Salvo Issue #44 has some great articles on living as a whole person in a broken world. I was particularly impressed with “Suffer These Children: True Confessions of a Guardian ad Litem” by Raymond J. Brown, who serves as a court-appointed special advocate for abused and neglected children. His article will break your heart and offer hope.
I was also impressed with Terrell Clemmons’ article “Drug Busted: Psychiatry & Mad, Bad Medicine.” I have long been interested in how the pharmaceutical industry medicalizes mental health disorders and then are happy to sell pills that often do more harm than good, particularly in the long term. Terrell mentions Mad in America, a book and website that I read periodically, particularly when I’ve just posted another study showing how psycho-pharmaceuticals are addictive and dangerous.
My Casualty Report column this issue is on loneliness. More and more Americans and Europeans suffer from a deep sense of isolation that leads to despair. This is different from solitude. Solitude is healthy and necessary. Loneliness, on the other hand, is not just about being alone. A person can feel deeply alone in a crowded room. I provide some recent statistics on loneliness.
Mother Teresa wrote in her book A Simple Path these words that pinpoint what our deep sense of loneliness is really about:
The poverty in the West is a different kind of poverty–it is not only a poverty of loneliness but also of spirituality. There’s a hunger for love, as there is a hunger for God.
If you are interested in getting a subscription to Salvo for a high school or college student in your life, the good people at Salvo are running a special. One year subscription for $10, which is 60% off the normal subscription price. I think this is a fantastic deal for top-notch articles and stunning layouts. Here is the link for more details: http://www.salvomag.com/student/.