Geoffrey W. Sutton PhD, Psychology and Culture

“I don’t ever want to lose the legend and lore surrounding these great athletes because they were shunned by baseball,” Kendrick said in a phone interview. “The oral accounts of what these players did is still important to me. You can never tell the true story of the Negro Leagues with numbers. You just won’t.” --Bob Kendrick, President, Negro Leagues Baseball Museum In the WP story ( Jan 5, 2021 ), Kendrick explains his concerns about the plan of the MLB to recognize the Negro Leagues as Major Leagues. Kendrick's concern can help us recognize the dilemma of maintaining an important part of our identity while linking our identity to a new relationship that has the potential to either overshadow our primary identity or enhance our primary identity. These "social mergers" are dynamic. Relationships and associations change identities. Fortunately for Kendrick, he has a museum full of stories to support a distinct identity. We would do well to establish and continue to direct...

“Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” The story of the man born blind in John 9 is an evocative, metaphor-laden portrayal of a poor individual caught in a contentious religious crossfire about sinners and the identity politics of righteous minds. I’m writing this post as a way of putting some thoughts into words before leading a discussion on Sunday, 13 January. This story isn’t just for Christians. The characters in the story are mostly Jews. The sociohistorical context is the old city of Jerusalem ruled by the Romans. Muslims recognize Jesus as a prophet from the Quran. But atheists and agnostics may consider the group dynamics that are part of human nature for millennia as well as the ancient author’s manner of dealing with variations of the age-old question, “Who am I?” In addition, we glimpse problems common to all humanity of thinking logically about morality and evil, group identity, and groups in conflict. ***** At the beginning of...

Social Psychology and Theology in Mark 3 I am writing this blog as a reflection on concepts drawn from two major fields of psychology that strike me in my study of Mark 3. In this post I look at social psychology concepts related to group leadership and formation. In the next post I will look at lessons from the perspective of Clinical Psychology. Group Identity Mark opens his gospel with a statement about the identity of Jesus as the anointed one and Son of God (1:1). Who is Jesus? That’s a question offered as guidance on one theme to guide people studying Mark’s gospel (e.g., Martindale ). My focus on group identity comes from a consideration that Mark is writing to people after Jesus has left his earthy ministry. In short, Jesus as leader is no longer visible to his followers. I suggest at least one of Mark’s aims is to identify who Christians are, but perhaps more importantly, who they are not. In this chapter he also identifi...