Day 2 AACC Conference

Seen and Heard at AACC

The 2009 conference is underway. Loads of people here. Way too many for my taste. But, then I did run into three former students (Jane, Barb, and Bayo) and I saw some colleagues I haven’t seen for some time. Even better, I ran into Bishop Alex and Leah (my host and compatriot in Rwanda).
After my [...]

Pastoral sexual abuse training

Today, Diane Langberg and I provide a 3 hour presentation entitled: Pastoral Sexual Abuse: Trends, Challenges, Issues & Treatment. Click here (#14 on the list) for presentation slides (ppt format). The presentation covers issues such as “the setup” that leads some pastors to abuse parishioners, the impact on the various parties, victim related interventions, offender [...]

The waves never stop

Travelled Sunday afternoon to Ocean City, NJ. Waves were wonderful. Big enough to ride and look menacing when floating but not so big as to hurt. I rode them for a good 2 hours straight before the life guards called us out at the end of the day. Earlier, even when I thought I should [...]

Laughing at stupidity?

Here’s one more line from David Goneau’s sermon (not quoted):
Why do we laugh at Elaine’s dancing on Seinfeld or any one of the idiotic characters on The Office? Isn’t because these characters are so obviously out of step with social acceptability?
What we laugh at reveals what we value most: acceptability.
Hmm. I think he may be [...]

The APA on identity therapy and conversion therapy

[Let me wade into something that tends to fire up lots of feelings and lead to controversy. And let me ask all to be civil. Civility seems to be the first thing that disappears when we discuss matters near and dear to our hearts. But let us be different and listen to each other rather than talk [...]

Off to Africa

Today is the day! We leave this evening and, Lord willing arrive in Kigali (via Belgium) tomorrow evening. I have no idea if I will have access to the Internet to update you. If I do, I’ll be sure to give you a little taste of our time. If not, I’ll post daily entries when [...]

A Christian Psychology 2

Chapter 2 of Eric Johnson’s book, Foundations for Soul Care(IVP, 2007) traces the use of the bible as soul healing agent throughout the history of the church. Eric explores the work of early church fathers, medieval church, reformation, and Puritanism as examples of soul care writings based on the biblical text.
The chapter then moves to [...]

Making sense of things and the suffering it brings

Ever had the experience of having your brain work overtime to try to make sense of some action, something done to you?
Some things make no sense and we know it–things like the premature death of a single parent, a genocide, impulsive choices that make matters much worse, etc. Yet our minds keep trying to figure [...]

Yesterday’s quote on freedom

Here’s the info on yesterday’s quote about the enslaving possibilities when fighting for freedom: T.E. Lawrence.
Found on p. 29 of Seven Pillars of Wisdom: A triumph, by TE Lawrence. 1935 NY: DoubleDay.