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Question Title	Posted By	Question Date
ManKind Project?	Joseph	Thursday, February 21, 2008
Question: Have you heard of the ManKind Project? www.mkp.org If so, do you think Catholics can safely be involved with it? I have a bunch of good, solid Catholic guy friends who were initiated on their weekends, and it seemed to make them more "manly" and "confident", so I decided to go also. I was initiated on one of thier weekends and was involved with their follow-up groups for a while. I had the guys in this group take me through a process to help me make a major life decision. They told me to "get out of my head, and go into my heart!" well I did, and I made this major life decision, but it turned out to have very painful (and expensive) consequences for me! I since have dropped out of all of my involvement of MKP and am working on reconciliating my life after making this bad decision. I know now that I would have never have made this decision if I had more rational approach (it's like Dr. Laura always says; the heart has an I.Q. of zero) The thing that most bothers me is that after I had made this decision to do what I decided to do, I felt SO confident about it! Could this strong feeling of confidence been the influence of a demon? If so, is there anything you think I need to do about it? I do suffer from anxiety, but I have for at least the past 10 years. . . .I go to Mass and confession often. I read a big thread on Rick Ross' Cult Education fourm, and his criticisms of MKP seem to help me a lot. If you haven't heard of MKP, you probably will soon. To date, roughly 40,000 men have gone through their weekends worldwide.
Question Answered by Bro. Ignatius Mary, OLSM Dear Joseph: I would not recommend Catholic men to join this organization. According to their website their organization "is a progressive men's organization striving to be increasingly inclusive and affirming of cultural differences, especially with respect to color, class, sexual orientation, faith, age, ability, ethnicity, and nationality." Affirming the homosexual "culture" cannot be done by a Christian. In addition, while we can be respectful of other faiths, to "be a man" will be defined differently from faith to faith. As Catholics we must define manhood according to our understanding of God's teaching. Also, while I understand their intent about men getting in touch with their feelings, I suspect, and your personal experience supports my suspicion, that their emphasis on feelings is out-of-balance. In an effort to balance the overly-rational tendency of men they may go too far the other way. The idea of "get out of my head, and go into my heart" is patent nonsense. The Church teaches that feelings are a great gift from God but that feelings MUST ALWAYS be under the guidance of reason. I might add that the cliché of "listen to your heart" is NOT about making decisions from feelings. The "heart" is used in Scripture to be the center of a man's spiritual and intellectual life. Listen to your heart, therefore, truly means to listen to your spirit, your conscience, the still small voice of God in your prayers, AND to the mind and its understanding of the Truths of God and His Church (the words heart and mind are often the same Greek word in Scripture). It would be better to join an organization that is Catholic with a Catholic understanding of manhood. As for your question of your feeling on confidence in your emotionally based decision having a demonic element, I doubt it. That confidence can come from normal psychological reasons. Especially since your anxiety problems pre-date your involvement in this organization, and unless there are other things going on to suggest a demonic presence, I think your experience is well within the realms of the natural. God bless, Bro. Ignatius Mary For information on how to receive help see our Help page. We suggest that before contacting us directly for help you try the Seven Steps to Self-Deliverance. These self-help steps will often resolve the problem. Also our Spiritual Warfare Prayer Catalog contains many prayers that may be helpful. If needed you can ask for a Personal Consultation.

Question Title

Posted By

Question Date

ManKind Project?

Joseph

Thursday, February 21, 2008

Question:

Have you heard of the ManKind Project? www.mkp.org If so, do you think Catholics can safely be involved with it? I have a bunch of good, solid Catholic guy friends who were initiated on their weekends, and it seemed to make them more "manly" and "confident", so I decided to go also.

I was initiated on one of thier weekends and was involved with their follow-up groups for a while. I had the guys in this group take me through a process to help me make a major life decision. They told me to "get out of my head, and go into my heart!" well I did, and I made this major life decision, but it turned out to have very painful (and expensive) consequences for me! I since have dropped out of all of my involvement of MKP and am working on reconciliating my life after making this bad decision. I know now that I would have never have made this decision if I had more rational approach (it's like Dr. Laura always says; the heart has an I.Q. of zero)

The thing that most bothers me is that after I had made this decision to do what I decided to do, I felt SO confident about it! Could this strong feeling of confidence been the influence of a demon? If so, is there anything you think I need to do about it? I do suffer from anxiety, but I have for at least the past 10 years. . . .I go to Mass and confession often.

I read a big thread on Rick Ross' Cult Education fourm, and his criticisms of MKP seem to help me a lot.

If you haven't heard of MKP, you probably will soon. To date, roughly 40,000 men have gone through their weekends worldwide.

Question Answered by Bro. Ignatius Mary, OLSM

Dear Joseph:

I would not recommend Catholic men to join this organization.

According to their website their organization "is a progressive men's organization striving to be increasingly inclusive and affirming of cultural differences, especially with respect to color, class, sexual orientation, faith, age, ability, ethnicity, and nationality."

Affirming the homosexual "culture" cannot be done by a Christian. In addition, while we can be respectful of other faiths, to "be a man" will be defined differently from faith to faith. As Catholics we must define manhood according to our understanding of God's teaching.

Also, while I understand their intent about men getting in touch with their feelings, I suspect, and your personal experience supports my suspicion, that their emphasis on feelings is out-of-balance. In an effort to balance the overly-rational tendency of men they may go too far the other way.

The idea of "get out of my head, and go into my heart" is patent nonsense. The Church teaches that feelings are a great gift from God but that feelings MUST ALWAYS be under the guidance of reason.

I might add that the cliché of "listen to your heart" is NOT about making decisions from feelings. The "heart" is used in Scripture to be the center of a man's spiritual and intellectual life. Listen to your heart, therefore, truly means to listen to your spirit, your conscience, the still small voice of God in your prayers, AND to the mind and its understanding of the Truths of God and His Church (the words heart and mind are often the same Greek word in Scripture).

It would be better to join an organization that is Catholic with a Catholic understanding of manhood.

As for your question of your feeling on confidence in your emotionally based decision having a demonic element, I doubt it. That confidence can come from normal psychological reasons.

Especially since your anxiety problems pre-date your involvement in this organization, and unless there are other things going on to suggest a demonic presence, I think your experience is well within the realms of the natural.

God bless,
Bro. Ignatius Mary

For information on how to receive help see our Help page. We suggest that before contacting us directly for help you try the Seven Steps to Self-Deliverance. These self-help steps will often resolve the problem. Also our Spiritual Warfare Prayer Catalog contains many prayers that may be helpful. If needed you can ask for a Personal Consultation.