Geoffrey W. Sutton PhD, Psychology and Culture

Respect consists of the ways people treat their leaders and other group members. Core features of respect include social status and likeability ( See Psychology of Respect ). Honesty In a 2014 survey by Kouzes and Posner of over 100,000 people, honesty was the highest quality ( CEO ). Honest communication is often supported by facts that can be checked by others. Honesty promotes trust and credibility. One major lapse in integrity can dash a career. Apologies may help but for many, trust is gone forever. Politicians often get little respect because they fail to deliver on their promises. A CEO will be ousted when a promised result doesn’t happen. But politicians seem to get away with failed promises when they can blame the failure on a competitor, opposition party, or foreign power. Golden Rule Leaders gain or lose respect depending on how people perceive them as following the Golden Rule - Treat others as you would like to be treated. Respect is a relational ...

I’ve had some time to think about honoring mothers on Mother’s Day. My mother lived until she was 93. And my wife has been a mother and grandmother for some years (I'm being careful here). I’ve written about Mother’s Day before ( 2014 ,  2015 ) but this year I have been asked to talk about Ephesians 6 the week after the US Mother’s Day so I’ve been thinking about Mother’s Day from the perspective of this text about honor. One of the interesting things about this well-known phrase, “Honor your father and your mother” is that it appears eight times in the Bible (Exodus 20:12; Deuteronomy 5:16; Matthew 15:4 & 19:19; Mark 7:10 & 10:19; Luke 18:20; Ephesians 6:2). Apparently, it was important to repeat this command. People over a span of centuries needed reminders. Maybe we do too. Here are my thoughts on this ancient text codified into a cultural norm for several decades. Words Aren’t Good Enough Christian honor required children to use their resource...

How do you honor a mother? Can you avoid the madness? Getting it right on mother’s day can be a challenge for ordinary folks and religious leaders. Several countries set aside a day to honor mothers. That can be a good thing. Anna Jarvis, the advocate of the U.S. mother’s day, realized problems in her own day. (See Nicole Russell’s essay in the Atlantic .) Could it get much worse? That depends on your mother’s perspective. I was raised in a Christian home. Mother’s Day was a big deal to my mother. Of course in that era Christian mother’s always dressed up for church. She enjoyed cards, flowers, and meals out. As she aged, she enjoyed being recognized as the oldest mother at church—pretty much every year since she lived 93 years. But times have changed. Somewhere along the line even conservative churches realized mother’s day can be troublesome.  Some women who wanted to be a mother but were not mothers were reminded about their second class status every y...

Armistice Day/  Veterans Day, & Spirituality 8 March, 2012, Normandy France, Geoff W. Sutton A century ago, 1914, The Great War was underway. Two years later, on 21 February 1916 the Battle of Verdun began. Using the code name, Judgment , the Germans attacked the French at Verdun in an effort to “bleed France white” ( von Falkenhayn ). The graphic descriptions left by the soldiers remind readers of the horrors of war. The numbers of dead soldiers at one battle is mind-numbing—133,000 French and 120,000 Germans. War is a spiritual experience of the worst kind. War is hell. On the fields of Belgium and France, soldiers noticed signs of life. Men remembered birds in the sky. Close to the release of German gas, a woman gave birth (April 22, 1915). And despite the devastation, others appreciated the flowers in the Spring.  In 1915, a Canadian soldier, John McCrae , penned the famous lines: I n Flanders fields the poppies blow Between the crosses, row on ...

Soldiers, Heroes, Faith and Identity Normandy, France 8 March 2012 / Geoff Sutton 1. War Memorials offer the living evidence that another human being lived and died . And in that war, that person made a significant contribution to us -- the one living and able to observe the memorial. Even when not connected by a family tree, we feel connected to someone who helped preserve our nation. 2. Memorials reveal identities . But the identities are often limited to a name and a date. Somehow a name is such a vital part of who we are. Some people get pretty upset when their names are mispronounced. What’s in a name? A lot really-- an entire life can be called up by a name. And we care for those unnamed—a place reserved in time and space for the “Unknown.” Sometimes we get a glimpse into another piece of identity. My father-in-law was a World War II American Veteran. There's a symbol representing his military service, wheat identifying his farmer-life, and a fish in mem...

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...