Geoffrey W. Sutton PhD, Psychology and Culture

Influential Christian clergyman, John MacArthur recently died (14 July 2025).  AI image for illustration only Bing Creator 2025 MacArthur's beliefs reveal the difficulty integrating faith and science for many Christians. I hypothesize that some beliefs are so different that patients and providers holding a MacArthur worldview would have difficulty interacting effectively with those patients or providers who hold a contrasting scientific worldview. Following are some beliefs collected from the internet.  Please offer corrections for any inaccuracies as to the facts provided, quotations, or links to the references provided. 1. Young Earth Creationism Belief : MacArthur teaches that the Earth was created in six literal 24-hour days and is only several thousand years old. Supporting Citation: “The duration of ‘the evening and the morning’ on the first day of creation was the same as the evening and morning of any solar day” (MacArthur, 2001, p. 37). Contrast with Science: Radiomet...

  9/11 and Religious Fundamentalism Thoughts on the Legacy of 9/11   As is our custom in the United States, national tragedies become the focus of a wide ranging study. Such was the case with the attacks 20 years ago on 11 September 2001 known now as 9/11.   In this post I look at the powerful role of religion in framing the transnational narrative for select Muslims in their war to rid their world of American culture. In the United States, where there is a shifting and porous wall between Christianity and governance, we see a visible rise in the influence of fundamentalist Christian values controlling the narrative of judges and lawmakers. Under threat, people become conservative and many turn to their faith. This phenomenon is well-documented in studies of Terror Management Theory . The attacks of 9/11 and subsequent war on terror triggered an intensity in faith for many who were not already highly devoted. As long as people have been spiritual or religious, a...

  Spring Flowers/ Kew Gardens, London/ Geoff Sutton 2016 It's Easter weekend in 2021. I haven’t gone to church in a year due to COVID-19 but I read and hear Christians preaching on Facebook and Twitter. I don’t see much about denial and cross-bearing.  Christ carrying the cross/ El Greco/ c1541-1614 I wonder what the text means-- deny yourself and take up your cross . Here’s the Authorised Version . 24 Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. 25 For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it. 26 For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul? (Matthew 16). It’s a common text for Christians who have been in church for years. I don’t remember it being emphasized in churches I attended as a boy or in evangelical circles. I take it, it isn’t too p...

  Zechariah in the Temple/ Bing Public Domain Zechariah Punished with Aphasia In Luke’s version of the Christmas story, Zechariah is punished with the loss of speech (aphasia) for asking what would seem to be a reasonable question. I study the psychology of religion and have conducted many neuropsychological examinations as a psychologist so the description of the impairment struck me as looking like the results of a mini-stroke. Check out the features of stroke in the story from Luke 1. Zechariah, a Jewish priest, and his wife Elizabeth had a reputation for being faithful to the law. As my friend Martin Mittelstadt, known for his scholarly study of Luke , points out, Luke presents his gospel in several contexts including recurrent biblical themes. We see a record of angelic announcements and divine intervention in cases of older barren women in the Hebrew Bible. Perhaps Luke is presenting the new Christian tradition emerging from the womb of an elderly and barren Elizabeth in ...