We know from the ACE (Adverse Childhood Experience) Study of 1995-1997 proved the link between extreme childhood stress and adult health/disease and early death. But what about the effects of adverse childhood experience on spirituality?

In my book Journey into Love, I shared my own experience of how my upbringing created an environment of fear and how that influenced my first image of God.  Here is a short excerpt:

The two main sources of this fear were family and religion. Both were, in my case, dysfunctional “realities”. Both were dominating, authoritarian and abusive. Both fostered a deadly, destructive dark view of God. The first thought-seed (of fear) that was inserted into the programming of my mind was a persistent emotive belief that God was an old man sitting on a throne in heaven, constantly watching me, waiting to hurl down lightning bolts on me when I did something wrong. My first image of God was that of a condemning God. Dr. Scott Peck in his book, The Road Less Traveled, calls it the “monster God.”  The primary source of this image was my father.  Where else do children acquire their initial insight into the mystery of God?  Fathers have a tremendous influence on their children… My father was a raging alcoholic and that is not meant as a blaming accusation but a descriptive term of my father’s abusive behavior. I cannot remember him without a bottle in his hand. I cannot remember not being yelled at or threatened by him. I have forgiven my father but in reality, he was physically and verbally abusive and the abuse did influence the box. The abuse saturated my box- my programming with not only fear but a perfectionistic mindset that no matter what I did, it wasn’t enough. I was always questioning whether what I was doing it was good enough. Actually, I was thinking that “I was never good enough… The second source of fear dealing with my perception of God was that of religion. The religion of my youth, which should have comforted and protected me…meaning it should have been a source of hope, a source of deliverance from an abusive dysfunctional family; instead my religion fostered and nurtured the abuse with its doctrines and rituals…My religion fertilized the fear programming. I now pictured God as an all-present fire breathing spirit dragon that was willing and able to breathe fire and brimstone down upon me. This is the image of God, the illusion that dominated and terrified my life for the first 45 years of my life..

Now in my book I did not discuss the scientific evidence of the link between abuse and spiritual malformation. I will address here in this article.

From my readings, it is clear that therapists and researchers have neglected this aspect of spirituality. Volumes have been written on the psychological effects of abuse but there have been only a few studies on abuse and spirituality. But the studies that have been done are showing a clear link that survivor’s perception of God are formed by their trauma.

Manlowe’s 1995 study (“Seduced by Faith”) of women who were sexually abused as children revealed their varied responses to God:

• Anger at God
• Absence of God or abandonment by God
• Guilt over being a part of a “sinful” act
• And the overwhelming sense that God’s nature was the same as the women’s abusive parent’s nature.

Imber and Jonker Netherland 1992 study found similar feelings toward God from suvivors of incest:

• Confusion
• Anger
• Despair, doubt, guilt
• Fear
• Disappointment and loneliness

 

Ducharme 1988 found that incest victims tended to see God more punitively.

Kane, Cheston and Greer 1993 also found survivors indicated more anger at God and a perception of God’s distance from them. This idea that God is “way out there” is a common experience of survivors. In my own life, even as a Protestant Fundamentalist minister at age 40, I still had the idea that God was way out there waiting to punish me. Kane also observed that survivors feel both ashamed of themselves and believe that God is ashamed of them which is a very damaging internalization of their victimization.

Beth Crisp in her 2007 study Spirituality and Sexual Abuse explains that when individuals are abused by clergy and especially when God is portrayed in images associated with clergy, the survivors unconsciously associate the two in their minds and merge the image of God with their experience of the abusive authority.

In my next article I will pick up here and discuss this issue further and discuss some possible interventions.

 

I have been using the Relaxation Response in my life as a stress reduction technique for about three years. But recently I started using it multiple times a day when I discovered some added health benefits. For those who do not know what the relaxation response is, here is a short primer.

It is based on our understanding of the fight-flight mechanism or the stress response. The fight-flight mechanism is a set of involuntary physiological changes that occur whenever we face a stressful situation. It was quite necessary in the face of danger or a threat to prepare the body for a physical response- to fight or flee. The problem is the body cannot distinguish between a serious threat and the everyday stresses. Matter of fact, simply recalling a threatening or stressful situation- worrying can trigger the flight-fight response.

So what happens in a stressful situation, let’s say a stressful meeting at work or a threat real or imagined? Well, the brain signals the sympathetic nervous system to release adrenaline and other related hormones propelling the body into a state of arousal. So you get this:

• Increased heart rate
• Increased blood pressure
• Increased muscle tension
• Increased metabolism

Studies have shown that there are long term effects of the constant setting off of this mechanism- it leads to permanent harmful physiological changes.

Dr Herbert Benson discovered that there is a counterbalancing mechanism to the flight-fight response. The Relaxation response stimulates the parasympathetic nervous system which turns off the flight fight response resulting in:

• Decreased heart rate
• Decreased blood pressure
• Decreased muscle tension
• Decreased metabolism..

How to elicit the Relaxation response? It requires no books to buy, no equipment to obtain. Here are the steps:

1. Sit in a comfortable chair with feet on the floor/
2. Close your eyes.
3. Begin by breathing in from the stomach—called diaphragmatic breathing or yoga breaths. A deep breath causing the stomach to rise and the chest cavity to expand…(Count to yourself 1, 2, 3, 4 as you breath in)
4. Then breathe out- a long breathing out…counting to yourself..1, 2, 3, 4, 5 as you breathe out.
5. Take your time- I have also been using a mental word OCEAN : as I breath in I say to myself “O” and as I breath out- I use the word “CEAN”
6. Do this for 5 minutes.

I am now up to 15 minutes and I usually do it twice a day especially after a stressful moment or situation.

Recently, I took my blood pressure after a rather stressful meeting. (I am diagnosed with Essential Hypertension and I am on Norvasc) My blood pressure was 138/78. I then did the relaxation response for 15 minutes. I took my blood pressure again and to my surprise- it was 101/58. The follow day I tried it again and the same thing occurred.

Research from the Benson Institute at the Massachusetts General Hosp has concluded that this Relaxation Response can:

1. Decrease stress related physical changes
2. Decrease anxiety
3. Freedom from compulsive worrying, self-criticism and negative thoughts
4. Increase in concentration and awareness
5. Improved sleep
6. Enhanced performance and efficiency.

May I suggest you give it a try. It takes much practice because many people have difficulty relaxing their bodies. But it works.

Suggested Reading: The Wellness Book by Herbert Benson and Eileen Stuart

As I was pondering this morning about Lent and the theme of some of my past Lenten practices, “giving up things for that 40 day season;” the thought came to my mind to write about my recent discovery of the salt dilemma. Six months ago, I discovered that I had developed Essential Hypertension. I went on medication and a low sodium diet. I made a conscious decision to limit sodium. I made a conscious decision to follow the exercise and diet recommended for treatment for hypertension. This was not a Lenten practice, not just for 40 days. It was a life changing decision.

What I did not know was how difficult it would be to limit sodium. First allow me to tell you how much salt a body needs per day to survive. The bare minimum is 500mg a day. And it is recommended that a person who does not have hypertension consume no more than 2400mg a day. Did you know that a teaspoon of salt has 2300mg of sodium. So the first thing I did was remove the salt shaker from the table.

So how much salt am I allowed since I have hypertension? 1500 mg a day.

The problem is- most of the processed food I enjoy are high in sodium. Things that I took for granted- thinking they were healthy. I love pancakes but once I started looking at the labels (Thank God for labels!) I cut my pancakes from the normal three to one. Yes, these are the Sam’s Daily Chef Pancake Mix….that my wife mixes up and makes at home. (Check out the label- 640mg of sodium in 1/3 cup – (my wife uses 1/2 cup to make about two pancakes) So with one pancake- I guess I am getting around 320 mg of sodium. But don’t forget the pancake syrup- yes it has sodium….

Ketchup has sodium…mustard has sodium. Things I had to cut down on.

But what surprised me was my favorite restaurants…Panera Bread, Applebees, Red Lobster and Cracker Barrel. This came to my attention when I recently ate at Red Lobster and had their Potatoe Bacon soup…oh my about half way through the bowl, I just could not eat it anymore- the salt taste was overwhelmingly sickening. Yes, after you have started cutting out sodium- you are sensitive to the salt taste…I can tell when something is too salty. I could not do that before.

I started checking the nutritional values of restaurant meals and that is when I discovered that I could no longer eat at any of these restaurants! Most of the sodium contents were completely out of the ball park. (2100-3500mg of sodium).

It has become a learning experience. I am learning …that to live a healthy life requires self education and self discipline.

 

 

 

 

I just notice this morning a tweet by Pope Francis. Yes, the Pope tweets. May I suggest his tweets are far better in spiritual content and truth than President Trump’s tweets. Pope Francis tweet: Mar 11, 2017

The road from love to hate is easy. The one from hate to love is more difficult, but brings peace.

I have never been fond of Lent. I was born and raised a Pre-Vatican II Catholic and Lent was a horrible season for me. It was 40-45 days of sacrifices. First, as a child of 7 or 8, my mother made me give up candy. Then there was a season of giving up TV- which for a Star Trek fan (the original TV series), was pure hell, worse than giving up candy.

Later, as a Protestant Fundamentalist Pastor, I used the season to drum into my congregation the idea that Lent was a season to prepare for the Second Coming of Jesus- the need to make sure we were ready- saved…it was a fear tactic.

Now, to be honest- I do not know what to do with Lent.

But Pope Francis has sparked a thought of using Lent as a journey into love.

The problem with Lent- is it has us focus on 45 days of the year to self sacrifice and give to others.  May I suggest that we could use Lent as a springboard for the rest of the year. This is the season to start a new practice and continue it year round. A practice where we look to the needs of others and fill that need.

Surely, Jesus’s command to love one another is not just for 45 days of the year.

I will end this devotion with a thought from Hans Kung, a dissident Catholic theologian:

In the Last resort, a love of God without love of humanity is not love at all.

Do you find yourself so busy…so consumed with the desire to complete a project or a work…that you pushed aside a spiritual practice that you once found beneficial to your life? I am speaking of meditation or another word that I use to describe my ritual of spiritual relaxation- silence. I am not going to talk about the health benefits to meditation for we have known since 1936, the destructive powers of stress and how stress management skills can decrease medical costs. I will save that for another article.

Thich Nhat Hanh : “Meditation is stopping, calming and looking deeply.”

Matthew Fox: “Meditation is another word for that vacationing time, time-off for the soul”

I like that definition- meditation is time-off for the soul. In the Hebrew scriptures there is this poetic description that one of the prophet’s uses. It has a message that resonates in all religions.

Be still and know that I am God.

That is the power of that time-off for the soul for in that moment of mindful silence, one discovers the ultimate reality.

Silence is not to be feared…The Tao has this to say:

Ordinary men hate solitude

But the Master makes use of it

Embracing his aloneness, realizing

he is one with the whole universe.

I recently came across the writings of Felix Adler (1900) who wrote the Essentials of Spirituality- in it he advocated a practice of daily time for self-recollection- a half hour or an hour- to seeing one’s life in all its relations. He encouraged this practice “on the ground of mental sanity” and the “ground of spirituality”.  He stated that “this practice was no moral luxury…no airy bauble of fancy…but integral to living an ethical life…”

But it was this statement that caught my attention:

DOING JUSTICE TO THE INNER SELF WAS CRITICAL FOR DOING JUSTICE TO OTHERS

That is an important reason to meditate- often in serving others -getting caught up in the care giving environment that often lead to self trauma- we lose self.

Lent- a time to renew the practice of meditative silence- to give time-off for the soul.

 

You have made humans a little less than God

You have crowned them with Glory and Honor

You have given them dominion over the works of your hands

Putting all things under their feet.

Psalms 8

The title must have caught your attention. The Hebrew Bible reveals that you and I have a divine origin.The Hebrew song writer wrote as only poetry can reveal…

WE WERE MADE A LITTLE LESS THAN GOD.

That is quite a statement. It reveals the glory and honor that is given to us.

Here is another poem that reveals this divine origin:

Royal dignity was yours from the day you were born, on the holy mountains,

Royal from the womb, from the dawn of your earliest days.

Psalm 110

It is interesting to note that Jesus preached his message especially to the poor and the downtrodden. His message was was of liberty to the captives…blessings to the poor.

Albert Nolan wrote: “Jesus announces to the poor, the full recognition of their dignity as human beings…He gave them a sense of dignity and released them from their captivity.”

Matthew Fox writes:  ” All of Jesus’ teaching on the kingdom represents a crescendo in the Jewish teaching of royal personhood.  This teaching included the assurance that Yahweh would make the anawim a royal people.”

But with the high calling of being a royal person comes the responsibility of creating the kingdom of love and peace on earth. We see this in the first quote from Psalms 8…after the song writes says that we are made a little less than God, we are also told we are given dominion. We have the responsibility for preserving the creation and for working for justice. 

Jesus explained it this way….“Ye are the salt….Ye are the light.”

It means we are to work to do justice…or as Martin Luther King Jr so aptly put it…

Justice is love correcting that which revolts against love!

I close this Lenten devotion from one of the Jewish prophets of old- Micah:

oh man, what does God require of you?

ONLY TO DO JUSTICE, AND TO LOVE GOODNESS

AND TO WALK MODESTLY WITH YOUR GOD.

THEN WILL YOUR NAME ACHIEVE WISDOM.

“God is good and all things which proceed from him are good”

Hildegard of Bingen

The writings found in many sacred texts from every faith speak to the truth that humanity is essentially and innately good. The Hebrew writings found in what is called Genesis (the book of generations or origins), an anthology of cosmogonic myths share the common story that “God created humanity in his image…”and after creating humanity God “declared it good.” (1:27,31)

Actually the text is “God found it very good.”

            May I suggest that it is time for us to reflect on that sacred truth.

Humanity is a divine creation and created to be very good.

 Let’s personalize that.

“I am a divine creation and I am very good.”

Interesting to note that the Hebrew song book, a collection of poems and songs used in the Temple of Solomon we find this interesting affirmation.

“I am awesomely, wondrously created,

God’s work is wonderful!” (Psalms 139:14

 It is more than just building up self-esteem. It is agreeing with God. It is coming into alignment with the cosmic mind.

Meister Eckhart, a 13^th century German Mystic- in opposition to the Medieval oppressive self-images that had been handed down through Church Traditions- that man is desperately evil; spoke about this higher cosmic truth:

“Every human person is an aristocrat.

Every human person is noble and of royal blood,

Born from the ultimate depths of the divine nature and the divine wilderness”

This was dangerous thinking at that time considering the injustices of the feudal system and the authoritarian nature of the Church. Meister Eckhart was brought up on charges of heresy for his teachings. Whenever you “buck” the system, sparks fly.

The point is humanity – you and I…whatever sex or sexual orientation, whatever race….         We all have divine dignity. We all are divine images.

That is what we should be reflecting on this season of Lent. The inherent worth and dignity of every person.

We believe in the worth and dignity of each human person. All people on earth have an equal claim to life, liberty and justice; no idea, ideal or philosophy is superior to a single human life. Unitarian Universalist Principle

On Sunday, I will draw your attention to what responsibilities are reflected in this cosmic truth.

I hope the title caught your attention. I grew up in a strict Pre-Vatican II Catholic family. Lent was the season of repentance and sacrifice. I remember having to give up candy or movies for the 40 days. It was not a joyful season. Later in my life as a Fundamentalist Protestant Pastor, I used Lent as a season to call my congregation to reflect on their innate  sinfulness and call on Jesus to save them.

May I suggest that Lent would be a great time to reflect on the essential goodness of one of God’s important creations- humanity. This season of Lent, I will be writing a devotion on every Friday, Sunday and Tuesday. That is three times a week, I will write a short devotion-reflecting on the goodness of man from all the major religions and from many forms of spiritual writings.

I hope you will follow the devotions and comment.