Geoffrey W. Sutton PhD, Psychology and Culture

The Psychological Mechanisms that Lead Institutions to Side with Abusers Organizations often respond to allegations of abuse with surprising defensiveness, offering protection to powerful insiders while showing little compassion for the people who report harm. This pattern appears across sectors—politics, religion, business—and raises a difficult question: why do groups so often rally around the accused rather than support the victim? Consider three familiar scenarios: A political aide reports sexual abuse by a well liked male politician. Party leaders quickly close ranks, defending him publicly while circulating stories that cast doubt on her credibility. A charismatic megachurch pastor engages in a six month sexual relationship with a woman who sought him out for pastoral care. When she later names the experience as abuse, the church board emphasizes his community impact and stands firmly behind him. An employee tells a board member that the CEO misrepresented salary and benefits dur...

VIOLENCE ON EARTH   or   PEACE ON EARTH Imagine greeting people with a blessing of “Violence” as in, “Violence to you and your family.” Of course violence has been a part of life for millennia. And we often hear that peace is fragile in some part of the world. But we hope for peace. And some of us work for peace. In the Hebrew and Christian scriptures, peace follows justice. That makes sense. We hear news stories of violent protests following a legal decision that seems unjust. Peace follows justice. Injustice disrupts peace. Future peace is predicated on evidence that the offended people will be treated justly. The image of peace created by the Hebrew prophet Isaiah strikes us as strange. What kind of world would it be if a wolf and a lamb could eat together without the latter being the meal? A wise lamb would flee from the presence of a wolf. In the Bible, many texts admonish people to live righteously and justly. True, biblical notions of justice involve ...

5-4 MORALITY, MENTAL DISORDERS, AND IQ   The 5-4 decision by the U.S. Supreme Court on 27 May 2014 challenged the basis for Florida’s decision ( Hall v. Florida ). Matters of life and death are matters of morality. And the moral judgments of the U.S. Supreme Court Justices make it clear that they do not know the right answer—5 ruled one way, 4 another. Moral judgments are not easy. How do parents decide to punish? Parents are pretty quick to decide when to let their children off the hook for dropping their Sippy cups, throwing a toy, or pulling another child’s hair. Some parents laugh, some yell, some swat, and some use time out. Some do it all in an unpredictable pattern. Parents seem to have some built in sense of when a child knows better . Knowing better is the basis for holding people accountable. Kids will still go to time out for breaking a rule so they’ll learn. But serious penalties are usually reserved for intentional rule breaking th...

Precious lives  Children  & Death  & Religion A woman cradles a baby and breathes life into his mouth. On Wednesday 19 February, 2014 Miami traffic halted on a busy highway. Pamela Rauseo held her 5-month old nephew and cried for help. He had stopped breathing. She performed CPR as many travelers sprang into action. The baby lives thanks to Pamela’s quick response and all those good neighbors described in the Miami Herald report . WGNtv.com news linked the event to a Christian text in their headline: “Good Samaritan performs CPR, saves infant’s life on busy highway.” Others spoke of the miracle . Religious language comes easy in American culture—especially when an infant is saved from the clutches of death. ***** Also on Wednesday, a Pennsylvania couple faced prison because they did not seek medical care for their 8-month old son. They come from a Pentecostal heritage. USA Today quotes their beliefs: We believe in divine healing, th...

Relationship      Betrayal &  Barriers to  Forgiveness On 6 November, Sarah Pulliam Bailey of RNS posted a story about the resignation of Christian Leader, Doug Phillips following an extramarital relationship. From time to time we read about stories of prominent religious leaders and relationships that have gone awry. Using graphic language, biblical prophets refer to the Israelites acting like prostitutes in their betrayal of their relationship with God. In this post I consider several weapons that hurt relationships and six types of barriers to healthy relationships. BETRAYAL NINE Weapons of Relationship Destruction (WRD) I hope that as I list some WRD items -- barriers to forgiveness in relationships -- that you will recall other barriers from your own experience and share them as comments so we can all benefit.  Couples deal with a myriad of exchanges that they often overlook but some rise above others as ...