Has Samir Gone Mad
~ by Sean E. Evans, Ph.D. is a staff psychologist at a forensic psychiatric state hospital in California
As the Nobel Laureate Samuel Beckett once wrote, “All men are born mad, some remain so.” It is arguable whether Samir has grown out of this madness or is falling into it. The thought, “What is Samir doing?” has crossed my mind a few times since he announced his plans for the Faith House Manhattan project. A confession, however, is in order: this is not the first time that I have had thoughts like these about Samir. Whether he is dancing while talking about God, or growing out his hair, or leaving the career path towards leading a large church or teaching at a university, or moving with his family of four to uncharted waters of financial insecurity trusting that support will come, or believing that Christians, Jews, and Muslims can learn to be one family for the good of the world, or that atheist have a prophetic role to religious people today, you have got to be wondering: “What is Samir doing?”
I have known Samir for about four years now. He is someone who both inspires and frustrates me. He has shaped, actually re-shaped, my view of the Kingdom of God. I met him at a time when I was very weary and pessimistic about “church” and did not believe that there was much hope to be found within an institution. But I learned to trust God (and God’s people) again, including my own denomination (Seventh-day Adventist Church). Samir often describes me as someone who works with “Hannibal Lector” types from movie Silence of the Lambs, but I like to think of my work in both clinical and forensic psychology as simply “a calling.”
Recently, my wife (Jackie) and I went on a trip to New York City with Samir in order to get a first hand glimpse of what he is getting into. I won’t go into detail here about the trip, but it was an amazing experience. It was enjoyable to have the opportunity to associate faces with the friends and good people that Samir has talked about over the years. The City has a charm that comes with the beauty of age and experience.
Notwithstanding the charm of Manhattan, it is hard to imagine why someone would trade comfort, stability, and open space for the edginess, uncertainty and confinement that waits in the city. It makes little sense both to me and to most people I know. We spend the majority of our lives seeking those things: comfort, stability, and space. These things not only have practical value; but, symbolic value as well. Those folks that are “successful,” seem to have a surplus of those symbols. I find myself wondering, “Samir can pursue these and succeed! Why doesn’t he?”
There is a psychiatric disorder known as “folie a deux” that translates to the “madness shared by two.” It is a condition where one individual who has a genuine psychotic disorder (i.e., they have completely lost touch with reality) transmits that disorder to someone else. Literally, the “madness shared by two.” The interesting thing about this condition is that the person “infected” does not know that they are “out of touch” with reality. Moreover, there is often the belief that everyone else has gone mad.
You probably know where I am going with this. Something about Samir being “out of touch with reality” (i.e., has gone mad) and that all those in support of him have “shared his madness.” If that were the case, then my suggestion would be to avoid the “Kool-Aid” offered by Samir. Actually, that is not what I am thinking.
Rather, the Faith House Manhattan project is part of the solution to the madness that we all share. Our planet Earth is slowing down and running out of options. Global warming, environmental disasters, pollution, violence, weapons of mass destruction (regardless whether they are found or not!), genocide, AIDS, human slavery and trafficking, religious and national extremism, and poverty threaten our existence. The barrage of information and exposure to different peoples and ideas (a reality made possible by the Internet and globalization) threaten to make our belief systems (i.e., religious and otherwise) obsolete and irrelevant.
This is the madness that we share as part of being human. In contrast, The Faith House Manhattan project is an experiment of hope and possibility. It is an investment in the radical notion that the world can and will be a better place when we realize that the Kingdom of God exists outside of our usual religious categories; as Christ stated, “The Kingdom of God is here.” What Samir is doing, vis-à-vis the Faith House Manhattan project, is making the responsible and sane decision to risk everything for the hope of a new world. He is moving beyond talking about it and actually attempting to live it through a community. Although it is easy to be pessimistic about the possibility of this new world and believe that folks who are willing to invest their lives in such possibilities have lost their minds, it seems to me that the opposite is true. Perhaps believing that the world is neither salvageable nor worth saving is a form of madness. It certainly is a madness that is shared by many. “What is Samir doing? Has he gone mad?” What do you think?
Caveat: I am using some psychiatric terms (i.e., folie a deux) and colloquial terms (i.e., “madness”) rather loosely here. This post should never replace the advice of a doctor and should not be used to formerly diagnose individuals, especially family members.
