This I Believe.......

We live in an either/or world. Seems that we have to decide this or that, or that or this. Seems that saying both/and goes against the grain. I live in a both/and world, and maybe that's to my own demise, but it's the way I choose to live, and think, and feel, and behave in the midst of complex things.

Back in the days in the Academy when I had the privilege of teaching, mentoring, and supervising some of the brightest people on God's green earth, we pondered the things that I wrote in the first paragraph. They were people of faith and they were choosing to become clinicians. They believed in God and they believed in therapy. They lived in the world of both/and. I recall times when she or he would come into supervision feeling pumped about a session and how well it went and all. I watched some of those sessions, and I likewise marveled. I encouraged them to engage their God-given intuitive skills and their growing clinical skills with a spirit of humility, asking God for wisdom and guidance in sessions.

These days, I live in the both/and in terms of my health, social justice, racism, and all manner of things.  Yes, I believe in God and prayer, but wear the damn mask for goodness sake.  I pray and keep socially distanced. Faith in God does not mean checking wisdom and common sense at the door. I believe in prayer and all, and I believe that peaceful protests are a good thing and can be orchestrated for the common good of correcting historical wrongs.

One of those days that I am living in has to do with health. I meet with a world class surgeon who has publications a mile long and who can diagnose and treat my renal cell carcinoma easily because he's done them hundreds if not thousands of times before. When we share the good news of a report from Dr. Cadeddu at a follow-up, the sentiments are "praise God," "God pulled off another miracle," or "God has some things in mind for you," or "God is healing you."

I do not always say what I think, but if I did, it would be something along the lines of how I conversed with my students back in the day. It would sound like this, "Yes, God is good, and I have a world class physician who diagnosed and treated my condition. I have 3/4s of a kidney; otherwise, I'd not have one if we'd waited too long."

I got in trouble with a family member several years ago when I said, "Yes, the best of medicine and the best of God is a good thing," to which my kin said, "No! It's all about God." That may work for some but not for me.

You see, I live in a both/and space, and you know that if you know me well at all. I believe in God, I pray, I read the sacred texts, I journal, and I read other non-sacred materials to help me continue to learn and grow in faith and all, especially as we live in this crazy world.

On the other hand, I am a trained psychologist and marriage and family therapist, and these disciplines are what are called "soft sciences." They deal with patterns, statistics, common factors, and evidence-based practices. I believe in the world around us. I believe that it is knowable. I believe that medical folks are discovering things now that we never heard of. Try stem cell treatment for instance, or, go back 15 years and the MD would have taken out my entire kidney as opposed to now when via robotic surgery, only the cancerous portion has been removed.

I believe that "all truth is God's truth no matter where it is found." Some truth is revealed in God's word but not everything. Other truths are revealed in the lab or in surgery or in wherever God chooses to reveal it.

So, I'll continue to think, and sometimes say, "Yes, I believe God is faithful; and I have a world-class surgeon." Plain and simple. Yes, God is good and I am thankful that the pathway that happened, whether God orchestrated it or not, led to UT Southwestern. Yes, I believe in God's providence. I also believe in science and medicine.

Trust God and use common sense.  Trust God and trust science. Trust God and trust medicine.

So, until we can talk, wear the damn mask! It's a God-thing, a common sense thing, and a science thing. It's one of those both/and things.

Church, Gender, and Justice

I have found myself amused, curious, and at times troubled by my friends' responses to this article.

That article is found here an article entitled "Church of Christ Practice Harms Girls Long Term, Suggests 2018 Study."

Several things occur to me: there are gender differences, there are generation differences, and there are theological differences. Then, there are others. For instance, how some of us who are older and male who resonate with concerns for the younger women of our denomination. Count me there.
Another thing that hits me about this conversation is the notion of sin, shalom, and justice. I think we are unjust when our practices situated within the absence of shalom create even more dissonance for us shalom-seekers. If we create more pain, suffering, and dissonance in any of our people, we are guilty of injustices. I want my life to count toward re-creating shalom, and not for marginalizing anyone for whom Jesus died.
Back in the day, I taught a painful course on the integration of psychology and theology. No need to dredge up all of that last semester course. We attempted to look at the assumptions made by theology, science, psychology, and marital/family therapy. Lively discussions we did have. One thing that I recall quite vividly is that all disciplines use metaphor to make sense out of things. Also that levels of data are to be engaged with similar levels of data in the other disciplines. That is too complicated for now. Suffice it to say that that text and theology are not the same thing as the elements of whatever are not the same thing as science.
Good theology and good psychology (at theory and practice levels) should naturally interface well. Poor psychology and good theology will conflict. Good psychology and poor theology will conflict. Poor theology and poor theology may either match or conflict. I think it is left to those of us who care about these things to give equal credence to all angles of the issues. After all, theology is a human-made discipline as is psychology or marital/familytheory/therapy. So, I will continue to critique my theological assumptions as well as my assumptions about science and psychology as science (or not), and I will read the book upon this short article is based. And I will not assign blame to my friends who wind up in different places from me. But, at the end of the day, I want a healthier world for my grandchildren, all of them inclusive of their genders and roles in the church and the world.