Geoffrey W. Sutton PhD, Psychology and Culture

  On 5 March 2021, Claire Giangravé wrote a conspiracy theory opinion piece for  Religion News Service .  Photo G Sutton Vatican 2019 In this post, I comment on a problem with articles like this one that offer selected quotes from people as a basis for supporting a premise without any obvious attempt to counterbalance the voices or either offer supporting data or a statement of limitations where there are no data. In short, readers are left with the notion that the author has presented factual news when we mostly have a collection of opinions. Following is the RNS title. Where is the evidence for a "breeding ground" that warrants singling out the Catholic church as worthy of an opinion article in a news source? Her opening statement offers a premise that allows us to pause and consider if the statement is true or false:  "If it’s true that all roads lead to Rome, it’s also true that in one way or another, all conspiracy theories lead to the Vatican."  In a liter...

Psychology, Memory, and Religious Narratives Pope Francis is in the Americas and will soon be welcomed by the U.S. Congress. What a difference 500 years can make! Attitudes toward Catholics have changed in recent years. Pope Francis offers words of hope to the disenfranchised. I’m focused on the dynamic of human memory and religious struggles--memories that appear so malleable and responsive to revised narratives. To some degree, we each control our own narrative. We tell the story others hear. We explain how religious and secular events fit into our personal history. Together with others, we also tell a collective history of our religious tribe. We share how we related to other religious and irreligious groups. And we forge new narratives when we act in the present. PERSPECTIVES In terms of human history, it wasn’t long ago that Catholics and Protestants were at each other’s throats. The church-state connections in Europe along with the attendant ...

A Culture of Honor Each year, graduation ceremonies ripple across the landscape as waves of rented robes trimmed in colored cords declare that a mark of honor has been achieved. On Sunday 27 April, 2014, two men were declared saints by the head of the Catholic Church, Pope Francis. They weren’t just any two men. They were former popes . They met the criteria for sainthood and are now known as Saint John XXIII and Saint John Paul II. On 2 May, 2014, Evangel University newly retired president, Robert H. Spence, was honored with applause as he spoke at the school’s commencement following 40 years of service—the second longest tenure of an American University President. The celebrations began at Homecoming in the Fall and culminated in several events a week ago. People of many religious groups honor their leaders for consistently living according to character traits such as faithfulness, humility, loyalty, kindness, and so forth. Protestants don’t recognize saints as Catholi...

Christian Counseling- by unlicensed persons Can people with mental illness find help from counselors without professional training at a church or a Christian ministry?  Certainly, there is a need for help. Rick and Kay Warren  recently wrote about the need for churches to do more for people with mental illness. They quote the National Alliance on Mental Illness statistic that 60 million Americans experience a mental health condition each year. But what can churches and Christian ministries do? I’ve been reading a book titled Evidenced-Based Practices for Christian Counseling and Psychotherapy. It’s an edited volume with chapters by many leaders in Christian counseling and psychotherapy. One chapter (3) by Siang-Yang Tan of Fuller Theological Seminary takes a look at “Lay Christian counseling for General Psychological Problems.” What is lay counseling? The definition is a problem because we need to define both counseling and the attributes of th...

Understanding Rapists What can  religious organizations do? Earlier this month, January, 2014, major news sources told of a  gang rape  of a young Hindu Indian woman who violated village norms by having an affair with a married Muslim man and did not pay her portion of the fine.  President Obama called . Recently, newly elected  problem of predatory priests  within the worldwide Catholic church, which of course is not alone among religious groups dealing with the problem of predatory clergy. The U.S.  high rate of rape  within the U.S. military. Laws against rape are close to universal. But rape happens. And rape happens often. LOVE, RAPE, AND THE BIBLE The Bible contains classic tales of romantic love as in the story of Isaac who was smitten with love for Rebekah whom he met at the local watering hole ( Genesis 24 ). But there are also horrific stories of rape and laws about rape. I’ll reference one story as evidence....

Divorce Remarriage  &  Tension Alyce Conlon is divorced from her husband. And she has filed a wrongful-termination lawsuit against Intervarsity Christian Fellowship (IVCF). According to the story reported by Sarah Pulliam Bailey of Religious News Service, the suit alleges the firing was because of her divorce. But two male colleagues kept their jobs as they went through divorce and remarriage. Pulliam documents the requirements of IVCF policy pertaining to Separation and Divorce. Two verses illustrate Old and New Testament statements about divorce, Malachi 2:16 and Matthew 19:9. FRED CLARK AND THE UGLY GAME Fred Clark weighed in on the news story with a post titled, The ugly little game of white evangelical divorce . Fred opines this case is about gender discrimination. Acknowledging that each case is different, Fred offers another opinion: “In the white evangelical church, there are good divorces and bad divorces.” The crucial issue becomes ...

Christian Cup Results: Are you keeping score?  When it come to an all-inclusive spirituality, many faith traditions continue to grant special status to men of select ethnic backgrounds associated with the tradition. In Christianity, Jesus was oft depicted as a European man. But changes are on the way. It is not surprising that the leader of the Roman Catholics created a lot of buzz with his seemingly gay-friendly statement reported worldwide on 29 July, 2013. After all, he is the leader of the largest group of   Christians in the world and the position of the Catholic Church on matters of same-sex marriage is well known. "If someone is gay and he searches for the Lord and has good will, who am I to judge?" What makes the comment so noteworthy is that Pope Francis did not just speak about Catholics who are homosexuals. He referred to priests. Also see Ross Douthat at the NY Times for another thoughtful essay. But, what about women? "the Church has s...