To Write Love On Her Arms

To Write Love On Her Arms
http://www.myspace.com/ToWriteLoveOnHerArms

I just found out about this. You can see for yourself, but I want to make a couple of comments. First, when I watched the video I was discouraged to see them talking about depression being "treatable". Teens don't need "treatment" or "treatment centers". Depression isn't a disease, infection, snake bite or third degree burn. Teens need freedom, love, acceptance, caring and understanding. They need real education about the causes of their pain, and about abuse, especially emotional and psychological abuse.

Second, this is attracting a lot of young people who have been misguided into believing the so called "Christian" myths. My overall feeling is discouragement that so many young people are attributing things to "God" and "Christ", instead of realizing that actually the people who are among the most abusive are often those who also call themselves "Christians." In my experience around the world, those who cal themselves Christians tend to be closed minded, insecure, judgmental, self-righteous, over-protective and over-controlling. They also tend to place a very high value on obedience and punishment. They are directly responsible for producing many, if not most, of the teenagers who cut, self-harm and attempt or commit suicide. I am not sure if a study has been done yet on how many self-harming teens are products of "Christian" parents or grand-parents, but I think you would find a high correlation.

While I don't want to discourage these young people from giving love, caring and understanding to those who cut, I also don't want the "Christians" to use the pain of those who cut to get more followers and further strengthen their power base. The websites have many of the typical characteristics of a American/Christian marketing. There is a lot of music, videos, images, and emotional impact messages. And it of course they are selling something, in this case t-shirts, caps, etc. Americans love to put their messages on T-Shirts, baseball caps and bumper stickers.

Teenagers need honest information about cause and effect. This is one thing all religions fail to provide to young people. I quickly noticed the repeated use of the word "evil" in the webpages. This reminds me of David Caruso's comment about cause and effect. David has a PhD in psychology and was raised a Catholic and now considers himself Jewish.

I am also going to guess that you will not see much writing about how the parents of these teens have damaged and abused them. To connect a child or teenager's pain to the parents is a very un-Christian thing to do. It is much more acceptable and politically correct in the Christian community to attribute such pain, and all youth problems, to "evil" (or to chemical imbalances, disorders etc). Maybe I am wrong and the websites somewhere talks about cause and effect in more intelligent terms than "evil" and the "Glory of God," but in my first look at the sites, I didn't see it.

Here is another site: http://twloha.com/

On this site you will see a store and a button to make a donation. I wonder what they are really doing with the money besides promoting themselves.

Here is the store. http://www.rawtalentinc.com/twloha/home.php After looking at it I had to wonder if there are really any teenagers behind this whole thing at all. Or, if it just a well-orchestrated scam by some adults to profit from the "broken" Christian society in the USA. I agree that the society is broken, but I disagree about the causes and the "treatment" needed for repair. Somehow I really don't think more praying is going to do the trick. I know of at least one teen whose mother invited a group of her church friends to pray for her suicidal teenager daughter. The daughter was forced to attend this gathering and later told me how painful it was to be around these people. She also later tried to kill herself again, so it seems fair to say that praying wasn't the "treatment" she needed. She had also been put on medication and had been in a mental institution. None of that stopped her from attempting suicide again. She did, though, turn 18 recently and move out of her mother's house. She wrote me just last week and said she was finally happy because she had fallen in love with someone who understands her. Freedom, love, and understanding are what I would recommend for others, too. Not praying or wearing t-shirts which are making someone a little richer.

S. Hein
Sept. 26, 2007
Tallinn, Estonia

Reading a little more I saw that the group has hired a "counselor" named Lauren Ranzino. I checked this link and noticed that the first book listed on her profile was "The Bible"

http://www.virb.com/laurenranzino

I also found this ...

To Write Love on Her Arms is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization that operates under the umbrella of Fireproof Ministries. Donations to TWLOHA are tax-deductible and receipts will be sent in February.

hmm...under the umbrella of Fireproof Ministries.....????

source http://twloha.com/2007_plan.php

Checking the Fireproof Ministries website I watched the video of their fundraiser on a golf course. I wonder how hungry, poor children who are being hit at home by Christian parents in other countries would feel watching these guys having fun while raising money for Jesus.

I also wonder if people looking at their website would conclude they are more interested in a) helping people or b) making money.