Identified by your betrayals?

This past Sunday one of our pastors, Erik Larsen, asked this question:
Are you too identified by your betrayals?
He was asking whether we form our identity around the script of being betrayed and use our experiences of being betrayed as shaping our sense of all of life. I think we could also consider whether we shape [...]

Can your body cause you to sin, part 3

As promised, I offer you a vignette to consider as we think about the matter of culpability and involuntary sins.
Consider a 2 year old that has missed his daily nap, is hungry, and tired of being out in public. He has a meltdown. He kicks, screams, cries, refuses his mother’s comfort because he wants some [...]

Can your body make you sin, part 2

Yesterday I posted an introduction to this topic. Today, I want to give my answer to the first question:
Is it possible that my body (against or apart from my will) might cause me to sin?

What is gained and/or lost if we say yes? If we say no?

My answer: Yes.
I suppose you might like some defense [...]

Can your body make you sin?

I’ve had a small email exchange on this topic with a PhD student at another seminary and so I’m going to raise the topic here. Can your body make you sin? Obviously, I’m going to tackle this question from a Christian perspective that cares about sin and wants to think carefully about our ontology (what it [...]

Physiology Phriday: Depressed? Check your thyroid

One of the most common mistakes made by counselors is to forget to encourage their clients to get specific medical work-ups. There are three key reasons for this problem.
1. Most clients describe their struggles with causes already in place. ”I’m depressed because I have a bad marriage, because life isn’t going the way I had hoped.” We counselors accept their initial diagnosis and [...]

Read any good books on evil?

Have a new writing assignment on the theology of evil in sexual abuse. I’m to think theologically about this particular kind of evil. So, I want to do some reading. Any books you might recommend that discuss evil (outside of the usual ones describing the damage done by sexual abuse)?
I’ll start with NT Wright’s “Evil [...]

What is a competent counselor?

Today, I begin an introduction to pastoral counseling class for MDiv students with my colleague Jenn. In six short weeks we will expose them to biblical foundations of understanding people and their problems, the basic helping skills, and provide them opportunities to practice on each other.
So, what makes for a competent counselor? There is a [...]

Practicum Monday: The green counselor

No one wants to be a green counselor. “Hi, I’m an intern and you are my first counselee.” Who wants to say that? Also, no one wants to entrust their most significant problems to a green counselor. “I see you haven’t any experience, so let me expose my most tender parts to you and see [...]

Physiology Phriday: Will I be on meds for the rest of my life?

During the course of discussing a person’s anxiety or depression, the conversation turns to the possibility of using antidepressants. Inevitably, I am asked, will I have to take them forever? Clearly, the questioner does not want to and sees the possibility of taking medication for the rest of their life to be unacceptable. So much [...]

Lewis on our choices impact on the self

In my CS Lewis reader, Lewis says that Christians often think about the consequences of choices either bringing reward or punishment from God. He suggests another way to look at our choices (entry for 17 March):
I would much rather say that every time you make a choice you are turning the central part of you, [...]