Cat I often find that if I ask a question, I often come across the answer from a chance thing someone says or a reading I stumble on.  You were asking on the sojourner7 blog yesterday about passions and why we should fight them.  This pod cast answers that question better than I could.  Enjoy;) 

If you study the teachings and words of Jesus, you'll find that Jesus consistently acknowledged the psychological dimension of human beings.  Even though I've been writing quarterly magazine articles integrating psychological and spiritual principles in a Catholic magazine for nearly 15 years, most of my upbringing has involved evangelical churches. 

Based on my experience in evangelical churches, there is a lot of spiritual abuse that goes on in the name of Christianity by those who refuse to appeciate or acknowledge the psychological dimension of human beings.  This causes existing psychological problems among members to worsen in ways that are often quite tragic.   More training needs to be done for clergy that helps them recognize mental illness, and teaches them when to refer to mental health professionals. 

I agree Blognroll.  My summer vacation is going to be to St. John of San Francisco's Monastery www.monasteryofstjohn.org/   The reason why is ,because I have been studying the works of Metropolitan Jonah of the Orthodox Church in America [ formerly the Russian Orthodox Church in America ] who was the abbot of the monastery ,until he was tapped to lead the entire Orthodox Church in America [ formerly the Russian Orthodox Church in America ] .  His works show a understanding of modern psychology and the ancient wisdom of the Orthodox Church.  Also the replacement Abbot Father. Meletios Webber is also a trained psychologist and author of many books.  It should be a interesting learning opportunity for me.

Well, way, the good sisters in the link you referred me to seem to accept the premise of demonic possession. Admittedly, just about any behavior without moderation or governors can get to extremes and one could almost believe the unfortunate was possessed by a demon.

Recall the bestseller and hit scary movie The Exorsist? That was inspired by an actual case. A teen boy really believed he was possessed. A priest performed an exorcism. The kid was cured. The priest--by his admission--performed the ceremony as a placebo effect. He did not conclude a demon was involved.

I am under the impression you use "passion" in the context of self gratification. I think of the word as intense feeling. Either can lead to destructive behavior. I personally have no argument to setting the limits, whether it is religious conviction or a prison term.

But like it or not, humankind is a product of emotion; I'd daresay even our objective and scientific logic. My contention that the passions you would contain are the drives--aggression, territorial claim, selfishness, power over others--are the motivations that kept us alive when we were living in caves. How we ultimately deal with them remains to be seen.  

oh... wow... okay

I see were you are coming from.  That is the secular mind set you were raised with in our public schools that accepts evolution as a dogma and must then make everything answerable to evolutionary theory.  But your definition of passions are not the same as the Christian definition so keep that in mind when reading my post.  As for demonic possession I have witnessed it for myself including the Priest hiding a jar of Holy water behind his back and the demon knowing that it was there.  It certainly corrected me of the idea I had held up to that point that 'evil spirits' spoken of by the Holy Fathers were just negative emotional states.  It is said that the devils greatest weapon is the belief that he doesn't even exist.  The truth that he does exist and really hates you is also a great tool for helping your faith;) 

The medical definition of "insanity" is "doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result."  Like myself and these blogs. lol

No one is refuting that there is the/a devil or demonic spirits. 

Even though I don't believe in them, I don't "refute" sights such as ghosts or flying saucers, either.  Despite the numerous hoaxes, there are credible people who have reported such things. I don't subscribe to demons, ghosts, voodoo, flying saucers and so on. But if a good many didn't see a flying saucer from another planet (or a demon), they saw something.

Despite way's refutation of my secular, humanistic, evolutionary, brainwashed views, the fossils, the artifacts, the geological timeline are there. They are tangible and real. I don't mean to say the evidence should displace religious precepts; on the other hand, all the theology in the world is not going to make it go away.

No disrespect to Cat ,but I have often seen otherwise brilliant thinkers turn over backwards to make the evidence fit their expected theory.  One was a evolutionary psychologist having a conversation with the Dali Lama on the roles of emotion in human life and how to control them.  He made a bunch of presumptions that all behaviors must have evolved for a survival purpose.  I myself don't think it is a weakness for a person to admit they don't know. 

Or maybe that was their actual conclusion.

I don't believe in demons....unless of course I'm on trial for a serious crime and the insanity plea doesn't work. lol

You may notice my by line:  Reality is that thing that remains even when you stop believing in it.