Sexual Identity and the Christian College Campus

One of the things I enjoy most about directing the Institute for the Study of Sexual Identity (www.sexualidentityinstitute.org) at Regent University is the opportunity to conduct original research on the topic of sexual identity in ways that are particularly relevant to the Christian community. I tend to look at how topics are studied in the mainstream gay, lesbian, and bisexual research and consider the questions that might be asked on behalf of the Christian community. Because of the ways in which the broader culture and specific organizations have engaged the topic of homosexuality and sexual identity (and fostered a kind of “culture war” approach), it has been helpful to conduct research that speaks to some of the complexities in this area. One of those questions has to do with the experiences of sexual minorities on Christian university and college campuses. (I am using the phrase “sexual minority” to simply recognize that most people do not experience same-sex attraction or have a homosexual orientation; they are in the numeric minority. I am not making a political statement or suggesting anything associated with the civil rights movement.)

The Importance of Laughing and Crying for Mental & Spiritual Health

Mental and Spiritual Health

Jesus taught that the two greatest commandments are: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind,” and “Love your neighbor as yourself.”  He stated that all the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments (Matt. 22:37-40).  It could be argued that all mental and spiritual health does also.  With an understanding that love is wholehearted devotion to what is in the best interest of others, could a more incisive description of mental and spiritual health be given? Anyone who truly and maturely loves God, others, and oneself cannot, by definition, be significantly compromised by mental or spiritual malady.  Therefore, anything we can do to improve our mental and spiritual health will also contribute to our ability to love, and as we learn to love better, we become mentally and spiritually healthier. In this light, consider the poetic proverb, “There is a time for everything. . . a time to weep and a time to laugh.” [Eccles. 3:1, 4]

A Complicated Conscience-Friendly Counseling

In counseling many cases, if not all, involve making right and wrong decisions, discerning good and bad, and judging the moral appropriateness of thoughts, emotions and behaviors. Conscience is a faculty that works in service of this dimension according to one’s value framework.

The Oxford Dictionary defines conscience as "a moral sense of right and wrong especially as felt by a person and affecting behavior or an inner feeling as to the goodness or otherwise of one's behavior." Thus, there is the notion that the conscience both reflects upon and directs an individual’s choices and behavior. The traditional Christian view, based on Bible verses like Rom 2:14-15, is that all people know right and wrong because they have been given the conscience as faculty by God. The Apostle Paul particularly alludes to it when referring to those who now know the will of God for governing their lives. Jerome suggested that the conscience is “a spark of the divine mind” (Kirk, 1927, p. 379) and Calvin associated it with an awareness of God’s existence, sensus divinitas, within all people (Zachmann, 1993,p. 102). Thus, conscience significantly displays God’s image in human beings.

Mindfulness versus Spiritual Mindedness

Introduction

I am rather ignorant when it comes to Buddha’s philosophy and practice and I am no expert either on the works of the great Puritan John Owen.  Nonetheless, I thought it would be a worthwhile effort to put two products of these men side by side. The two both promote meditation as a means and promise peace as a result. However, the two practices that they describe, despite the seeming resemblance in names, are vastly different. Owen has written a work with the title The grace and duty of being spiritually minded (Owen, 1681/1813). I would like to compare his practice of being spiritually minded with another practice, namely that of mindfulness, which is otherwise known as the heart of Buddhist meditation (Kabat-Zinn, p. 4). The book I have chosen is titled Wherever you go, there you are (Kabat-Zinn, 1994). It is authored by Jon Kabat-Zinn, who is active in teaching and promoting mindfulness and discussing how it might be effectively integrated into mainstream psychotherapy. It might seem that I a am comparing apples and oranges, but I have a sense that from this comparison we can learn something crucial for our practice of Christian psychology. 

Empirically Supported Treatments

Psychology is a science.  As such, a typical psychology course (i.e., learning and memory, cognitive psychology) will review the classic and contemporary empirical research relevant to the area of investigation followed by an examination of the theories spawned by that research.  There is one area of study in psychology that does not fit well with the empirical research to theory organization.  Psychotherapy.   The reason it does not fit well with a research-theory approach is due to the lack of empirical research to support many of the existing theories.  There are 54 divisions of the American Psychological Association (APA) and only three of those divisions address the central theme of psychotherapy--clinical psychology, counseling psychology, and psychoanalysis.  Unfortunately, it is psychotherapy, the least scientific sub-field of psychology, which addresses issues most relevant to a Christian psychology.  The APA is aware of this inconsistency and is attempting to remedy it by identifying empirical research that supports theories of psychotherapy.  In his Manifesto for a Science of Clinical Psychology, McFall (1991) stated, “we must make a greater effort to differentiate between scientific and pseudoscientific clinical psychology and to hasten the day when the former replaces the later” (p. 76).  In an attempt to improve the credibility of psychotherapeutic systems, Division 12 (clinical psychology) of the APA has spent the past two decades collecting research regarding what it refers to as empirically supported treatments (EST’s).  While there was early identification of research supporting a few cognitive and behavioral treatments for a handful of obscure psychological issues, within the past few years solid empirical support for both cognitive and behavioral therapies has been identified for the treatment of more mainstream issues. 

A Personal Remembrance of 9/11

Having recently passed the 10 year anniversary of the terrorist attacks on 9/11/01, many Americans have been rightly reflective. It is natural for each of us to think about where we were when we heard the news and who we were with. For many of us, the attacks also served as a wakeup call – that our country was not so indestructible as we thought and that our world was really more fragile and dangerous than we were led to believe.

Around the Web-September 2011

Keith Ward on the Mind-Body problem:  As Christian psychologists, in the age of the brain, our interest in the mind-body problem is very real.  Neuroscience, particularly secular neuroscience, has largely adopted a physicalist perspective, intimately joining what happens in the brain with our concept of soul.  Brian Auten, at the blog Apologetics 315, provides a thorough review of the book More than Matter by Keith Ward, a philosopher, theologian and Anglican priest who has authored more than 30 books.  According to Auten, Ward provides a robust philosophic defense of dualism.  The discerning reader may be interested in looking more closely at this book.

Definitions of Biblical Counseling: The Biblical Counseling Coalition collected definitions of biblical counseling from several well known biblical counseling ministries.  Although limited to biblical counselors, these assembled quotes try to flesh out what the field is about from those involved. 

Thomas Brooks on Silence: Tyler Horton has been blogging through his reading of Thomas Brooks’ works.  He wrote recently about Brooks’ view of silence (there are apparently 12 considerations) and how that fits in our distracted, 21^st century culture.  He asks whether we find it more difficult to focus now than we could perhaps 10 years ago, raising concerns about the distracting nature of our culture.