Stephen W. Hiemstra's Blog, page 245

Chase and Jacobs Debate War and Peace

Kenneth R. Chase and Alan Jacobs (Editors). 2003. Must Christianity Be Violent: Reflections on History, Practice, and Theology. Grand Rapids: Baker Book House Company (Brazos Press).

Review by Stephen W. Hiemstra

We live at a time when peace is illusive and violence is on everyone’s mind. Peace is illusive because modern media reports crimes and violence from every corner of the earth saturating the mindset of news followers. If real violence were not enough, simulated violence dominates book sales, films, and electronic games stimulating copycat crimes and potential secondary trauma [1] in the real world. Against this cultural obsession with violence, real acts of peace whether by individuals or presidents are frequently deconstructed by critics to a point that makes ethical reflection difficult.

Taking seriously the need for ethical reflection, during March 15-17, 2000 the Center for Applied Christian Ethics hosted a faculty conference at Wheaton College in Chicago, Illinois whose papers were collected and published into this book, Must Christianity Be Violent, edited by Kenneth R. Chase and Alan Jacobs.

In his introduction, Chase writes:

“At its most elementary level, Christianity celebrates peace. Jesus promises to give peace, he advocates forgiveness and mercy, he instructs his followers to be peacemakers and to love enemies, and he died so that we might have peace with God.” (9)

The early church clearly got Jesus’ message of peace and pacifism characterized Christ’s followers’ response to institutionalized war for four centuries after his death and resurrection. The “just war” doctrine, first articulated by Augustine (354-430 AD) and later expanded on by Aquinas (1225-1274 AD), and Calvin (1509-1564 AD), gave theological justification for Christian participation in war, but only in limited circumstances, such as war in self-defense (32).

Chase sees Christianity’s critics as focusing on two main points of contention: a pragmatic criticisms focused primarily on historical events (such as the Crusades, anti-Semitism in Europe, and support for slavery), and, and criticisms focused on problems inherent in Christian doctrine (such as aspects of exclusivism and divine judgment; 10-12).

In view of these criticisms, Chase and Jacobs divide the 13 essays in the book into three broad sections—history, practices, and theology, as follows:

Section one: Histories

The First Crusade: Some Theological Historical Context by Joseph H. Lynch.
Violence of the Conquistadores and Prophetic Indignation by Luis N. Rivera-Pagán.
Is God Violent? Theological Options in the Antislavery Movement by Dan McKanan.
Christians as Rescuers during the Holocaust by David P. Gushee.
Have Christians Done More Harm than Good? by Mark A. Noll.
Beyond Complicity: The Challenges for Christianity after the Holocaust by Victoria Barnett.

Section Two: Practices

How Should We Then Teach American History? A Perspective of Constructive Nonviolence by James C. Juhnke.
Christian Discourse and the Humility of Peace by Kenneth R. Chase.
Jesus and Just Peacemaking Theory by Glen Stassen.

Section Three: Theologies

Violence and the Atonement by Richard J. Mouw.
Explaining Christian Nonviolence: Notes for a Conversation with John Milbank by Stanley Hauerwas.
Violence: Double Passivity by John Milbank.
Christian Peace: A Conversation between Stanley Hauerwas and John Milbank.

These 13 chapters were preceded by a preface and introduction and were followed by an afterword and lists of contributors and notes.

In reading through these many contributors and insights, it is clear that a summary is impractical because each essay is highly nuanced and contextual. Some insights, however, stand out as unique and can stand on their own in a short review. For example, David Gushee in his essay, “Christians as Rescuers During the Holocaust”, summarized the religious motivations of Christian rescuers in these categories:

Those having a special religious kinship with Jews.
Those remembering the experience of religious persecution.
Those recognizing the incompatibility of Nazism with Christian faith.
Those honoring the dignity of human life.
Those with special Christian piety (72-77).

Gushee notes that Christian faith was neither necessary or sufficient motivation for rescuing Jews during the Holocaust; citing Nechama Tec, he observed that only a “certain kind of Christianity” felt compelled to intervene (77-78).

Another essay that stood out in my mind was James C. Juhnke’s “How Should We Then Teach American History?” which cited a number of historical accounts of alternatives, other than “triumphalism” or “radical criticism”, which he described as “constructive nonviolence” (108). Historical accounts of “triumphalism” basically chronicle the rise of “America’s rise to greatness” while accounts of “radical criticism” critique what this rise to greatness did to African American slaves, Native Americans, women, and other minorities (108); accounts of “constructive nonviolence” focus on honoring roads not taken that might have been successful had they been taken. Juhnke highlights these themes:

Honoring the survival and strength of Native American cultures, especially the peacemakers that made survival possible.
Honoring nonviolent alternatives proposed but rejected.
Honoring the Antimilitary idealism of the founders, exhibited in the constitutional restraints.
Honoring the human conscience against killing.
Honoring the role of voluntary communities.
Honoring the opponents of total war (109-117).

Obviously much more could be said just about these topics in American history.

As someone deeply concerned about the future of America as well as our values and image in the world, I firmly believe that war should not be the first option or the only option considered when international conflicts arise. We need to know what other options can reasonably be considered because, as it is, the United States is increasingly in a perpetual state of war for lack of those options and the political will to consider them. As Christians, we should be willing to debate these issues openly and with an eye on how our options form our characters both as citizens and as Christians. Kenneth Chase and Alan Jacobs’s book, Must Christianity Be Violent?, is helpful resource in framing conversations about the issues of war and peace that we so desperately need to have.

[1] Secondary trauma occurs when an observer to trauma begins to experience the same (or related) symptoms as the trauma victim themselves. It is especially a problem when the observer has repeated exposures or catastrophic exposures to trauma, as might occur in a combat zone, plane crash, or bombing where multiple victims are affected. It is well-known among care-giving professionals, such as medical personnel and chaplains. See, for example: http://www.nctsn.org.

On May 27, 2016, President Obama became the first sitting president to visit Hiroshima in Japan, the site of the first atomic bomb attack by the United States on August 6, 1945, to advocate for the elimination of nuclear weapons (http://www.cnn.com/2016/05/27/politics/obama-hiroshima-japan).

http://www.wheaton.edu/CACE. (@CACEWheaton)

David Gushee, Righteous Gentiles of the Holocaust: Genocide and Moral Obligation, (Paragon House, 2003). (https://theology.mercer.edu/faculty-staff/gushee/)

For example, Philadelphia agreed with Boston that they would not accept British tea during the pre-revolutionary war period. But instead of dumping the tea as was done in Boston (the Boston Tea Party), they sent the tea back to England (and paid the freight) thereby avoiding conflict (110).

The prohibition against standing armies in the Constitution prevented early American elites from developing a “military industrial complex” as developed in the twentieth century (112).

32. Prayers of a Life in Tension by Stephen W. Hiemstra

Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace,

Oh Lord, to be like you—strong and wise and patience and peace loving.

Oh, to be a convenant keeper, dependable and steady, a pillar against the wind.

Oh, to offer mercy and grace and patience and love and truth to all that come near.

Hospitality in the desert; peace amidst confusion; security when uncertainty tears at the soul.

Oh Lord, to be like you; to be like you.

Remember us, Lord, but forget the sin that

Depletes our strenghth, leaves us foolish, makes us impatient, and creates dissention.

Remember us, Lord, but forgive our trangressions that

Breaks our promises, leaves us unreliable—like leave blown before the wind.

Remember us, Lord, but wipe away our iniquity that

Leaves us judgmental and arrogant and at odds with all things good and true.

Remember us, Lord, lest we forget ourselves.

In the power of your Holy Spirit grant us a new day

and the strength to live it in a new way

following the example of your Son and our Savior,

Jesus Christ, Amen.

Vietnam

Do you not know that in a race all the runners run,

but only one receives the prize?

So run that you may obtain it.

(1 Cor 9:24)

Vietnam

By Stephen W. Hiemstra

One of the oldest books on my bookshelf is L.E. Moore’s Elementary Aviation, which teaches pilots the rudiments of navigation, such as flying on instruments, meteorology, and radio navigation.  I studied this book with great interest in Junior High School because I wanted to attend the Air Force Academy and become a pilot. When I learned that my eyesight was not good enough to qualify for pilot’s training, I joined a Sea Explorer’s unit and set my sights on the Navel Academy. My interest in the academies continued into high school where I began running with the cross country team (1970) after learning that cadets were expected to be athletes and the military had physical training requirements.

My fascination with all things military was obvious to my friends. One friend in high school, having run into me at a scout camporee, nicknamed me “the General” and, when he learned that I had joined the Sea Explorers, he revised my nickname to be “the Admiral”. In keeping with my nickname, for two summers in a row, I worked as an aquatics instructor at Camp Ross, one of the six camps at Goshen Scout Camps, which meant that I learned to row, canoe, and sail well enough to teach others. In like manner, I also attended seamanship classes offered for Sea Explorers on Saturday mornings at the Navy Yard in Washington DC.

I am not sure exactly when my doubts about the wisdom of pursuing a career in the military began to seep in. My Dad, who had attended the reserved officer training corps (ROTC) and served in Korea, used to refer to the pilot’s job as being a kind of bus service in the sky. While he never really supported my goal of being a pilot nor my interest later in music, he also never really said what I should do—that was something I needed to sort out on my own.

My own doubts about the military began to surface in watching the evening news. Video clips from Vietnam dominated the evening news for years on end, but progress in ending the war seemed illusive. World War II lasted for five years and involved battles all over the world so why did this little “police action” in Vietnam take so long and involve no serious progress after years of effort? The explanations seemed inadequate while the nightmare of modern war began to seep in—it was hard to reconcile the carnage on the evening news with explanations given. Why the massacre at Mi Lai?[1] Why the summary execution of a Viet Cong prisoner?[2] The images on the news were shocking; provocative; un-American.

Containing communism was the explanation for the war that made political sense because we thought of communism as bad, even if what that meant was unclear. We had no idea, for example, that communism was officially atheistic and openly persecuted Christians, although we had a pretty good idea that communism was a thin veil over totalitarianism—a “dictatorship of the proletariat”. Defending South Vietnam from a communist takeover was therefore consistent with the Christian concept of a just war. However, the images of the war seen on the television news seemed inconsistent with that concept. To my eighteen year old eyes, indiscriminate bombing, routine use of napalm, and relocation of civilians appeared shocking; provocative; un-American.

Although my questions about the Vietnam War already colored my thinking in 1968 when I campaigned, like my parents, for Richard Nixon because of his plan to the end war, these questions did not affect my attitude about military service or the Navel Academy until around 1971, which was my junior year in high school. In high school, I read authors, like Thoreau and Faulkner, who inspired me to think for myself, but the disconnect between my Christian faith and my aspirations to become a military officer were also beginning to emerge. This disconnect came to a head on August 4, 1972 I wrote the following to my draft board:

I can not fight in a war because as a Christian my highest duty is to follow the teachings of Jesus Christ. I believe that life is the sacred gift of God which is to be honored and respected by all men. I believe that every man has a constructive contribution to make to humanity and that each man has the right to fulfill this destiny. I believe there is a beauty in all life and that we should use love, concern, and non-violent methods to solve our conflicts. I believe all men are of one indivisible whole and that each man’s life is important to the life of the whole. I must live in peace to uphold my faith.

I wrote as a pacifist because I did not understand “just war” theory, which better reflected my true feelings. I was not opposed to a just war, but Vietnam did not appear to be a just war. Ironically, the highly principled image that I had of military officers was also inconsistent with the image of Vietnam that appeared on the evening news, but how do you write that in an application to your draft board?

My draft board responded my application and brief essay by classifying me as I-0, which exempted me from military service, but required that I take the usual military medical examination and that I find alternative service to perform, if and when my number was called. In the fall of 1972, I took my medical examination in Indianapolis where in a room filled with several hundred registrants I was the only one classified I-0 which was obvious because I was asked to stand up alone in front of everyone and, in front of everyone, they told me that I did not need to answer form questions about my affiliations.

During the fall, I  wrote to public interest research groups around the country inquiring about job prospects that might satisfy my alternative service requirement. One group in Baltimore, Maryland, responded to my inquiry, but none was ultimately needed because the Vietnam War was declared over on December 31, 1972. My draft number—13—was never called. Because numbers up to 153 had been called in the previous year, I took the war’s end as God’s gracious provision.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Lai_....

[2] https://cherrieswriter.wordpress.com/....

REFERENCES

Faulkner, William. 2011. A Fable (Orig Pub 1955). New York: Vintage International.

Moore, L.E. 1943. Elementary Aviation. Boston: D.C. Heath and Company.

Thoreau, Henry David. 1965. Walden and Civil Disobedience. New York: Harper and Row Publishers (Harper Classic).

Martinez Family Ministry: OASIS Mission in Manassas Virginia

Today’s guest blog is by Julio Martinez. Pastor Martinez and his family were called as missionaries from Mexicali, Mexico to Manassas, Virginia, where they have established a mission church to local Hispanic people.

******

“The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me,

because the LORD has anointed me to bring good news to the poor;

he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives,

and the opening of the prison to those who are bound; to proclaim the year of the LORD’s favor,

and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn” (Isaiah 61:1-2 ESV)

Hispanic Community

The United States has experienced rapid growth of the Hispanic population over the past 20 years, growing from 9 million to 50 million according to the U.S. 2010 census. The population of the City of Manassas is around 40 thousand, of which 21.4 percent is Hispanic. Of the roughly 800 houses in the Georgetown South Community, more than 75 percent are Hispanic.

OASIS Outreach

For the last several months, we have prayerfully sought God’s leading into a mission outreach in the Manassas area. Our objective is personal evangelism with everyone that we meet, focusing in particular on the Spanish speaking population. We call our outreach OASIS, as it is such for the hungry, unemployed, poorly housed, but spiritually thirsty immigrants in the greater Manassas area. OASIS is an acronym which means:

Organization to

Assist the physical and spiritual needs of

Spanish speaking

Immigrants to ultimately find

Salvation in our Lord Jesus Christ.

Our Mission

We meet individuals and families through our food pantry deliveries and community center meetings. We now have weekly worship with more than 10 families in the Georgetown South Community Center. My wife, Ana, ministers to the women and our two 17 year-old daughters care for the children and are involved with food distribution, which now feeds 20 families each week. We invite individuals and churches to participate in our outreach efforts.

Our Mission Goals are to Win, Build, Serve and Send.

Win individuals to a personal faith in Jesus Christ, as the only Savior and Lord.

Build individuals in their faith through personal and group fellowship classes in preparation for baptism. This is done through weekly appointments, meetings, Bible study, and prayer.

Serve and Send—equip each to eventually share his/her personal testimony, the Gospel, along with food and clothing as needed, while helping others as they seek to meet in the Name of Christ.

Our Work in 2015

• We hold worship services every Thursday evening at Georgetown Community Service.

• We have established 3 small groups in Manassas to disciple members.

• During 2015, we distributed more than 600 food baskets.

• During Thanksgiving in 2015, we distributed 175 turkeys.

• During Christmas in 2015, we provided more than 100 dinners.

2016 Mission Goals

1. We must line up local evangelical church and individuals to support us with donations and gifts so we are freed up to minister.

2. We need to expand our food pantry distribution to assist more concerned evangelical churches to channel some of their charity help to immigrants through OASIS.

3. We plan to expand our Thursday night meetings at the Community Center from 10 to 20 families.

4. We plan to do a camp for 30 kids from Georgetown South in April at Arcelay’s Farm.

5. We plan to do baptisms in May.

6. We plan to use our format of teaching leadership skills and management to these immigrants as a means of outreach as well as assisting them to assume leadership in the Hispanic Community.

7. Expand OASIS Advisory Community to include more representation of interested evangelical churches of all denominations in the area, who share or desire a Spanish ministry outreach vision.

8. Eventually plant a Spanish church with 20-25 families to serve the unchurched Spanish diaspora in this area.

9. To set up a 501c (3) non-taxable charitable organization when we are given a legal “religious visa” or “green card”.

10. Since we are required to return to our point of entry into the U.S. every six months to renew our visa, we will need 4 airline tickets to San Diego by July 15, 2016 (About $1,500).

Advisory Committee

OASIS has an advisory committee consisting of representatives of these organizations:

New Life Church, Centreville, Virginia

Iglesia Shadai, Mexicali, Mexico

Grace Life Community Church, Bristow, Virginia

Members of the U.S. Army

Greenwich Presbyterian Church, Nokesville, Virginia

Our Testimony

After receiving Christ as our Savior and Lord, being baptized and joining Iglesia Shadai church in Mexicali, Mexico, we became involved in their evangelism ministry. Over the next 5 years, we were trained by Youth with a Mission organization for two years of Bible School (2002-2003) in Sinaloa, Mexico and then 3 years of evangelism, which included 16 months of practical mission vision and training. This training involved 6 months in Morocco, one month in Spain (2001), 1 month in Norway (2002), 2 months in Guatemala (2002), and 6 months in Ireland (2003). In Mexicali, we established a restaurant outreach for local evangelism through our church. I have a Business Administration degree from UABC (Universidad Autonoma de Beja California). My wife, Ana, also has a degree in Business Administration from UAN (Universidad Autonoma de Nayarit). With this educational background as well as our on-the-job experiences in business leadership management, we established out non-profit organization in Mexico called “Rescatando lo Valioso”, and we started a television program on Management and Leadership in Mexico for 9 months.

While in Mexicali, Baja in 2013 we met a visiting Christian Mexican businessman residing in Washington DC, who shared the desperate plight of 1 million immigrants in the DC metro area. As we prayed about this, we felt strongly called to meet this need. We have a great burden for those who don’t know our Savior and are lost. Realizing we have a gift for evangelism and have been given practical training as well as experience, we felt the Lord compelling us to go to these lost sheep in the Washington DC area. This commitment was to prove to be challenging, as it would involve resigning our financially secure and prosperous leadership position jobs within the American company, Valutech, where I was the production manager and Ana was the human resource manager at Mexican company SerCapital. We also turned over our two owned homes to local churches to provide shelters for immigrants evicted from the U.S. with no income to be able to return home. Our home church approved and commissioned us for this mission, but is unable to finance this outreach.

We arrived in Washington DC on April 3, 2014.

How to Help?

Consider supporting OASIS and the Martinez family: financial support, with ministry support, with prayer support, or just being in contact.

Financial support: The current need is for finances of roughly $52,000 annually or $4,345 monthly, to support the family.

Ministry support: We need support from local churches to expand our ministry with gifts of food, Bibles, Christian books, and so on.

Prayer support: We covet your prayers for our family, ministry, and the Hispanic community.

Listen to Radio Broadcast (Spanish)

Radio Vida VA 97.7 FM los martes a las 8:30 p.m. hasta 9:30 p.m. EST (toca)

(Radio Vida VA 97.7 FM Tuesdays from 8:30 p.m. until 9:30 p.m. EST (link))

Contact:

Julio and Ana Martinez

11100 Ravine Drive

Manassas, VA 20111

202-489-1990

MartinezPeraltaJulio@gmail.com

Thank you! Muchas Gracias!

31. Prayers of a Life in Tension by Stephen W. Hiemstra

Compassionate Father,

I give thanks for the walks that we have shared through summer days of my youth.

The forest trails that we journeyed together; the mountain peaks that you showed me;

the sandy beaches that went on and on.

You held my hand; you let me lead; you comforted me without asking.

I worried only about the getting too much sun or avoiding the rain or just how best to have fun—

Thank you. As the years went by you never left me. Thank you.

Teach me now how to take walks again in the autumn of my days.

To travel paths yet untraveled with young hands eager for the journey.

To offer peace and security and comfort and hospitality at odds with my nature but not with yours.

Be ever near through the power of your Holy Spirit and in Jesus’ name, Amen.

The Divine Gift of Sledding

For he will command his angels concerning you

to guard you in all your ways. (Ps 91:11)

The Divine Gift of Sledding

By Stephen W. Hiemstra

After living in the dormitory at Iowa University and taking all my meals in the cafeteria, when I was admitted to Cornell University I decided to live off campus. The idea of living off campus seemed to offer more freedom and would presumably allow me to live with great parsimony. With freedom and parsimony on my mind, during a visit to campus arranged by the department of agricultural economics in August 1976 I rented a basement in a large, cooperatively-organized house with 12 other students on Elmwood Avenue.

The basement was the largest room in the house and, because it was totally unfinished, I was able to rent it for $50 a month on the stipulation that I fix it up. Having worked as a carpenter’s helper and other construction jobs during the summers in college, fixing up a basement to make it look like an apartment was no problem. During the week before classes started, I hung a door on the basement, walled in the heating unit, and wired several electrical outlets. I furthermore converted a small workroom into a study and organized the abandoned furniture into separate living room and bedroom spaces. As living space, my basement apartment was plenty big, but the lighting was poor, the floor was crumbling concrete, and the basement would flood in a heavy rain making it an uninviting place to bring friends; ultimately, it was a depressing place to live.

My living arrangements contributed to my goal of studying economic development by permitting me to save money to travel in Puerto Rico for my thesis project, but living off campus also contributed to my social isolation leaving me more vulnerable to depression, a problem widespread at Cornell that fall. In the fall of 1976 Cornell had record numbers of suicides and student demonstrations on campus before Thanksgiving demanded the college be closed until something could be done about it. Half a dozen students and faculty members, who I heard of through the grapevine, had attempted or succeeded in killing themselves, including one of my housemates—a bright, young premed student—who overdosed herself and was committed to a psyche unit in Syracuse. I drove up to Syracuse to pay a visit, but our conversation turned out to be rather awkward because I had no idea of how to cope with suicide and I was unprepared to learn that she had begun an affair with one of her doctors there—a newlywed. Awkward . . . depressing . . . I so wanted to help.

My own depression started during Christmas break for the first time when I stayed on campus away from my family during the semester break, which was a big mistake. Adding to my sense of isolation from family, most campus activities were suspended during the break and most of my friends disappeared to visit family or, if they had the means, took skiing holidays.[1] So Christmas turned out to be not much of a holiday and I found myself alone, in a cold, dark place with no obvious means of really celebrating the holiday.

My escape at that point was to get up one morning, despondent, and just go for a drive. Thinking of a park on the other side of town, I drove down the hill to Ithaca following an unfamiliar road—Cayuga Street—through town. Down that road, in the middle of Ithaca was First Presbyterian Church.[2] Curious about the church, I parked my car and went in the rear door—I am not sure that I even knew that it was Sunday. On the other side of that door, I must have had the look of death on my face because the music director stopped what he was doing and ushered me into the sanctuary to sing in the choir. In the choir were local college students from Ithaca who were home for the holidays and who invited me to a sledding party that evening. After sledding that evening, I began attending First Presbyterian Church and, when I later became a member, the elders encouraged me to work with their high school kids, which I did for a season.

My discovery of First Presbyterian Church that Sunday morning was a divine intervention and it enabled me to cope with the depression so prevalent at that point in my life. Life took another curve in the following year as I learned that Cornell had admitted me to their doctoral program provisionally—students were expected to maintain an A average in their classes, which proved difficult for me because Cornell adhered to a traditional grading policy. The grade competition was fierce and collaboration among students was not actively encouraged, as was true at Iowa State, in part, because of the Wall Street influence on campus. Wall Street traders at at point still competed in an open-outcry market which meant that a trader either got the bid or not, as is the nature of competitive bidding.[3] This competition sunk in for me when one day I organized a study group only to find when we got together that I was the only one who prepared to discuss the homework; later, members of the study group went on to ace the exam while I did not.

While I felt isolated from my competitive American peers, I increasingly felt at home with Hispanic students and I traded a relatively private office for a desk in the “United Nations” room where I shared a room with a large number of foreign students who studied with a beloved professor, who happened to be blind. The United Nations room was okay with me because I envisioned a career with the World Bank traveling throughout Latin America to visit investment projects and attend meetings, like some of my Washington friends. My goal of working in Latin American development meant that I fit right into my new office where I met colleagues who invited me to play in soccer games and to take part in other activities. One colleague also later became a roommate in the basement for a couple months before he took a job in Mexico City with the InterAmerican Development Bank. Meanwhile, during my first year at Cornell I studied Spanish and at the end of the year Cornell sent me to Puerto Rico for a summer’s study at the Estación Agrícola de Rio Piedras.

[1] Skiing was always a possibility in Ithaca because upstate New York has terribly cold winters with a lot of snow—including lake affect snow virtually every day as the cold wind blows across Lake Cayuga and deposits snow on Cornell which sits on the top an overlooking mountain.

[2] http://www.FirstPresIthaca.org.

[3] At one point, my marketing class visited a grain trading firm in New York City hosted by a trader who sorted through his mail while he talked with us—he never made eye contact with us.

 

Koerner Explains DBT and Supporting Skills

Kelly Koerner. 2012. Doing Dialectical Behavior Therapy: A Practical Guide. New York: Guilford Press.

Review by Stephen W. Hiemstra

One of the most difficult cognitive disorders is borderline personality disorder (BPD), which is diagnosed by ticking off at least 5 out of list of highly 9 provocative behaviors.  Believed to be hopelessly unreachable, BPD patients were frequently shunned from treatment both because they routinely burn out their counselors and because insurance companies will not reimburse treatment, leaving families alone to deal with a highly dysfunctional and frequently abusive family member. The biblical picture of the BPD personality is Gomer, the wife of the Prophet Hosea, who is unfaithful, becomes a prostitute, and falls into slavery and who Hosea redeems from slavery much the same way as God redeems us from sin  (Hosea 1:2; 3:2).

Hope for beleaguered families has recently come in a new approach to therapy, known as dialectical behavior therapy (DBT), which starts by answering the perplexing question posed by BPD: how could such as cognitive dysfunction persist over time with highly intelligent people who ought to be learning from their mistakes, like everyone else? Kelly Koerner, in her book—Doing Dialectical Behavioral Therapy— cites  Marsha Linehan, who developed DBT (ix), in hypothesizing an answer to this question:

“…three biologically based characteristics contribute to an individual’s vulnerability. First people prone to emotion dysregulation react immediately and at low thresholds (high sensitivity). Second, they experience and express emotion intensely (high reactivity), and this high arousal dysregulates cognitive processes too. Third, they experience a long-lasting arousal (slow return to baseline).” (5).

In other words, BPD patients are very sensitive people whose learning process is effectively disabled by their hyper-sensitivity to criticism, sometimes arising from a history of child abuse or of pervasive invalidation (7). Because their sensitivity disables their ability to learn from their own mistakes, they repeat the behaviors that lead to those mistakes over and over again. These repeated mistakes disturb their family and friends, who respond with criticism of the patient which shames the patient even more than the mistake. Overwhelmed with negative feedback that the patient cannot process, the patient responds to the shame with avoidance behaviors (running away, using drugs, binging at the mall, jumping into bad relationships, staying up all night…) rather than correcting the underlying mistakes (11-12). The world of BPD is an unhappy world.

Koerner describes the purpose of her book as to: “show[s] why, when, and how to use the principles and strategies of dialectical behavior theory.” (xiii). DBT sets out to accomplish 5 functions:

“Enhance client capabilities…
Improve client motivation to change…
Ensure that new client capabilities generalize to the natural environment…
Enhance therapist capabilities and motivation to treat clients effectively…
Structure the environment in the ways essential to support client and therapist capabilities…” (18).

Koerner writes in 7 chapters, which are—

Tools for Tough Circumstances,
Navigating to a Case Formulation and Treatment Plan,
Change Strategies,
Validation Principles and Strategies,
Dialectical Stance and Strategies: Balancing Acceptance and Change,
Assess, Motivate, and Move: Getting the Most from Each Interaction, and
The Individual Therapist and the Consultation Team (xvii-xviii)

–and which are preceded by front matter (an author about section, note from the editor, foreword by Marsha Linehan, preface, and acknowledgments) and followed by a reference section and index.

A key concept driving DBT is the concept of pervasive invalidation, as Koerner writes:

“Bigger problems arise, however, when caregivers consistently and persistently fail to respond as need to primary emotion and its expression. Pervasive invalidation occurs when, more often than not, caregivers treat our valid primary responses as incorrect, inaccurate, inappropriate, pathological, or not to be taken seriously. Primary responses for soothing are regularly neglected or shamed; honest motives consistently doubted and misinterpreted.” (6)

The therapist practicing DBT works to observe instances of emotional dysregulation (see definition below) in the patient and works backwards from these incidents using behavioral chain analysis  (see definition below) to determine precipitating events and vulnerability factors (42). Once these events and vulnerabilities are identified, then the patient is taught the skills necessary to avoid triggering the emotional dysregulation. The kicker is that highly sensitive patients may exhibit emotional dysregulation multiple times in a single counseling session. Consequently, the therapist must have a refined intuition as to when the patient begins to shut down and intervene to “validate” (see definition below) them in working to accomplish the goals for the session.

Let’s dial back into this last string of statements to define a few terms.

Emotional Dysregulation. Koerner defines emotional dysregulation as:

“..the inability, despite one’s best efforts, to change or regulate emotional cues, experiences, actions, verbal responses, and/or nonverbal expression under normative conditions.” (4).

Where normally we might react to invalidating information by pausing to reflect, the patient here is firing up heated emotions (think door-slamming anger), even if no words are spoken, so that the therapy session cannot move to the next point until these emotions are dealt with.

Behavioral Chain Analysis. Koerner defines behavioral chain analysis as:

“…an in-depth analysis of events and contextual factors before and after an instance (or set of instances) of the targeted behavior. It is a way to identify the controlling variables for the behavior.” (42)

Typically, the therapist will stop the conversation, observe the patient’s behavior leaning towards emotional dysregulation, ask the patient if it is true, validate the patient, and then begin parsing back in the conversation to identify a triggering word or idea. Once a trigger is identified, the therapist engages the patient in a conversation about alternative responses to the trigger.

Validate. For BPD patients, change interventions require processing negative feedback appropriately and their sensitivity to such feedback makes it hard for them to hear, let alone respond to. Therefore, Koerner defines validation in these terms:

“With empathy, you accurately understand the world from the client’s perspective; with validation you also actively communicate that the client’s perspective makes sense…validation, in itself, can produce powerful change when it is active, disciplined, and precise. Used genuinely and with skill, it reduces physiological arousal that is a normal effect of invalidation and it can cue more adaptive emotions to fire.” (15).

Validation is more than “buttering the patient’s bread”, it communicates that the patient is truly understood, which may be the first time that they have experienced it and which helps enable the patient to trust the therapist.

Kelly Koerner is the director of the Evidence-Based Practice Institute, a clinical psychologist and DBT trainer. She has written a number of books. She received her doctorate from the University of Washington and studied under Marsha Linehan, who developed DBT.

Kelly Koerner’s Doing Dialectical Behavior Therapy is a fascinating book of obvious interest to counselors and other therapists working with difficult patients. I found her descriptions of the use of emotional wisdom in her case studies especially interesting, in part because they were both lengthy and detailed, as behavioral chain analysis requires.

 

The DSM –IV lists: 1. Feelings of abandonment, 2. Unstable relationships, 3. unstable self-image, 4. Impulsivity (in money management, sexual behavior, etc.), 5. Suicidal behavior, 6. instability of mood, 7. Feelings of emptiness, 8. Inappropriate levels of anger, and 9. Paranoid ideation (my abridgement).  Also see: (Kreger 2008 25).

BPD patients are about 2 percent of the general population but 12 percent of the male prison population and 28 percent of the female prison population. About 40 percent of the people using mental health services have BPD (Kreger 2008, 21).

Spouses of BPD patients are a high risk of suicide.

 See discussion: (Stanford 2008, 197-212).

[ Mental patients should not be confused with special needs individuals—mental patients often score very high on intelligence tests.

http://www.PracticeGround.org.

References

American Psychiatric Association (DSM-IV). 1994. Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of the Mental Disorders (fourth edition). Washington DC.

Kreger, Randi. 2008. The Essential Family Guide to Borderline Personality Disorder:  New Tools and Techniques to Stop Walking on Eggshells. Center City:  Hazelden.

Stanford, Matthew S. 2008. Grace for the Afflicted: A Clinical and Biblical Perspective on Mental Illness. Colorado Springs:  Paternoster.

30. Prayers of a Life in Tension by Stephen W. Hiemstra

Eternal God,

We praise you for the beauty of the earth, the freshness of the wind, the crispness of the sea, and the warmth of dry earth. You have created heaven and earth for your glory and our benefit. Thank you.

We confess that too often we say one thing and do another; save us from our own hypocrisy.

We confess that too often we have overlooked the needs of our neighbors and preached about their shortcomings; convert our hearts to your truth that we might display your grace.

We confess that too often we have acted too quickly out of prejudice and veiled your mercy; grant us gracious hearts and open minds.

We confess that too often we have focused on ourselves and sheltered ourselves from others; teach us hospitality.

We confess that too often we have resisted change out of stubbornness and neglected the needs of our own youth;  give us eyes that see and ears that listen.

We confess that too often we have judged too quickly and judge imprudently;  grant us the mind of Christ.

Forgive us our many sins;  guide us in making recompense; heal the wounds that separate us from one another and restore us to your kingdom. Through the power of your Holy Spirit and in Jesus’ previous name, Amen.

Navigators

Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their toil.

For if they fall, one will lift up his fellow. But woe to him who is alone

when he falls and has not another to lift him up! (Eccl 4:9-10)

Navigators

By Stephen W. Hiemstra

My first small group consisted of three people—Jon (my best friend), my pastor, and I—who met on Wednesday afternoons in my senior year in high school for pizza and soda to discuss the Book of Romans and Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s book—The Cost of Discipleship (1995). While I really specifically remember only Bonhoeffer’s comments on cheap grace—

Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, Communion without confession, absolution without personal confession. Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living, and incarnate (44-45).

—those discussions have grounded my faith and theology ever since.

Part of my grounding came by way of Jon, who went immediately into seminary after college and was ordained as a Lutheran pastor, and who shared his seminary texts with me and we discussed them together over a period of years. In seminary, for example, he was heavily influenced by Karl Barth and, at Jon’s prompting, I read some of Barth’s shorter works, such as Dogmatik im Grundriβ[1] in graduate school. Part of my grounding came more directly from my fascination with Bonhoeffer, which led my ordination committee years later (2010) to describe me both as neo-orthodox[2] and very theological.

Grounded or not, the backstory on our group was less encouraging—at the end of my junior year the church fired our youth director unexpectedly when the senior pastor retired. The assistant pastor attempted to fill the void created by her firing, but was not entertaining enough to keep the youth group together. The group collapsed until only Jon and I were left and, because the youth group was my primary social activity outside of school, I was deeply bitter about it. My bitterness continued for several years and, as a result, I did not attend church when I left home for college. At college, I cannot remember attending a single church event on or off campus at either Indiana University or the College of William and Mary.

My lack of church attendance posed no problem when I was away at school, but it was a source of friction when I returned home for holidays and summer vacation. Because my parents moved from Maryland to Virginia during my freshman year, the friction over church was compounded by a change in churches because the kids my age in Virginia were unfamiliar and hung out in high school clicks to which that I was not a part. Between the clicks and my own bitterness, I had no reason to attend church beyond the prompting of my parents. So Sunday morning we would fight, I would attend out of obligation, and not much came of it until I transferred to Iowa State.

At Iowa State University, I lived in Wilson Hall, which overlooked the dairy farm across the street, and shared a room with Dennis who introduced me to the Navigators,[3] a Christian group on campus and who took me to church on Sundays. The Navigators had picnics and other events around campus which I attended, just to get to know other students. Dennis’ church was nondenominational and I did not particularly like it, so I began attending Collegiate Presbyterian Church [4] and became a member, not knowing that my parents had attended this same church when my Dad was at Iowa State in the 1950s.

Reflecting on why I was returning to church, I realized that the bitterness that I felt when my home church fired our youth director was directed at the leadership of the church, not God. God’s presence was real to me even when I was not part of any church and, as a consequence, atheistic arguments never seemed real to me, even when I repeated them, because I knew God first hand and I knew that I had been blessed when I came to faith—Pascal’s Wager made perfect sense to me, even when I had turned my back on God.

An important atheistic argument starts with the observation that the existence of God can neither be logically proven or disproven, which is why some atheists prefer the term, agnostic, which in Greek means “not knowing” and suggests a logical draw or insufficient evidence to make a faith decision. Pascal used probability theory (hence the term, Pascal’s wager) to argue that the agnostic argument is logically false in that faith is a fair bet—if God exists and you believe, then you win heaven, but if God does not exist and you believe, then loose nothing. In other words, faith in God has a positive reward even if the probability of God existing cannot be established—just so long as the probability is a non-zero, positive number. Of course, if you know first hand that God exists, Pascal’s Wager is no bet at all!

Whether Pascal’s Wager seemed logical or not, I began attending church in my junior year at Iowa State both on campus and off. Unlike at Indiana University, Iowa State was close to my grandparents who frequently hosted me on weekends; they took me to Central Reformed Church in Oskaloosa, Iowa where I had been baptized and where I was always in the company of relatives and friends in Christ.

References

Barth, Karl. 1977. Dogmatik im Grundriβ (Orig pub 1947). Zürich: Theologischer Verlag.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer. 1995. The Cost of Discipleship (Orig Pub 1937). Translated by R. H. Fuller and Irmgard Booth. New York: Simon & Schuster.

[1] I read Dogmatik im Grundriβ during my year in Germany (1979).

[2] Barth, Bonhoeffer, and others started the neo-orthodox school of theological thought which was popular in the period from the 1940s to the 1960s, but since then has fallen out of fashion.

[3] http://www.Navigators.org.

[4] http://www.cpcames.org.

Kodak Prays for the Persecuted

Betsey Kodat. 2015. Arise, LORD! Scriptural Prayer for the Persecuted Church. Herndon, Virginia: CreateSpace.

Review by Stephen W. Hiemstra

The annual number of Christian martyrs in 2015 has been estimated to have been 90,000 people. This estimate is a decline from 377,000 in 1970s in the heyday of world communism, but it is still about three times the number (34,400) in 1900 (IBMR 2015, 29) and has probably increased since that estimate was made because of genocide reported in the ISIS conflict in the Middle East. Those directly affected by genocide and martyrdom thankfully remain a small portion of the Christians worldwide suffering persecution.

Betsey Kodat In her book, Arise LORD! Scriptural Prayer for the Persecuted Church, takes her title from Psalm 3—

O LORD, how many are my foes! Many are rising against me; many are saying of my soul, there is no salvation for him in God. But you, O LORD, are a shield about me, my glory, and the lifter of my head. I cried aloud to the LORD, and he answered me from his holy hill. I lay down and slept; I woke again, for the LORD sustained me. I will not be afraid of many thousands of people who have set themselves against me all around. Arise, O LORD! Save me, O my God! For you strike all my enemies on the cheek; you break the teeth of the wicked. Salvation belongs to the LORD; your blessing be on your people! (Ps 3:1-8 ESV)

—and focuses on intervening for those affected in prayer (3). Prayer is, of course, hard enough because in order to pray for the persecuted, one needs to admit to yourself that persecution exists and believe in your heart that God both truly exists and cares enough to intervene. Intervening in prayer also requires admitting our own impotence to stop persecution, often a hard step for gung-ho Americans, so by inviting us to pray for the persecuted God is also inviting us to set aside our pride and approach Him in humility. This need of humility is aptly captured in the cover graphic displaying the disciples in the storm on the Galilee (Matt 8:23-27) which symbolized persecution and early church fathers referred to as “the ship of Peter” (7).

In approaching prayer for the persecuted, Kodat recommends a 4-part movement in prayer:

Opening Prayer,
Strategic Prayer,
Specific Prayer, and
Closing Prayer (7).

The basic prayer in 4-movements structures the core chapters in her book and the group prayer template, which functions as the book’s concluding chapter (166-168). Kodak expands these 4-movements into 6 steps in application, allowing for preliminary research and a period of spontaneous prayer just before the closing (15).   Let me turn briefly to each of these 6 steps.

Step 1: Preliminary Research. Kodat admonishes us to: “Research target needs before you pray, using reputable resources, then select prayers that meet these needs” (16) She then offers a list of websites that can be used to undertake this research. Research for prayer might seem like overkill, but in prayer we are asking God to channel His power to specific ends. By engaging both our hearts and our minds, taking time to be specific demonstrates to us and to God that we are serious about prayer.

Step 2: Opening Prayer. Kodat recommends that we open prayer employing 6 specific topics: placing ourselves in God’s hands, praising God, binding Satan, confession, thanking God, and song (17). These instructions remind me of the “harp and bowl” prayers of the saints (Rev 5:8) where music and petitions are mixed together in continuous prayer.

Step 3: Scripture-based Strategic Prayer. Kodat offers a list of 7 topics for strategic prayer to select among for particular occasions. This list includes—general needs, strength, leaders, supporting churches, nations, national leaders, and persecutors—and it targets topics that may prevent or correct the problem of persecution (18).

Step 4: Scripture-based Specific Prayer. Kodat offers a fairly short list of 4 specific prayers (19)—for crises, recovery from crises, ongoing oppression, and a 4-page list of specific items mentioned throughout the book (170-173). Being specific in prayer has commonly been promoted as a way to channel God’s power, but channeling is unnecessary for an all-powerful God; a better explanation for channeling is so that God’s concern for us would be more obvious (John 9:3).

Step 5: Spontaneous Prayer. Kodat advises us to “pray with Holy Spirit insight as your heart leads.” (20) This advice might seem out of place because for most people this is the only way that they normally pray, but something more interesting is at work. If we become too formal in our prayers and neglect to engage our hearts, then we pray for reasons other than love—remember the Apostle Paul’s admonition:

“If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.” (1 Cor 13:1-3)

Nothing is gained by praying without love, in part, because our love marks us as disciples of Christ worthy of God’s attention to our prayer (1 John 4:21).

Step 6: Closing Prayer. Kodat’s guidance on closing prayer is brief:

“Choose a blessing, and pray it in unison along with ‘leaving our concerns with God’ and the Lord’s Prayer” (20).

In particular, Kodat advises us to pray corporately to intensify the power of prayer (21).

Betsey Kodat’s Arise, LORD! Scriptural Prayer for the Persecuted Church is a readable and thoughtful devotional focused on interceding for the persecuted church. Each devotional includes an introduction to the topic, suggested resources, a list of suggested prayers, and scriptural resources. In addition to being a prayer warrior, Kodak writes, teaches, and is a dedicated mom, but I know her best for her tireless work for the Capital Christian Writers’ club.

Communism is an atheist philosophy and remains widely influential in secular circles even today. Over time, communist nations have been fairly open in their persecution of Christians who are often accused of representing a foreign influence. This idea of foreign influence is also an excuse used in the case of Middle Eastern persecution of Christian minorities (Iwanicki and Bailey 2012).

“A Psalm of David, when he fled from Absalom his son…” (Ps 3:1).

International House of Prayer (http://www.ihopkc.org).

This rather-unusual idea of praying for the persecutors comes directly from Christ—“You have heard that it was said, You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.  But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.” (Matt 5:43-45)—who essentially advised us to persecution as a ministry opportunity.

http://www.BetseyKodat.com.

http://www.CapitalChristianWriters.org.

REFERENCES

 International Bulletin of Missionary Research (IBMR). 2015. Christianity 2015: Religious Diversity and Personal Contact. Cited: 28 December 2015. Online: (http://www.gordonconwell.edu/ockenga/research/documents/1IBMR2015.pdf).

Iwanicki, Hugh and Dave Bailey. 2012. Shock and Alarm: What It Was Really Like at the U.S. Embassy in Iraq. North Charleston: CreateSpace. (Review: http://wp.me/p3Xeut-1pl).