Geoffrey W. Sutton PhD, Psychology and Culture

Why Do American Christians Ham it up on Easter? I never had ham on Easter until I was a guest at American homes. As an English immigrant, my parents kept up the tradition of roast lamb, potatoes, veggies and mint sauce. Hot cross buns are traditional but those in the U.S. have a different texture-- I don’t know enough about baking to say more. Hershey’s chocolate eggs were pretty good but not quite the same as Cadbury’s . Fortunately, I’m not too discriminating when it comes to milk chocolate ( BBC link ). But the ham- why ham? It seems so in-your-face wrong. Obviously Jesus was a Jew as were his disciples. Surely they ate lamb at the Last Supper. And celebrating Jesus resurrection with a lamb just seems right. By eating ham, Christians might make it clear that Jews and Muslims aren’t welcome to this Christian meal. If you search the web for Easter foods, you’ll find lots of references to that blend of pagan “Easter” traditions celebrating an old Anglo-Sax...

DOES YOUR SPIRITUALITY MAKE SENSE? Religion & Spirituality | Meaning | Why? |  Psychology of Palm Sunday Nearly 2,000 years ago Jesus of Nazareth went public as a king. It was the first Palm Sunday. The crowd of supporters cheered as he rode into Jerusalem.  They honored him as a king ought to be honored with palm fronds and clothes before him and sang part of an old psalm (118). And the Jewish people welcomed him with expectations of salvation from Roman oppression. But what they got a week later didn't match their expectations. It didn't make sense. Jesus never does. New religious movements pose threats to established religions. People identified as kings or leaders pose threats to national leaders. Then as now; people in power use their power to quash minority movements by attacking their leaders. Then as now; religious leaders join with political leaders in a combined effort to maintain their way of life. The words of Jesus were taken as a threat ...

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 ...