Electoral depression?

I do a small amount of clinical work (pastoral counseling and spiritual direction), and in the past week I have been amazed at the amount of time folks have spent talking about the presidential election.

Depression, sadness, and despair seem to be the primary emotions, and those emotions are coloring relationships, work, and prayer.

We've seen a worldwide outpouring at Sorry Everybody and Apologies Accepted. But most of the folks who talk about it in session say they've kept the depth of their response to themselves until now.

.: Posted by Duane Bidwell on Wednesday, November 24, 2004

Plaigarism

Our connected world--and shifting understanding of "the self"--are challenging traditional Western ideas of authorship.

"The final dishonesty of the plagiarism fundamentalists," writes Malcolm Gladwell in The New Yorker, "is to encourage us to pretend that . . . chains of influence and evolution do not exist, and that a writer’s words have a virgin birth and an eternal life."

I cannot condone plaigarism, especially in an academic setting. But I wonder if cultural shifts are moving us closer, perhaps, to a New Testament understanding of "authorship," in words belong to a collective "community of discourse" rather than to "individuals"?

.: Posted by Duane Bidwell on Tuesday, November 23, 2004

Human subjects

Does a marketing survey constitute "research with human subjects"?

How about mining old client files for ZIP codes so that we have a clearer picture of where our case load comes from?

As I ponder these questions, it was helpful to read Mike Arnzen's post on "Is Discourse Human Research?" in which he wonders about similar questions.

And, like me, he concludes that it's better to be safe than sorry.

.: Posted by Duane Bidwell on Thursday, November 18, 2004

Stress and aggression

Stressed out rats become aggressive, and they're slow to cool down--which suggests a feedback loop between stress hormones and the "attack center" of the brain.

The finding could help explain the self-perpetuating nature of violence, according to a European study released last month.

Just as importantly, the study suggests that the "attack center" of the brain influences social perception more than it controls physical behavior. Rats who feel threatened attack, even if the threat is false.

"The findings," reports the American Psychological Association, "may ultimately also shed light on why normally pacific people turn violent in settings previously associated--for them--with aggression: Their stress hormones rise, facilitating the onset of aggression and making them more likely to become violent in seemingly benign settings."

The study is published in the October issue of Behavioral Neuroscience.

There's a fine opportunity here for someone interested in both violence and embodiment to engage the study from a theological point of view . . . .

.: Posted by Duane Bidwell on Wednesday, November 17, 2004

Storytelling and evolution

Telling stories, it turns out, might be an adaptive feature--it helped our ancestors stay alive, and therefore evolved as a part of our biology.

So argues Joseph Carroll in his tome Literary Darwinism reviewed by Denis Dutton in Philosophy and Literature.

In essence, it seems, stories give us "templates for a normal emotional life." Literature is a social experience.

.: Posted by Duane Bidwell on Monday, November 15, 2004

Music and the brain

A study conducted at Texas Christian University two years ago found that hymns are one of the most effective means of pastoral care.

And now Scientific American reports that music activates the same parts of the brain as food, sex, and addictive drugs.

Music, it seems, could be one of the most important religious resources for care that takes seriously the communal-contextual model of pastoral theology and pastoral caregiving.

.: Posted by Duane Bidwell on Monday, November 15, 2004

I am A Commie Pinko

My official diagnosis from the "How F**king American Are You?" quiz:

.: Posted by Duane Bidwell on Sunday, November 07, 2004

"Home of the Knave and Land of the Freak"

This isn't an explicitly political blog, but a little foreign perspective on the election seems in order, courtesy of Britain's Mirror: "God Help America The People Have Spoken . . . ."

.: Posted by Duane Bidwell on Friday, November 05, 2004

A new confession

In the days before the election, I received several invitations to read and sign "Confessing Christ in a World of Violence," and I ignored them. [And I'm a confessional sort of guy.]

Surely, I thought, the election will demonstrate that we don't need this confession.

Surely, I thought, moderate religious voices will make a difference.

Surely, I thought, Bush will lose.

I was wrong.

More than 200 of the brightest theological minds in the world have signed the confession coordinated (if not penned) by Sojourners editor Jim Wallis. They're from all over the Christian spectrum. And they are right.

The document rejects a politics that co-opts the gospel for militarism and nationalism, and it calls the church to confess a God who knows no national boundaries; who rejects war; who challenges us/them, right/wrong, black/white dualisms; and who treasures humility among those who claim to know God.

"We reject," the confession concludes,

the false teaching that those who are not for the United States politically are against it or that those who fundamentally question American policies must be with the "evil-doers." Such crude distinctions, especially when used by Christians, are expressions of the Manichaean heresy, in which the world is divided into forces of absolute good and absolute evil.

The Lord Jesus Christ is either authoritative for Christians, or he is not. His Lordship cannot be set aside by any earthly power. His words may not be distorted for propagandistic purposes. No nation-state may usurp the place of God.

We believe that acknowledging these truths is indispensable for followers of Christ. We urge them to remember these principles in making their decisions as citizens. Peacemaking is central to our vocation in a troubled world where Christ is Lord.

Amen.

For me, this confession--always important--has become crucial for Christians in the "blue states," those among the 49 percent who voted against Bush and his rhetoric of faith gone mad.

.: Posted by Duane Bidwell on Wednesday, November 03, 2004

Good mourning

Cold. Grey. Wet. Wrapped in shrouds, as if creation itself were grieving.

It's morning in America. Apparently with a Republican hangover.