Barriers to race and gender reconciliation

From our faculty retreat, I was left thinking about some of our own barriers to reconciliation. Here is a few that I was thinking about:
1. Limited perseverance. I think we have a sense that it shouldn’t be so hard to do. We see the length of the journey and find ourselves giving up.
2. Me centered [...]

Overheard at Sandy Cove

In our discussion about race and implicit oppression:
If you manipulate history, you manipulate consciousness. If you manipulate consciousness, you manipulate possibilities. If you manipulate possibilities, you manipulate power.
Seems about right. When we tell a history in a particular way, we can change how we think about ourselves (we’re pretty good, right?) and change how what [...]

Things heard at Sandy Cove

Yesterday, we dwelt on Acts 15 and the story of the Jerusalem Council. Notice that even though the Gentiles had evidence of the Spirit, some considered them unsaved due to the lack of circumcision. We wondered what we burdens we place on others that are not Gospel burdens. We also noted that the solution was [...]

Retreating to the bay

The Biblical faculty are spending the next 3 days at Sandy Cove in MD for a retreat to discuss where we’ve been and where we’re going. Of particular focus is the next steps in racial reconciliation and how our curriculum will continue to change. Should be good. That said, I’ll probably not have much here [...]

Top 10 Counselor Nightmares

No classes today because of the holiday. Next week, we’ll be discussing the perils and pitfalls of being a counselor. In partial jest here’s my “top 10″ counselor nightmares. A few of these happened to me, some happened to my friends and others are just fears: 
10. Someone from your past shows up as a counselee [...]

The two sides of Power

In staff meeting today we listened to a Tim Keller sermon on political power (I wonder how many private practice psychology staff meetings do something neat like this!) from the text of Jesus conversations with Pilate. In talking about political power, Keller quoted Vaclav Havel on the topic. You can find Havel’s quote herewithin a speech [...]

Subtle Racism: How do you know it’s happening?

“You just know.” Well, how DO you know? It seems that in the US minorities are well aware of both explicit and implicit or subtle racialization. But on the other side, dominant culture (White) folk are quick to point out that certain comments (“you are so articulate” to a Black man) might not be racist. [...]

Divorce & Remarriage V: Divorce on Demand?

In chapter 5 of Instone-Brewer’s (I-B) Divorce and Remarriage in the Church we come to Jesus’ reactions to the “any cause” debate raised by the religious leaders. I-B suggests that prior to the time of Jesus, divorce was only allowed for failure to provide clothing, sex, and food–and could be initiated by either a male [...]

APA says sexual orientation isn’t biological but from yet to be determined factors

Last week I commented on sexual identity formation in little kids. It spawned a large number of comments, both on and off topic. Hesitantly, I will make another post on the topic of sexual identity–this time from a brochure published by my own clinical association.
The American Psychological Association (APA) has a pamphlet on sexual orientation [...]

Practicum Monday: Premature Termination in Counseling

Today in Practicum class we discuss matters around ending treatment or counseling relationships with our counselees. The one that causes interns most consternation is the premature termination by clients after only one session. The trainee is left to wonder why. “Did I fail to connect? Did I say something to offend them? What did I [...]