{"id":21558,"date":"2019-02-15T15:59:45","date_gmt":"2019-02-15T23:59:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dminlgp\/?p=21558"},"modified":"2019-02-15T16:04:02","modified_gmt":"2019-02-16T00:04:02","slug":"21558-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/21558-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Stay in your lane…"},"content":{"rendered":"

I\u2019m not sure how I feel about Luhrmann\u2019s text, When God Talks Back<\/em>.\u00a0 Luhrmann sets out to understand the American evangelical experience through personally assimilating herself into a church system. \u201cTanya began researching the American evangelical experience by attending weekly services at the Vineyard Christian Fellowship Church in Chicago. This church, the\u00a0Vineyard, is one of 600 congregations across America, and there are an additional 900 worldwide. Together, that makes a total of 1,500 congregations. Now, that’s really significant.\u201d[1]<\/a> All of Luhrmann\u2019s evangelical research (observation\/experience\/interviewing) is done within a specific, narrow context of Vineyard Church.\u00a0 While I believe her research is interesting, I question its validity in analyzing only one evangelical sect. What isn\u2019t guaranteed is that her outcomes will translate across all denominational experiences.\u00a0 Apparently I\u2019m not the only reviewer critical of Luhrmann\u2019s research methods. Barton Swaim of the Wall Street Journal also questions Luhrmann\u2019s validity in her sampling of just Vineyard Church attendees (among other research issues he raises but I did not highlight them here)\u2026 \u201cBut writing a book about American evangelicals and interviewing only Vineyardites is a bit like writing a travel book about the British Isles without leaving Inverness. However one defines the term “evangelical”\u2014and it should include Reformed Presbyterians, Missouri Synod Lutherans, traditionalist Methodists and the majority of Baptists\u2014a great many evangelical denominations and dispositions stand deliberately opposed to the kind of theological subjectivism, neo-Medieval spiritualism and pious self-absorption that Ms. Luhrmann finds at the Vineyard.\u201d[2]<\/a><\/p>\n

As an Anthropologist and Psychologist by education, Luhrmann referenced \u201ctherapy\u201d multiple times in her writing.\u00a0 The statements made me wonder, outside of her education, if she had any experience in the field. \u00a0According to Wikipedia (I\u2019m aware this isn\u2019t the most valid source \u2013 speaking of questioning validity) Tanya Luhrmann progressed through her education rapidly \u2013 straight from her bachelor\u2019s degree directly into graduate school culminating in her PhD in 1986 in Social Anthropology.\u00a0 In just three years she entered higher education as faculty.\u00a0 It\u2019s a bit disturbing that her references to therapy infer she\u2019s an expert in the field. \u00a0I have to admit – several references of the God relationship being similar to therapy or the \u201cevangelical experience\u201d being similar to therapy \u2013 made me cringe.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor example, people learn to treat God as a therapist. People take to God the kinds of concerns that many New Yorkers will take to a therapist\u2014talk about the ways that you feel uncomfortable at work, talk about the ways that you felt you let somebody down, talk about the ways that your relationship isn’t going so well. In this daydream-like interaction with God that people call prayer, people learn to hear from God advice a therapist would give them.\u201d[3]<\/strong><\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

This kind of God is unique to each person, because it’s your mess of memories of being loved. It is a person among people. I came to believe that God worked psychologically for people the way that your own memories of parents work for you psychologically. You kind of carry them around in what a therapist might call an inner object or a self-object, available for you when you’re anxious, frightened, morose. If you have a robust internal object, that will buffer you against those difficult times.<\/em><\/p>\n

Why do I cringe when I read these therapy references? \u00a0Because the training and ethics of social work practice do not ascribe to Luhrmann\u2019s suggested therapy behaviors. \u00a0In full disclosure, psychology education is different than social work education, however techniques and interventions in the therapy process should be similar.\u00a0 The core values of social work include service, social justice, dignity and worth of the individual, importance of human relationships, integrity, and competence.\u00a0 Our paradigm of client assessment focuses on the Person in Environment (PIE) theory \u2013 which is the importance of understanding an individual and individual behavior in light of the environmental contexts in which that person lives and acts.\u00a0 Social Workers also believe that clients ultimately possess the solutions to their problems \u2013 the social worker serves as the guide to help the client discover, reconcile, and implement this solution.\u00a0 Clinical social workers practice a type of mental health therapy that is strength based, working with the client to identify natural skills and abilities they possess that can be used as a launching point to tackle issues causing challenges in the individual\u2019s life. The social work framework for mental health therapy is holistic \u2013 emotional, spiritual, physical, social, and psychological.\u00a0 It also takes into account the societal and environmental factors that can impact the well-being of the client.[4]<\/a>\u00a0 I share such detail to reiterate Luhrmann\u2019s references to therapy are not accurate \u2013 therapists do not give \u201cadvice\u201d; therapists are not just someone to \u201cunload on\u201d nor are they in any way similar to a relationship with a higher power (although therapists are trained to help a client connect to their higher power).\u00a0 Rather, the social work therapy process is an evidenced based system of engagement, assessment, planning\/goal setting, intervention, evaluation, and termination.<\/p>\n

So, Ms. Luhrmann, as interesting as your research could be if done with a more valid sampling of evangelical Christians, please stay in your lane of training \u2013 psychology and anthropology.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

[1]<\/a> https:\/\/www.carnegiecouncil.org\/studio\/multimedia\/20130516-when-god-talks-back-understanding-the-american-evangelical-relationship-with-god<\/p>\n

[2]<\/a> https:\/\/www.wsj.com\/articles\/SB10001424052702303816504577314063168857308<\/p>\n

[3]<\/a> https:\/\/www.carnegiecouncil.org\/studio\/multimedia\/20130516-when-god-talks-back-understanding-the-american-evangelical-relationship-with-god<\/p>\n

[4]<\/a> https:\/\/www.humanservicesedu.org\/lcswvspsychologist.html#context\/api\/listings\/prefilter<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I\u2019m not sure how I feel about Luhrmann\u2019s text, When God Talks Back.\u00a0 Luhrmann sets out to understand the American evangelical experience through personally assimilating herself into a church system. \u201cTanya began researching the American evangelical experience by attending weekly services at the Vineyard Christian Fellowship Church in Chicago. This church, the\u00a0Vineyard, is one of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":99,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[628],"class_list":["post-21558","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-luhrmann","cohort-lgp8"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21558","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/99"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21558"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21558\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21561,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21558\/revisions\/21561"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21558"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21558"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21558"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}