Geoffrey W. Sutton PhD, Psychology and Culture

How Sex and Death Anxiety Link to Christianity How would you feel if you learned a friend or close relative decided to have sex to help with expenses? Earlier today, a headline news story reported on the low rates Greek women get for sex-- some just get enough to buy a meal.  Christians often show an interest in rescuing people from sex trafficking. But not all sex workers are trafficked. And not all sex work is illegal. But sex work has a long history of condemnation and in many places sex workers are at high risk of harm. Sex work is just one example of the sex-linked issues confronting Christians who want to show compassion but may be put off by some aspects of the lives of the people they wish to help. For many Christians, sex evokes disgust. The leaders of a group I attend on Sundays decided to study Richard Beck ’s book, Unclean . Beck takes readers on a journey through the psychology of disgust and shows how we emotionally respond to disgusting experie...

A muddy day LOVING the UNHOLY, UNCLEAN, and DISGUSTING Like most children, I loved to visit zoos. One day my dad took me to the Philadelphia zoo. It was a lot of fun until dad had a disgusting experience. A massive tiger faced us. Then, with front paws raised, it soaked dad in urine. At church, a group of us are looking at Richard Beck’s book titled, Unclean . Philosopher, Doug Olena introduced the topic in the last two weeks. Our impulse is to avoid the unclean and expel that which is disgusting. But Christians are called to serve people that society considers unclean. Beck draws heavily on disgust psychology. In psychology, “Dr. Disgust” is Paul Rozin of the University of Pennsylvania. Rozin has studied disgust for decades. It’s fascinating for many reasons. Disgust is of course an emotional response with a recognizable facial expression. Though the classic disgust face can be seen in babies rejecting anything distasteful, infants soon learn more about that which is di...