Depression and children
Concerns over dangers related to antidepressants are leading to a new emphasis on talk therapy with depressed children and adolescents, The Washington Post reports.One researcher in the article calls cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) "the gold standard" for treating depressed youth.
Overall, the article supports the case that pastors and other ministry professionals--especially those in rural areas where mental-health services are limited--should be familiar with CBT and other behaviorally based psychotherapies as they intervene with families.
.: Posted by Duane Bidwell on Tuesday, April 27, 2004
Digital identity
Today the Social Security Administration declined to identify my internationally adopted son as a US citizen, despite a law that made him a citizen the second he landed at LAX more than two years ago."We know all about that law," the clerk told my wife, "but you don't have the proper identification to establish him as a US citizen."
It seems two sets of adoption decrees--one from Vietnam, one from Texas--and an INS card don't qualify as proper "identification."
With all this roiling in my head, I turned to David Weinberger's recent wonderings about "digital identity." Just what does it mean to be a "person"--or at least to have various "identities"--in cyberspace?
Headlined, "There is no 'I' in 'Identity,'" Weinberger's article in the Journal of the Hyperlinked Organization turns to Ordinary Language analysis of our "real world" use of the term "identity" to understand what "identity" means in a digital context.
And it's an important question for pastoral theologians to consider as the Web becomes a place/source/resource where increasing numbers of people seek spiritual connection, religious information, and a sense of self as a being before God [or whatever they choose to call the Ground of Being].
While I haven't given the piece much thought, Weinberger's reflections do raise some questions for me:
Is the distinction between "identity" and "self" a pragmatic and helpful tool that's been hijacked by a consumer culture? [His talk about what "identification" a merchant needs from customers led me down this path.]
What would it mean to identify as a "Christian" or "spiritual person" or "theologian" in an online context?
And, personally, what "identity" would be most helpful for me to claim to make sense of [and cope with] the SSA's citizenship dilemma with my son--pastor, father, teacher, citizen? After my wife's makeup bag was seized by the Department of Homeland Security last December, I'm a little shy to engage the issue as directly and critically as I might like! :)
.: Posted by Duane Bidwell on Tuesday, April 20, 2004
Into the light . . . coping, not God?
New studies suggest that people who have near-death experiences are having a psychological, not spiritual, experience.Experiences of bright lights, mysterious tunnels, and feelings of peace as a person nears death seem to be healthy coping mechanisms that protect people from traumatic stress reactions.
People who report these sorts of near-death experiences are better able to cope with stress than the general population, researchers from the University of Arizona and University of Virginia report in separate studies.
In question, however, are whether positive coping skills cause such near-death experiences or such experiences lead to more positive coping skills later in life.
As medical technology enables physicians to bring more people "back from the brink," pastoral caregivers are likely to encounter more people who've had near-death experiences.
Identifying the strengths that grow from such experiences, and making meaning of them in a way that leads to more abundant life in this world, seems an honorable task--whether the experiences themselves are primarily neurological, psychological, spiritual, or [most likely, it seems to me] a combination of them all.
.: Posted by Duane Bidwell on Tuesday, April 20, 2004
Consciousness and the death of the soul
Unraveling the seam between mind and matter will cause the "self" to disappear in a few hundred years, a co-discoverer of DNA predicts.Francis Crick, who shared a Nobel Prize in 1962 for the discovery of the double-helix structure of DNA, says that as humanity develops a scientific understanding of consciousness, the concept of a soul separate from the body will fade from human discourse.
"The view of ourselves as 'persons' is just as erroneous as the view that the Sun goes around the Earth," he says in The New York Times this week. He predicts that "this sort of language will disappear in a few hundred years."
"In the fullness of time," he continues, "educated people will believe there is no soul independent of the body, and hence no life after death."
Crick comes to that conclusion, of course, from a materialist perspective. But his confidently predicted "end of the self/death of the soul" isn't that far off from some religious understandings of the transformation that occurs at the moment of enlightenment or as the outcome of theosis, the divinization of the human.
All of this points toward the tantalizing possibilities of dialogue between brain science, pastoral theology, and the Wisdom traditions of world spirituality.
Imagine a dinner conversation between Francis Crick, Abba Dorotheos, Albert Einstein, the Buddha, and Jalaluddin Rumi . . . .
.: Posted by Duane Bidwell on Thursday, April 15, 2004
Spirit and cyberspace
As many Americans seek spiritual nurture on the Internet as in church. Yet being involved in a congregation increases the chance that people will turn to the Web for spiritual friendship and connections.That's the finding of a study released this month by the Pew Internet and American Life Project.
In a comprehensive study of Web behavior related to religion, the Project discovered that:
* 64% of the nation's 128 million Internet users have done things online that relate to religious or spiritual matters
* Those who use the Internet for religious or spiritual purposes are more likely to be women, white, middle aged, college educated, and relatively well-to-do
* Evangelicals are among the most fervent Internet users for religious and spiritual purposes.
* The "online faithful" are devout and use the Internet for personal spiritual matters more than for traditional religious functions or congregational work. But their faith-activity online seems to augment already-strong commitments to congregations.
But only 17 percent of those who pursue the Spirit in cyberspace use the Web to search for places to attend religious services.
Overall, the portrait that emerges in this study counters, somewhat, the concern that the Internet will serve primarily as a venue for privatized religion.
"This study found that the Internet does provide people with sources of information, symbolic resources, and opportunities for networking and interaction outside the boundaries of formal religious bodies or traditions," the authors write.
"Yet it also found that the online faithful seem more interested in augmenting their traditional faith practices and experiences by personally expressing their own faith and spirituality, as opposed to seeking something new or different in the online environment."
There is rich ground here for those interested in ritual studies, liturgical studies, and pastoral care. Some questions to consider:
* How will this online behavior influence religious behavior overall?
* How is it altering networks of care in and beyond congregations?
* What new forms of worship or piety are emerging online?
* In what ways is the Web contributing to the empowerment of the laity and the transformation of the role of professional clergy?
.: Posted by Duane Bidwell on Tuesday, April 13, 2004
Shut Down/Restart
A colleague--who proclaims himself a technophobe while maintaining a personal website and e-business portal--has posted a sign outside his office: "Shut down your computer. Restart a friendship."It's a catchy saying, and an attitude I credit to his curmudgeonly ways and steady progress toward retirement.
But both the saying and the attitude fail to recognize how meaningful Web connections have become to millions of folk, especially in my generation and younger.
I have started or restarted (and maintained) dozens of relationships on the Web that would never have survived the rat-race of daily life. IMing is a primary way that I keep up with one of my oldest friends. My wife and I e-mail several times a day. I've invited to someone to dinner at my house because of our Web interactions.
Online friendships, especially of the spiritual sort, are something the divinity school and church would be wise to reflect on. These sorts of relational models are only going to grow in the future.
The "silver tsunami"--an on-coming wave of wired Baby Boomers--predicted by the Pew Internet and American Life Project in 2001 continues to grow in momentum.
While only 22 percent of Americans aged 65 and older currently use the Internet, the Pew project reported last month, that number jumped 47 percent between 2000 and 2004.
And "once seniors get online," the report says, "they are just as enthusiastic as younger users."
Because Internet users aged 50-58 behave more like younger users than like those 65 and older, as "Internet users in their 50s get older and retire, they are unlikely to give up their wired ways and therefore will transform the wired senior stereotype," the report concludes.
That means we can expect human friendship--as well as human behavior and concepts of the self, both subjects dear to the discipline of pastoral theology--to be continually shaped by the presence of the Web.
.: Posted by Duane Bidwell on Tuesday, April 13, 2004
Spirituality essential to health with disabilities
A spirituality that helps disabled persons understand how they "fit" in the world is essential to healthy living with physical limitations, a New Zealand study suggests.Having a relationship with--and connection to--community and a non-material realm can provide disabled persons with a sense of place in a world that often makes no place for them, reports Science and Theology News.
This study may point to the continued need for communities of faith to find ways to incorporate people with disabilities as active members of the congregation. This moves beyond making our buildings accessible to focus on ways to allow people with disabilities to participate visibly in the worship, study, and fellowship of the community.
.: Posted by Duane Bidwell on Thursday, April 08, 2004
A nation of caregivers
One in five American adults is caring for another adult without pay, according to a study released this week by the AARP and the National Alliance for Caregiving.That number is expected to grow as the Baby Boom generation ages.
While caring for family members or other loved ones is nothing new, what is shifting is the number of Americans who are engaged in care while holding down jobs and juggling other responsibilities--which this study documents for the first time. Seventeen percent of caregivers spend at least 40 hours per week on tasks related to caregiving.
The study also reveals the social, financial, emotional, and health risks inherent to providing care when the caregiver has few coping resources or sources of support.
While I haven't heard much about "care for the caregiver" [other than for professionals] since leaving the AIDS-services sector in the mid-1990's, it is clear that such care will be a growing need in congregations and communities.
And we might have much to learn from the cultures and faith communities of industrializing nations, where caring for older relatives has always been a way of life.
This USA Today story provides a good summary of the study.
.: Posted by Duane Bidwell on Thursday, April 08, 2004
The "Pharmaceutical Human"--better living through chemistry
When I was a child, "The Six Million Dollar Man" (and his companion high-dollar woman) were all the rage on the elementary school playground.Now our national hero appears to be morphing into the Pharmaceutical Human, James Gorman argues in The New York Times, as people embrace the ability to shape who they are through the use of psychiatric medications.
Gorman calls it "a social change on the same order as the advent of computers, but one that is taking place inside the human body."
The implications--social, biological, environmental--are enormous, as Gorman describes in his essay. But there are spiritual implications as well.
What does it mean, for example, to influence personality, prayer, and relationships through psychiatric medications?
How do we account for these changes within an emerging theological anthropology?
How are we to understand the role of such medications in relation to God's presence and activity in the world?
How do pastoral caregivers help people take such medications prayerfully [rather than automatically or resentfully]?
These questions are important to me because I increasingly encounter parishioners, counselees, and spiritual directees who are engaging what it means to use or rely on psychiatric drugs. [In fact, several days ago I took a late-night phone call from a man upset that (a) he's been prescribed psychiatric drugs that will alter who he is and (b) he's being treated for depression rather than ADHD.]
I've yet to see rigorous, theological reflection on the role, purpose, implications, and responsible stewardship of Wellbutrin, Adderall, and other psychiatric medications. But such thinking is sorely needed by pastoral caregivers "in the trenches"--and especially by people of faith who are wrestling with what it means to become Pharmaceutical Men and Women.
.: Posted by Duane Bidwell on Thursday, April 08, 2004
Music improves brain functioning
As annoying as the blasting rap at the health club might be, there's new evidence that listening to music while you exercise has positive effects--on the brain, not the body."Listening to music is a more complex endeavor than it seems on the surface," reports ABC News. "The human brain has to sort out tones, and timing, and sequencing of various sounds, to comprehend music. So according to theory, that should fire up the frontal lobe of the brain, the part of the brain that is associated with higher mental functions, like thinking abstract thoughts, or planning for the future."
And research suggests that's true. Participants in a study doubled their performance on an activity involving the frontal lobe when they listened to music while exercising.
Interestingly, a recent study of crisis care in a congregation discovered that music was one of the most valued sources of pastoral care in the aftermath of a crisis.
In response, I've encouraged my pastoral care students to use tapes of worship music or to sing with hospitalized parishioners as one way of drawing on religious resources in caregiving.
Now it appears music does more than bring comfort--it can help mental functioning as well.
.: Posted by Duane Bidwell on Thursday, April 01, 2004
Money, money, money, money . . . money!
Pastoral caregivers usually leave talk of money to the stewardship chair . . . but that might be a mistake.A recent survey suggests that money is the greatest stressor for Americans, outpacing work, health, and children as sources of tension.
Seventy-three percent of the 1,000 adults surveyed identified money as the number one factor contributing to stress.
How do pastoral theologians help the church and other institutions develop the skills necessary to cope with (and reduce) the stress associated with money?
Those who have engaged the questions of economics (Pamela Couture, for example) have tended to focus on broad issues of social justice. But some rigid theological reflection on money and financial security as an aspect of pastoral caregiving with individuals, families, and congregations would seem prudent.
.: Posted by Duane Bidwell on Thursday, April 01, 2004