31 Tuesday Jul 2012
Posted in Chaplaincy, Pastoral Care, Spiritual Care
Tags
chaplaincy, jewish chaplains, NAJC, national association of Jewish Chaplains, pastoral care, spiritual care
Here is the link to the newest NAJC Journal of Jewish Spiritual Care, of which I am the editor in chief. I am proud to present this to you.
29 Sunday Jul 2012
Posted in Chaplaincy, Pastoral Care, Psychology, Religion, Spiritual Care, Uncategorized
Tags
chaplaincy, Jewish holidays, Jewish thought, pastoral care, psychology, religion, spiritual care, spirituality, theology, Tisha B'Av, Uri L'Tzedek
The biggest challenge of Tisha B’Av is working from the collective grief to finding the light that is promised in the midst of tragedy. The following is an article that discusses the need to travel through brokenness as a means of transforming ourselves.
In the Beginning There Was Not: A Tisha B’Av Reflection
Joshua Schwartz
The following is the first in a series of excerpts from Uri L’Tzedek’s “Rising in the Night: Compassion and Justice in a Time of Despair,” a collection of reflections, poems and calls to action intended to bring mindfulness and social justice to the experience of Tisha B’Av.
No one moulds us again out of earth and clay,
no one conjures our dust.
No one.
Praised be your name, no one.
For your sake
we shall flower.
Towards
you.A nothing
we were, are, shall
remain, flowering:
the nothing-, the no one’s rose.With
our pistil soul-bright,
with our stamen heaven-ravaged,
our corolla red
with the crimson word which we sang
over, O over
the thorn.
–“Psalm” by Paul Celan, trans. Michael HamburgerAll beginnings lack. One could say that the beginning of the story is in the paradise we lost, in the utopia we yearn for, “as in days of old” (Lamentations 5:21). But the story does not begin in that paradisiacal stasis. The story can only begin in the occasion of a break; it only begins with change.Tisha B’Av is our beginning (and all beginnings are the beginning of the end).
Even G?d’s beginning commences with negation. G?d’s first act is not one of creation but of self-limitation, with tzimtzum. Isaac Luria’s greatest student, Hayyim Vital, writes in his Etz Hayyim,
When it arose in the singular will of G?d to create the cosmos … then, G?d negated G?d’s infinite self in the central point within, in the focus of the holy light, contracting this light, which receded to the sides surrounding the central point. There remained an opened space, an empty void… (Derush Adam Kadmon §2)
The point of origin is one of emptiness. The beginning of G?d’s creative activity is removal, withdrawal. G?d’s self-removal is the condition for the very possibility of there being anything at all. For there to be anything else, G?d’s infinite being must recede, must make space. If G?d, in transcendent perfection, were to persist in utter wholeness, then there could be no us, there could be no relationship, there could be no dialogue, there could be no-thing at all. Vital describes G?d’s motivation as stemming from the intense desire to bring benevolence to those who would come into being. The only means to bring presence is through absence.All later iterations of destruction (churban), of rupture (shevirah) are repetitions of the initial absence. When we confront emptiness, our experience is not that nothing is there, rather that something is there no longer. Fullness is conditioned on that emptiness. To fill something up we first must empty it out. Tisha B’Av presents us with two themes, curling around each other, fitting perfectly together. The practices of the day model rituals of mourning, calling back in our collective memory for the loss we carry with us each day. “When Av arrives, we decrease our joy” (Babylonian Talmud Ta’anit 26b). We match our living to the consciousness we inherit. But it is precisely on Tisha B’Av, the day commemorating our lowest point, that redemption, repair, tikkun become most present. We cannot mend what has not been broken. We must delve into our brokenness to come to a place of healing. The story begins in destruction, in negation, but culminates in re-creation.
On Tisha B’Av (after Tisha B’Av, we are always after Tisha B’Av) we are left with ruins, the emptiness remains. We are left with what was, with the past as such. But what is a ruin? Anselm Kiefer, a contemporary German artist, whose work confronts his nation’s own ruinous history, is entranced by what has been destroyed.
What interests me is the transformation, not the monument. I don’t construct ruins, but I feel ruins are moments when things show themselves. A ruin is not a catastrophe. It is the moment when things can start again.
We cannot allow our confrontations with destruction, with catastrophe, with emptiness where there once was, paralyze us. The gap that is opened in rupture must also be an opening to possibility. The Maggid of Meziritsh, in his Maggid Devarav Le-Ya’akov, wrote that for anything to grow, it must always pass through ayin (nothingness). To be destroyed is to confront one’s very dissolution, but it is also to be open to what one can become. G?d, precisely due to being infinite (Eyn Sof, without limits), is No-thing (Ayin) at all, radical possibility.This is the challenge with which we at Uri L’Tzedek present you, today. Delve deep into Tisha B’Av. This fast day is notorious for its occurrence during the most uncomfortable time of year. The three weeks cut into our summer fun, the heat of the day beats down on us, intensifying our enervation. But we must make sure that these experiences of suffering bring us understanding in what it means to be in pain, what it means to be lacking, what it means to be in need.
This volume presents the reader with a selection of essays, textual commentaries, and calls to action, sharing a common goal to prompt a new way of thinking about this most tragic of times and what we can draw from it. All true justice work entails transformation, both without, redeeming what has fallen, but also within. To change the world, we must change ourselves. We must not just acknowledge but be reshaped by the suffering we witness.
Poems replete with anguish and longing are central to the liturgy of Tisha B’Av, as we read scores of kinnot (lamentations) describing for the reader the stark reality of our people’s suffering. The key to a poem is to show, not tell. It brings the reader in tune with an experience otherwise lost. It can impart truths of experience, helping to bring us all to a place of real compassion, the true starting point of all justice work. The Hebrew word for compassion (rachamim) is drawn from the word for womb (rechem), an empty space within that is not a loss, but, as in the case of the Divine, the condition for the possibility of newness, of generation. We at Uri L’Tzedek hope that, on this Tisha B’Av, you do experience loss and lowness, absence and even pain, but that these moments of ache bring you to vulnerability, to compassion, and from there to a world of redemption.
This column is an excerpt from “Rising in the Night: Compassion and Justice in a Time of Despair,” a social justice Tisha B’Av Supplement published by Uri L’Tzedek. The title “Rising in the Night” alludes to one of the Book of Lamentations’ most striking lines, imploring the reader to, “Rise and cry out in the night … pour out our heart like water before the presence of the L-rd; lift up your hands to Him for the life of your children, those who are faint with hunger, at the opening of the streets” (Lamentations 2:19). The pain experienced during the most heightened moment of national despair becomes a compulsion to care for the vulnerable in one’s community.
This is the nexus promoted by “Rising in the Night.” Uri L’Tzedek seeks to connect the Jewish people’s communal narrative of destruction and promised redemption to issues of social justice, which resound in us today. The exile central to Tisha B’Av can make us more aware of today’s plague of human trafficking. The narrative of that most high city being brought low can make us more sensitive to more personal forms of despair, such as increasing incidents of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. All of these convergences and more are brought together in “Rising in the Night,” which will soon be available for download here.
26 Thursday Jul 2012
Posted in Chaplaincy, Psychology
I posted on the subject of mental health day a couple of weeks ago. The author added another piece on how to actually have a mental health day. Notice one of the things she doesn’t really discuss is needing to also “ignore” any work related content that comes across one’s email, though I assume the author implicitly is saying that in her piece.
Happy Tuesday, readers!
Last week I told you about the mental health day I took (and the unsurprising surprise some folks felt when they found out).
Now, I’d like to share some pointers I learned during the day – some mental health day tips, if you will.
You might think taking a mental health day is a sort of no-brainer. You just call off school or work and chill out, right?
Well, sort of.
For a truly successful mental health day, though, there are a few tips you can follow.
1. Tell People about Your Mental Health Day
Or, at least that you won’t be around.
Let your family, friends, co-workers, clients, and other people you deal with on a daily basis know you won’t be available that day. Let them know you’re taking a mental health day if you’re comfortable doing so; if you’d like to keep it private, just tell them you have other commitments and you’ll get with them tomorrow.
2. Let Go of the Guilt
You won’t have a successful mental health day if you spend it feeling guilty, even if it’s just a tiny, nagging guilty feeling in the back of your mind.
It’s tempting to feel guilty about taking a day for yourself when there are deadlines to meet, a house to clean, a birthday party to plan…but, people need mental health days just like they need physical health days. You were born with a brain and a mind. Why should taking care of them be less acceptable than taking care of your body?
It shouldn’t. You need both.
Do not feel guilty for choosing to take care of your mental health.
3. Do What YOU Need to Do
You might think a mental health day is all about lying around doing nothing.
For some, it is, but keep in mind that not everyone has or needs the same kind of mental health day.
Depending on your needs, your mental health day might consist of:
- Relaxing. Maybe you’re overwhelmed at work, or haven’t been getting enough sleep. Spend your mental health day recharging your mind and body.
- Cleaning. Lots of people get stressed out when their homes are messy and disorganized. You might take a mental health day to clean and organize your living area or home office to eliminate stress and feel more in control of your surroundings.
- Having Fun. Whether it’s hitting up an amusement park or just playing fetch with your dog, sometimes the kind of mental health day activities you need are the kind that help you unwind and enjoy yourself.
4. Eat Well.
And by “eat well,” I pretty much mean eat whatever you want – as long as it won’t make you feel guilty.
Probably not what you expected to read at Your Body, Your Mind, but I think we can all recognize the need to just loosen up sometimes. During my mental health day, I had Papa John’s. I didn’t feel like cooking or even throwing together a salad. I wanted something fast, cheap and – *gasp* – greasy.
Of course, I pulled in the reigns after my mental health day was over, but while it was going on, I ate what I wanted and felt fine about it.
5. Make a Plan
Not everyone needs this step, but if you have something in your life that –
- Causes you continuous stress,
- Makes you dread getting up and starting the day, and/or,
- Prevents you from moving forward, achieving goals, and overall living the life you want,
– you need it.
Spend some time during your mental health day making a plan to “fix” whatever it is that isn’t lining up with your life. Maybe you need a new work schedule, or a new job. Maybe you’ve taken on too much or need more of a challenge. You don’t have to come up with the entire solution on this day, but you might make a list of ideas or talk with a friend or counselor about what you want to get rid of/achieve/change, and the steps you could take to succeed.
Did I leave anything out? What have you found is important for a successful mental health day?
24 Tuesday Jul 2012
Posted in Bereavement, Chaplaincy, Pastoral Care, Spiritual Care
Tags
bereavement, chaplaincy, Cry Bar, crying, grief and bereavement, grief and loss, mourning, pastoral care, spiritual care
Can you imagine having a place for people to come and pay to cry? Well, according to the following report, there is something called a “cry bar” that was founded in Nanjing, China. I think this is a brilliant idea, especially because it might just be a way to remove some of the taboos of crying and public displays of grief.
Is there such as thing as ‘good’ mourning?
A new kind of niche bar in Asia might surprise you; it’s called a “cry bar.” A “cry bar” is a bar with some sofas, a few tables, and lots and lots of tissues where people can pay $6 an hour to come in, sit, and cry. Owner Luo Jun in the Chinese port city of Nanjing said he opened the bar when clients from a previous business confessed a desire to cry but didn’t know when or where it would be appropriate to do so.
How many bars in the U.S. fill the same purpose? People gathering to mourn, staring down a bottle in silence and grief (This is partly what all the drinking on Mad Men is about, in my estimation).
And we don’t even know what’s happening. Drowning in sorrow. And unaware.
Numb. Mourning inside to the depths of our bones.
Scientists can detect a substantive difference between tears that come from common experience (onions) and the tears of raw emotion. Literally, tears are cleansing to the soul. What soap does for the body, tears do for the soul. Sacred Hebrew and Christian scriptures attest to this. Psalm 56:8 tells us that God desires to record every tear we shed. For when we are so sad that we are moved to tears, the very action of crying is comforting. So Paul writes in 2 Cor. 2:4 “For I wrote to you out of great distress and anguish of heart with my many tears, not to grieve you but to let you know the depth of my love for you.” Paul’s tears were from the deep places of mourning in his own heart.
You’re served divorce papers. You had no idea this was coming.
The doctor says, “We tried everything within our power. I’m sorry we couldn’t save her.”
Your boss informs you, “We’re going in a different direction.”Mourning—the deliberate grieving, crying, processing, and sharing of shame, pain, and loss—is the means by which we curiously take on the strength of that which we overcome.
Mourning isn’t magic. Grieving isn’t a formula. But it is the way we continue to walk forward, even if we walk with a limp. Therapist Jennifer Dawn Watts notes, “True depression doesn’t come as a result of grieving. Most often grieving heals, whereas depression keeps us stuck. It’s grief avoidance.”
If you’re stuck in a moment, reach out to someone. Call your best friend. E-mail your rabbi or priest. Reach out to someone you trust. In the words of recent “American Idol winner” (theologians come in surprising forms) Phillip Phillips, “Settle down, it’ll all be clear. Don’t pay no mind to the demons they fill you with fear. The trouble it might drag you down. If you get lost, you can always be found. Just know you’re not alone.”
Tears might be the first sign of new life, new possibilities. Mourn Deeply. Grieve on.
Dr. Josh Graves is a minister and writer. You can read his blog @ http://www.joshugraves.com or follow him on Twitter @joshgraves
. His next book, “Heaven on Earth” (Abingdon with Chris Seidman) comes out in December.
23 Monday Jul 2012
Posted in Chaplaincy, Health care, Medical Ethics, Pastoral Care, Spiritual Care
Tags
chaplaincy, euthanasia, health care, healthcare chaplaincy, medical ethics, pastoral care, spiritual care
As I was perusing my Stats for today, I all of a sudden had an explosion of hits (thanks to all who looked at my website). I was trying to figure out why when I came across a link to the HealthCare Chaplaincy’s Soul of Bioethics newsletter, published once every few months. The newsletter carried a section about the “Suffering from Life,” which stated:
SUFFERING FROM LIFE?
Some in the Netherlands now want to extend that nation’s legalized euthanasia policy in a new way: people over age 70 would be eligible for voluntary euthanasia even if they’re not suffering from an illness. They need only be “suffering from life,” a category that seems pretty broad, indeed. This proposal is controversial, but it raises new questions about the meaning of old age.
For more on this issue, visit: https://achaplainsjourney.wordpress.com/2012/05/08/can-a-person-suffer-from-life/
As you can see, the newsletter linked the topic of the question of euthanasia in the Netherlands to my blog post quoting from one of their own, Rev. Martha Jacobs. I share this information with all of you my readers as a means of expressing gratitude for having a readership and my hopes that we all continue to journey together as we look at issues that effect our mind, body and spirit.
For those who are interested, here is the entire Soul of Bioethics Newsletter.
The Soul of Bioethics (July 23, 2012)Edited by H.R. Moody |
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Dear Friend, As a subscriber to a HealthCare Chaplaincy publication, we are pleased to send you the “Soul of Bioethics” newsletter, which we publish periodically. It is edited by Harry (Rick) Moody, Ph.D., director of academic affairs for AARP in Washington, DC and co-sponsored by the Office of Academic Affairs at AARP.
Contents
AFFORDABLE CARE ACT: What about Aging?The Affordable Care Act has been subject to continuing political debate. The recent Supreme Court decision upholding the law has some tangible implications for health and aging policy which deserve attention:
The impact of these measures has been documented. By starting to close the doughnut hole, 5.3 million people on Medicare Part D have already saved $3.7 billion since the law was enacted. In the first five months of 2012, 745,000 people on Medicare saved $485 million on prescription drugs in the doughnut hole coverage gap for an average of $651 in savings per person this year. More than 32 million Americans in Medicare used free preventive services in 2011 and 2.2 million people with traditional Medicare benefited from the new Annual Wellness Visit in 2011. Many provisions of the Affordable Care Act have not been well understood by older adults. Continuing debate should include attention to these elements of the law. For more details on these developments, visit: http://www.aarp.org/healthlawguide
ETHICS AND AGING: The Critical TurnHow often do we hear that honoring autonomy should be the foundation of ethical respect for elders. But accomplishing that may require a “critical turn” in our thinking about ethics: “To honor autonomy… calls for a focus on the external conditions that support or impede its exercise… Part of the responsibility of professionals working with elders is to start with awareness about the autonomy-constraining features of these contexts and to then work with persons to reveal their values and desires… Narrative, based on a communicative or dialogic approach, is the way most of us make important decisions and reflect upon our lives. We urge its further practice to work with older people.” From ETHICS, AGING AND SOCIETY: The Critical Turn, by Martha Holstein, Jennifer Parks and Mark Waymack (Springer, 2011). For more about this book, visit: http://www.springerpub.com/product/9780826116345
DEPT. OF CONFLICT OF INTERESTWe in bioethics focus a lot of attention on ethical dilemmas and quandaries of all sorts. But what about the blatant corruption that is gradually creeping into our healthcare System? For a glimpse of a specific conflict-of-interest problem, see: “Insurers Pay Big Markups as Doctors Dispense Drugs” at: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/12/business/some-physicians-making-millions-selling-drugs.html?emc=eta1
ETHICS OF WASTE AVOIDANCEMedical ethicist Howard Brody offers an important argument about why the debate over healthcare “rationing” has been so confusing and destructive of public dialogue. In his article “From an Ethics of Rationing to an Ethics of Waste Avoidance” he offers the following case study: “A case study for the shift in ethical focus is the treatment of advanced, metastatic breast cancer with high-dose chemotherapy followed by autologous bone marrow transplantation. This treatment was initially thought to offer perhaps a 10% chance of a significant extension of life for patients who would otherwise be fated to die very soon. Insurers’ refusal to pay the high costs of this last-chance treatment did much to torpedo public trust in managed care during the 1990s. Data now suggest that the actual chance of meaningful benefit from this treatment is zero and that the only effect of the treatment was to make patients’ remaining months of life miserable. In this case, the ethical debate over rationing was misplaced.” For full text of the article, visit: http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMp120336 5 For more about the related “Choosing Wisely” Campaign, see: http://www.ama-assn.org/amednews/2012/04/16/bisa0416.htm
WILL STEM CELLS CURE AGING?Maybe some day, but not quite yet. Perhaps I’m overly sensitive about this subject because I’ve had two close friends who died of cancer after being taking human growth hormone (against my advice). What about stem cells, that new frontier of regenerative medicine? Well, research is one thing, but use of stem cells for clinical treatment as appropriately been called “21st century snake oil.” An expose of this entire field was done by “60 Minutes” at: http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-18560_162-57354695/stem-cell-fraud-a-60-minutes-investigation/ The International Society for Stem Cell Research (ISSCR) offers guidance on the credibility of claims for so-called stem cell treatments, including claims for so-called “anti-aging” interventions. For more details, see the “Closer Look at Stem Cells” website at: http://www.closerlookatstemcells.org//AM/Template.cfm?Section=Home1 See also: FOREVER YOUNG: A Cultural History of Longevity from Antiquity to the Present, by Lucian Boia (Reaktion Books, 2004). A HISTORY OF IDEAS ABOUT THE PROLONGATION OF LIFE, by Gerald Gruman, MD PhD (Springer, 2003).
SUFFERING FROM LIFE?Some in the Netherlands now want to extend that nation’s legalized euthanasia policy in a new way: people over age 70 would be eligible for voluntary euthanasia even if they’re not suffering from an illness. They need only be “suffering from life,” a category that seems pretty broad, indeed. This proposal is controversial, but it raises new questions about the meaning of old age. For more on this issue, visit: https://achaplainsjourney.wordpress.com/2012/05/08/can-a-person-suffer-from-life/
HUMAN VALUES IN AGINGThe “Human Values in Aging” e-newsletter publishes items on positive aging, including spirituality, autobiography, lifelong learning, and late-life creativity. For a sample copy or free subscription, send a message to valuesinaging@yahoo.com.
FAST-BREAKING STORIESThe following stories will be of interest: “Hospitals Letting Patients Die to Save Money” at: “Doctor Accused of Ending Patients’ Lives Prematurely” at: “Legal Euthanasia Didn’t Raise Death Rate, Researchers Say” at: “Patients Reluctant to Disagree with Doctor’s Advice” at: (Thanks to “This Week in Bioethics” at Bioethics.net for these citations.)
WEB SITES TO SEECHOOSING WISELY has an appealing slogan: Doctors Want To Do The Right Thing. To find out more about this initiative, visit: http://healthaffairs.org/blog/2012/06/06/choosing-wisely-doctors-want-to-do-the-right-thing/ CARE PLANNING. “Advance Care Planning Decisions is a series of narrative videos designed to educate patients and their families about options for medical care. Available at: http://www.acpdecisions.org/videos/ DISABILITY. “Many people assume disability is a fate worse than death,” writes William J. Peace, in an article in the current Hastings Center Report. For commentary on disability and end-of-life choices, visit:
BOOKS OF INTERESTRETHINKING INFORMED CONSENT IN BIOETHICS, by Neil C. Manson and Onora O’Neill (Cambridge Univ. Press, 2007). TRANSFORMING PALLIATIVE CARE IN NURSING HOMES: The Social Work Role, edited by Mercedes Bern-Klug (Columbia Univ. Press, 2012). MAKING HEALTH CARE WHOLE: Integrating Spirituality into Health Care, by Christina Puchalski, M.D. and Betty Puchalski (Templeton Press, 2010).
This electronic newsletter, edited by Harry (Rick) Moody, is published by HealthCare Chaplaincy and co-sponsored by the Office of Academic Affairs at AARP. The opinions stated are those of Mr. Moody and may not necessarily reflect those of HealthCare Chaplaincy or AARP. To submit items of interest, contact H.R. Moody at soulofbioethics@yahoo.com. (c) Copyright 2012; all rights reserved. |
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HealthCare Chaplaincy appreciates your interest and support. Please send any questions or comments to comm@healthcarechaplaincy.org. |
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22 Sunday Jul 2012
Posted in Chaplaincy, Pastoral Care, Spiritual Care
Tags
chaplaincy, clergy person, clinical pastoral education, Disaster Spiritual Care, pastoral care, religion, spiritual care, trauma, trauma trained chaplains
The following is a cautionary tale about many who call themselves “chaplains” who are not. Trauma is not something to be taken lightly and people should be cautious of those who come to “help” who might be doing a greater disservice to the people suffering. At the same time, we should be aware that there are extensive training programs for what is now referred to as “Disaster Spiritual Care.” For those seeking to know about the subject, I would recommend the following book, Disaster Spiritual Care, edited by Rabbi Stephen B. Roberts and Willard W.C. Ashley.
Wise as Serpents: Finding Trained Trauma Chaplains in the Wake of a Crisis
Rev. Emily C. Heath
Clergy, United Church of Chris
Yesterday, just hours after the Colorado shootings, I began to read stories of “chaplains” being sent by evangelical Christian groups to the scene. Immediately, I felt my blood pressure rise.
Last summer my southern Vermont community was hit hard by Hurricane Irene. Towns were flooded, families lost their homes, and entire businesses were literally washed away. In the aftermath, all of us got involved in the rebuilding. As a local pastor, I spent a lot of time talking to people who had suffered devastating losses, and connecting them with needed resources.
One afternoon a few days after the flood I saw people walking in town wearing t-shirts that said “Chaplain”. I stopped to introduce myself to them, and they flashed official-looking badges and identified themselves as Red Cross trauma chaplains. But something seemed off. I went home, pulled up webpages, and started investigating.
I was a trauma chaplain. I spent three years in seminary, and then completed numerous units of Clinical Pastoral Education, a supervised training program for would-be chaplains. CPE, as any clergy person who has done it will tell you, is rarely fun. But it’s meant to train clergy to be able to serve others in the most devastating hours of their lives with compassion and grace. And above all, it’s meant to train them to, like doctors, “do no harm”.
I served first in the emergency room of a Level One pediatric trauma hospital and later as a staff chaplain in other hospital and hospice settings. I now serve as a chaplain to a fire department. During my time I have sat with a child who just lost parents to drunk drivers, a mother who literally watched her son bleed to death from a gun shot wound, and countless wives who just lost husbands to heart attacks. And there have been many, many more. Every time I have walked into a trauma situation I have given thanks for every hour of training I have completed.
What I found out about the “Red Cross trauma chaplains” who had come to my town was not only surprising, it was dangerous. The organization that had given them the legitimate-looking badges is not actually connected to the Red Cross or any public safety community. It requires no accredited theological education and no clinical training. It does, however, offer its own, questionable, training. One pastor who attended several years ago left in disgust after the group’s leader reportedly made violently homophobic comments and talked about carrying a gun and extra ammunition into trauma areas.
But what is possibly even more disturbing is that the mission statement of this trauma response organization, and others like it, makes clear that they see disaster situations as opportunities for evangelism and conversion. In a crisis situation, where there is often chaos, it’s pretty easy to come to town, say you are a “trained trauma chaplain”, flash your badge and get assigned to help people who are at their most psychologically and spiritually vulnerable. The potential for doing harm, to the point of spiritual abuse, is high.
But not all chaplains are like that. The United States military, for example, requires their chaplains to hold a graduate theological degree, and to complete clinical training. Board Certified Chaplains, often found in medical settings, are required to undergo even more rigorous review. And local public safety organizations, such as police and fire departments, have become more wary about the qualifications of whom they let assume their chaplaincy.
All of these organizations also make sure that chaplains understand what their job entails. A chaplain does not try to convert those who have survived a disaster. Rather, a chaplain provides spiritual and emotional support by meeting people where they are at and helping them find the resources that they need. The chaplain may be a Catholic priest ministering to a Muslim, or a rabbi serving a Baptist, or a minister serving an atheist. It doesn’t matter. In any of those situation, the agenda cannot be dictated by the chaplain’s beliefs. It must be dictated by the needs of the traumatized person.
When this is done well, the result can be reduced traumatization, increased hope, and substantive stabilization. When done poorly, it can be nothing short of religious exploitation.
In situations like the shooting in Colorado, it’s important for local clergy, and local government and public safety officials, to carefully investigate the religious agendas of spiritual caregivers. Look for someone who is trained by accredited sources, who has chaplaincy experience in the military or a medical setting, who is connected with a legitimate credentialing body, or who is already affiliated with your local public safety chaplaincies.
I learned the hard way last summer that in times of crisis there are plenty of spiritual “wolves in sheep’s clothing”. There are also plenty of good people who simply are not trained for the task at hand. Both types can do incredible damage. The Scripture of my tradition advises us that Jesus told us to be “wise as serpents, gentle as doves”. It’s a good reminder when deciding who should have access to those who have been severely traumatized.
18 Wednesday Jul 2012
Posted in Aging, Chaplaincy, Pastoral Care, Psychology, Religion, scientific research, Spiritual Care
Tags
atheism, atheists in foxholes, chaplaincy, death and dying, deathbed conversions, journal of experimental psychology, pastoral care, psychology, religion, scientific research, social psychology bulletin, spiritual care
(h/t here) Most of us tend to think that few people truly die as atheists, that somehow death-anxiety will lead to a quest for G-d in life. While for some, this change does occur, recent studies question this assumption. The studies indicate that as we get closer to death, we tend to become more resolved in the beliefs we already have. If this is the case, then it becomes that much more important to be cognizant of the language we use when working with people in their end days, for we shouldn’t presume that the atheist is no longer the one in the foxhole.
Do Atheists Have Deathbed Conversions?
Two sets of researchers ask whether nonbelievers turn toward God after contemplating death.
July 10, 2012 • By Tom Jacobs
Are there atheists in foxholes? That timeless question (the literal answer to which is yes) is a shorthand way of asking whether, when confronted by their own mortality, even nonbelievers’ thoughts turn to God.
Research published earlier this year tentatively concluded that they do. But a new study, conducted by scholars from three countries, reports that death-related thoughts lead us to reaffirm whatever belief system gives our lives meaning—and for atheists, that’s something other than religious faith.
“Our tentative conclusion is that even nonreligious people are tempted toward religious belief, if only implicitly, in the face of death,” writes Oxford University psychologist Jonathan Jong. He is lead author of a paper entitled “Foxhole Athiesm, Revisited,” published in the Journal of Experimental Psychology.
“The psychological comforts of religion do not appear to be of universal necessity,” counters University of Missouri psychologist Kenneth Vail. He’s the lead author of the paper “Exploring the Existential Function of Religion,” published in the Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin.
Both papers provide evidence that reminders of death increase the religiosity of believers. This supports one of the basic tenets of Terror Management Theory, a school of thought built on the insights of the late anthropologist Ernest Becker.
According to TMT, a basic function of religion is to provide a buffer against death-related anxiety. It does this, primarily, by promising believers an ongoing existence that transcends earthly mortality. So it’s no surprise that both sets of researchers found a link between thoughts of mortality and increased devotion.
In the first of three experiments Vail describes, death reminders enhanced the religiosity of both Christians and Muslims. Christians were more likely to express belief in Jesus and deny the divinity of Allah and Buddha; conversely, Muslims were more likely to express belief in Allah and deny the divinity of Jesus and Buddha. (Buddhists do not, however, claim divinity for Buddha, and Islam’s Allah is usually seen as the same monotheistic God worshiped by Christians and Jews.)
Similarly, Jong found that when reminded with death, “participants explicitly defended their own religious world view, such that self-described Christians were more confident that supernatural religious entities exist.”
But when it came to nonreligious people, Jong found a disconnect between conscious beliefs and unconscious ones. Like the believers, the nonreligious responded to death reminders by strengthening their commitment to their world view—in their case, the firm belief there’s no such thing as supernatural entities.
But using an implicit association test, he found that after thinking about death, nonbelievers “wavered from their disbelief.” Specifically, 71 students from the University of Otago in New Zealand were presented with a series of 20 nouns, which they were instructed to categorize as “real” or “imaginary” as quickly as possible.
Jong reports that “while believers strengthened their beliefs, non-believers wavered from their disbelief” after thinking about their own mortality. Specifically, they were slower to label such concepts as “God” and “heaven” as imaginary.
In other words, when death was on their minds, “believers more readily judged religious concepts as real,” he writes, “while non-believers found it more difficult to judge religious concepts as imaginary.”
While respectful of Jong, Vail takes issue with his methodology; he isn’t convinced a less-rapid response time necessarily denotes increased doubt. Furthermore, he notes that all nonbelievers are not created equal.
His research, conducted with Jamie Arndt of the University of Missouri and Abdolhossein Abdollahi of the University of Limerick, Ireland and Islamic Azau University in Iran, distinguished between atheists and agnostics, and found they reacted to death reminders quite differently.
Specifically, in one experiment, death reminders “motivated agnostics to increase their religiosity, belief in a higher power, and their faith in God/Jesus, Buddha, and Allah.” Basically, they were more open to immortality-promising deities of any stripe.
But in a separate experiment, the notion of death did not increase atheists’ very low levels of religiosity or belief in a higher power.
In Vail’s view, this suggests people who strongly reject religious belief find other ways of dealing with “the psychological problem of death,” such as devoting themselves to some secular cause that will endure beyond their lifetimes.
So while the larger conclusions of the two papers “largely converge,” as Vail notes, they point to different answers regarding whether, say, Christopher Hitchens started to waver from his firm disbelief in his final days.
“Implicit religious belief is a difficult thing to sample,” Jong concedes, “and we hope that more work is done on this in different samples, including more militant atheists.”
Any volunteers?
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18 Wednesday Jul 2012
Posted in Chaplaincy, Pastoral Care, Spiritual Care
Tags
chaplaincy, James Kugel, pastoral care, poetry, Rainer Marie Rilke, spiritual care, The Merry Go Round
Here is a poem I shared this morning with my hospice team. I came across this poem in a book I just starting reading this morning, In the Valley of the Shadow, by James Kugel. I might have more to say about the book at another time. Here is the blurb about the book from Amazon’s website.
TEN YEARS AGO, Harvard professor James Kugel was diagnosed with an aggressive, likely fatal, form of cancer. “I was, of course, disturbed and worried. But the main change in my state of mind was that the background music had suddenly stopped—the music of daily life that’s constantly going, the music of infinite time and possibilities. Now suddenly it was gone, replaced by nothing, just silence. There you are, one little person, sitting in the late summer sun, with only a few things left to do.”Despite his illness, Kugel was intrigued by this new state of mind and especially the uncanny feeling of human smallness that came with it. There seemed to be something overwhelmingly true about it—and its starkness reminded him of certain themes and motifs he had encountered in his years of studying ancient religions. “This, I remember thinking, was something I should really look into further—if ever I got the chance.”
In the Valley of the Shadow is the result of that search. In this wide-ranging exploration of different aspects of religion—interspersed with his personal reflections on the course of his own illness—Kugel seeks to uncover what he calls “the starting point of religious consciousness,” an ancient “sense of self” and a way of fitting into the world that is quite at odds with the usual one. He tracks these down in accounts written long ago of human meetings with gods and angels, anthropologists’ descriptions of the lives of hunter-gatherers, the role of witchcraft in African societies, first-person narratives of religious conversions, as well as the experimental data assembled by contemporary neuroscientists and evolutionary biologists.
Though this different sense of how we fit into the world has largely disappeared from our own societies, it can still come back to us as a fleeting state of mind, “when you are just sitting on some park bench somewhere; or at a wedding, while everyone else is dancing and jumping around; or else one day standing in your backyard, as the sun streams down through the trees . . . ” Experienced in its fullness, this different way of seeing opens onto a stark, new landscape ordinarily hidden from human eyes.
Kugel’s look at the whole phenomenon of religious beliefs is a rigorously honest, sometimes skeptical, but ultimately deeply moving affirmation of faith in God. One of our generation’s leading biblical scholars has created a powerful meditation on humanity’s place in the world and all that matters most in our lives. Believers and doubters alike will be struck by its combination of objective scholarship and poetic insight, which makes for a single, beautifully crafted consideration of life’s greatest mystery.
Here is the poem he quotes from Rainer Marie Rilke.
The Merry-Go-Round –
Luxembourg GardensWith a roof and its shadows dark turns
for a small moment the assembly
of colorful horses, all from that land
that hesitates long before it descends.
True, many are harnessed to the wagon,
yet still they all have courage in their faces;
a fierce, angry lion is one among them
and then and again a pure white elephant.An elk is there, just like in the woods,
but now he wears a saddle on his back
and in it is tied a little girl in blue.And on the lion rides dressed in white a boy
and a small, passionate hand himself does hold
while the lion roars and shows his tongue and teeth.And then and again a pure white elephant.
And on the horses around again they come,
the girls, bright, all but grown too big
for such prancing; in the middle of the swing,
out they look, to somewhere, over there—And then and again a pure white elephant.
And it goes on and hurries to its end,
and circles about itself and has no goal.
A red, a green, a gray is sent along,
an outline small and hardly yet begun—
And sometimes a laughing face will turn again,
a blessing, that dazzles and just as quickly fades,
in this blind, breathless play . . .(all tr. Cliff Crego)
18 Wednesday Jul 2012
Posted in Chaplaincy, Pastoral Care, Psychology, scientific research, Spiritual Care, technology
Tags
anxiety, blogging, facebook, feelings of inadequacy, pastoral care, research, science, social-media, technology, twitter
In the continuing saga of studying the effects of social media on our psyche, the following article discusses the increased anxiety found among those who use social media sites. Just as a point of disclosure. I share these studies because I think that as our society becomes is more global and all around us at all times through these mediums, we need to be aware of the dark side of social sharing. I am a user of Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, blogging, etc. And yet, I also ponder its value in the long term. I have noticed over time the switching from one medium to another by many of my friends, as well as some who use these sites only sparingly. I think we gain from being able to share but at the same time I do think that each of us has to find limits for ourselves. What are we sharing and why?
Facebook Use Feeds Anxiety And Inadequacy Says Small Study
Article Date: 10 Jul 2012 – 4:00 PDTUse of social media like Facebook and Twitter may be feeding anxiety and increasing feelings of inadequacy, according to a small UK study reported in The Telegraph on Monday.For the study, commissioned by the charity Anxiety UK, researchers at Salford University Business School surveyed 298 people about their use of social media and how it affected them. The charity also conducted some smaller in-depth research of its own.
Anxiety UK’s chief executive, Nicky Lidbetter reportedly said if people are already predisposed to anxiety, then it seems the added pressure from technology acts as a “tipping point” to make people “feel more insecure and more overwhelmed”.
Lidbetter said it was surprising how many of the respondents seemed unable to ignore the demands of their gadgets and found the only way to get a break from them was to switch them off.
Clinical psychologist Dr Linda Blair, told The Telegraph that one of the issues appears to be people are behaving as if technology is in control of them, instead of the other way around:
“We can switch the gadgets off but a lot of us have forgotten how to,” she added.
According to The Telegraph article, the researchers found:
As of May 2012, Facebook has over 900 million active worldwide users.
- More than half (53%) of the respondents said use of social media sites had changed their behaviour, with half (51%) of those saying the impact had been negative.
- Those who said their lives were worsened by social media, also reported feeling less confident after comparing their achievements against those of their online friends.
- Two thirds of respondents said they had difficulty relaxing and sleeping after using the sites.
- More than 60% of respondents said the only way they could get a break was to switch off their gadgets: one in three said they did this several times a day.
- Over half (55%) of respondents said they felt “worried or uncomfortable” when they couldn’t get onto their social media or email accounts.
- A quarter of respondents said after having confrontations online they experienced difficulties in personal and work relationships.
But what is not clear from a small study like this, that also only examined links between reported use of media, emotions and behavior, is that it is hard to say what is causing what: is social media use leading to more anxiety and insecurity, or is that people already high in these traits are attracted to social media and/or less resilient to its effects?
With over 900 million users worldwide, Facebook and its use is a growing area of research. So much so, that in May 2011, a team from Norway announced it has developed a psychological scale devoted to measuring addiction to Facebook that they hope will help researchers investigating problem behavior linked to use of the social medium.
One of the scale developers, Dr. Cecilie Andraessen, from the University of Bergen (UiB), said she and her colleagues observe that people who use Facebook more tend to be the ones who score higher on the scale in terms of anxiety and social insecurity.
“We have also found that people who are anxious and socially insecure use Facebook more than those with lower scores on those traits, probably because those who are anxious find it easier to communicate via social media than face-to-face,” she told the press at the time.
The Norwegian team also found that people who are more organized and ambitious tend not to become addicted to Facebook, and are more likely to use social media as an integral part of work and networking activity.
More recently, research from the University of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada, concluded that while in theory, by helping to encourage and improve friendships, Facebook could be great for people with low self-esteem, in practice, users with low self-esteem seem to behave counterproductively, bombarding their friends with negative tidbits about their lives and making themselves less likeable.
Waterloo graduate student Amanda Forest, said people with low self-esteem may feel safe making personal disclosures on Facebook, but they may not be doing themselves any favours:
“If you’re talking to somebody in person and you say something, you might get some indication that they don’t like it, that they’re sick of hearing your negativity,” Forest told the press.
However, she said when people have a negative reaction to a post on Facebook, they seem to keep it to themselves:
“On Facebook, you don’t see most of the reactions,” said Forest.
There is also some evidence that use of social media affects mood differently to other demands.
Earlier this year, Dr Maurizio Mauri of the Institute of Human, Language and Environmental Sciences at IULM University in Milan, Italy, and colleagues, reported findings of a study where they measured 30 people’s physical and psychological responses while they used Facebook, performed a stressful task, or just relaxed, and found each of these activities appears to have a different effect on mood and arousal.
When their volunteers used Facebook, their biological responses (such as skin conductance, blood volume pulse, brainwave patterns, muscle activity, breathing activity, and pupil dilation) corresponded to what Mauri and colleagues described as the “Core Flow State”, a new concept that researchers are starting to characterize with objective measurements. Some say it is a state where people feel highly aroused and enjoying what they do, and where their skills are challenged. Others say it is a cluser of biological responses that make people want to repeat their experience.
Written by Catharine Paddock PhD
Copyright: Medical News Today
17 Tuesday Jul 2012
Posted in Chaplaincy, Health care, Pastoral Care, Psychology, Spiritual Care
Tags
chaplaincy, health, mental health day, mental-health, pastoral care, psychology, self-care, spiritual care
One of the luxuries of the modern work environment is the ability to call out “sick” as a means of catching one’s breath and refocusing. This is the “Mental Health Day.” Yet, for many, this mental health day comes with a pang of guilt, as if “how can I justify taking a day off because I’m stressed. Work by nature is supposed to contain some stress.” See below for one author’s conversation with a friend of hers about her “mental health day.”
Yesterday, I took a mental health day.
I’ve had a lot on my plate lately, most of it dealing with an occupation-related transition, and about half-way through my first cup of coffee yesterday morning, I decided I needed a mental health day.
Not many people knew about it simply because, aside from a few texts and a trip to Papa John’s (yes, Papa John’s – we’ll talk about that later), I didn’t really talk to anyone.
The one person I did call, though, had an…interesting reaction when she found out.
The conversation went a little something like this:
FRIEND: “What’d you do today?”
ME: “Nothing. I took a mental health day and did absolutely nothing.”
FRIEND: “WHAT?!”
ME: (After a few seconds of stunned silence.) “I’ve been pretty stressed out, trying to make this transition as smooth as possible. It’s a lot to juggle. I needed a day to just not do anything. I don’t feel guilty about it.”
FRIEND: (After a few seconds of her own silence.) “Well…I didn’t say you should feel guilty about it. I’m just surprised. I thought you a had a lot to do.”
ME: “I do. That’s why I had to take a break.”
Don’t misunderstand – my friend isn’t clueless about mental health days or how important they can be. I think she just didn’t realize how stressed I’d been, and so she was surprised to learn I’d take an entire day off – a Monday, no less – in the midst of everything I have going on.
Despite it being a day of rest, I was mindful during yesterday’s mental health day and plan to share some of what I learned later this week.
In the meantime, share with us your thoughts about mental health days. Have you ever felt guilty about taking a mental health day? Have you ever felt the need to justify taking one?
