialectic), whatever those “fleshly wants” might be at the moment. It is this struggle between the feelings, thoughts, and wants of the “flesh” that the dialectic is used to exploit individuals. Gotcher's lecture is precisely concerned about the subject of relying on God's word and being equipped to recognize this sophisticated device.

Overall, Gotcher's lecture shows how to recognize and expose what he calls “a major weapon of the enemy,” which is “dialectical thinking and praxis.”

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