Fearfully and Wonderfully Made, Woefully and Tragically Fallen
TGC Blog | May 28, 2012
With this longstanding view of human responsibility, it should not be too surprising that evangelicals---particularly in the fields of counseling---have been reticent to accept the relatively recent findings of medical research that attribute moods and behaviors to neuro-physiological conditions. As neuro-chemical deficiencies became an established social narrative for explaining a host of personal problems ranging from depression and anxiety to learning deficiencies, suspicion of these findings has grown. Some evangelical leaders worry that the findings of neuroscience assault biblically based theological conclusions about humanity, sin, and even salvation.
But counselors should acknowledge that sometimes life is not easily reduced to choosing. If we treat people only as volitional beings, we fail to relate to them based on the full theological narrative of the imago Dei and the fall from grace. We must consider matters related to nurture and nature when addressing complex issues of life in this world.
Sociology: the Context of Nurture
I think about these factors often when I read our local newspaper. Almost daily I learn about what seems like an endless stream of young people convicted and sentenced for crimes. In many cases, I sense there are important stories behind their stories that never reach the paper. Long before these young people landed in the legal system, irresponsible adults carved a path the path that helped lead them toward a life of crime. I don't say this to excuse them from taking responsibility for their actions, but to recognize a reality that caring people cannot ignore.
I realize that we must take responsibility for our lives and that playing the victim (even when there is truth to the claim) only binds us to destructive patterns of life. Yet when counseling others, it would be naively simplistic to overlook or to minimize the effects of a troubled upbringing. There is guilt to be shared when those intended (by God's plan) to be lovingly nurtured and brought to maturity under the responsible oversight of committed parents are instead abused and neglected. How do we talk about the outcomes in the lives of such children? How do we teach them to process the culpability of negligent parents? Does the behavior from children who come from such neglect and abuse always warrant the label of sin?
The intended design for individuals in community was clearly stated when God said that it was not good for the first man to be alone. Our story is not meant to be one formed, for better for for worse, in isolation but in a social context. Those who refuse to acknowledge how one's sociology (relationships and life circumstances) plays a major role in shaping one's life disrespect the Creator's design. Compassionate counselors must consider the whole person holistically when guiding people into truth.
Physiology: the Context of Nature
Similar consideration must be given to the effects of physiology. Just as we are social beings formed in community, we are also physical beings with bodily needs. We are complex, and our fall from God's will only complicated our existence with brokenness on every level of life. Our original fall from God's will corrupted both our social and physical existence in powerful and painful ways. This is where spiritual considerations must enter the picture for those who counsel the whole person based on truth. We are equally spiritual beings with a God-directed need for living in and under the will of our Creator.
Part of human complexity involves the brokenness of our bodies and minds. The brain is the most complicated organ in the body, and it is marred with dysfunctions to varying degrees in the same way as other human organs. Medicines that treat neurological conditions should be understood along similar lines as medicinal aids for dysfunctions of hearts, lungs, and other bodily organs. Consequently, those who benefit from depression medications should never be made to feel embarrassed about their need. Our bodies are fearfully and wonderfully made but woefully and tragically fallen.
Yet we need to exercise special caution in assigning moods and behaviors to neurologically based deficiencies. When counseling the whole person holistically, we should not allow counselees or patients to reduce their problems to medically based solutions. Perhaps the medicines are essential to their health, but other considerations are just as important. People must look at their social context and their spiritual needs along with bodily deficiencies. I've worked with counselees who have benefited from depression or anxiety medication while working through circumstances and relationships to bring more stability to their lives. Once their lives reached greater levels of health and stability, they were able to progressively move away from the medicinal supports.
We must understand that our brains can become physically altered by our circumstances. These changes are typically chemical in nature. This should not be too surprising, as the same truth applies to other organs of the human body. Stress, for example, is proven to be bad for the heart.
But this is not to say that everyone can expect physical changes with changes in their circumstances. Some people must accept medicinal aids as a permanent part of their lives. But even in more severe cases, we must guard against simplistic reductions of persons to a single dimension of personhood.
Avoiding Reductionism
It is naive and potentially harmful to those seeking help to treat them one-dimensionally. It also disrespects the way God made humans and the pervasive effects of our fallen condition. Along similar lines, the need for medicinal aids for behavior or moods should not preclude responsibility and accountability. It should temper our approach with compassion and mercy, but only in a context that preserves the dignity of exercising as much responsibility as possible.
In summary, counselors and doctors should never think one-dimensionally concerning medicinal aids for neurologically based needs. We are more than bodies with physical needs. Other dimensions of our being (spiritual, emotional, social) must receive equal consideration in the battle for health. A biblically based holistic approach to counseling respects all dimensions of personhood created by God in the full context of creation, fall, redemption, and final restoration.
Comments:
May 30, 2012 at 12:25 PM
I full agree with pastor Steve and Josh. And in this context, I suggest that Christian psychologists be involved in the preparation of, like as called, a ¨Biblical Psychology Dictionary¨ to neutralize the wrong effects of the secular psychology (Certainly, many Christians are very confident on theirs view points). We don´t forget that psychology is a atheist reaction from Freud and theirs followers.
May 30, 2012 at 05:15 AM
This is a pickle, isn't it? How do you tell exactly when a person is responsible for their behavior, if they get whacked on the head or worse? I would be tempted to gloat about the impossible task a theist has, to tell where sin stops and sickness starts, except that us secular folk face exactly the same problem: it doesn't matter whether you call it sin or responsibility, there's a continuum between having it and not having it, and there's no logical place to draw a distinction.
We need the concept of responsibility, or sin, in order to make working societies- thus, as a practical matter, we need to draw lines. But we should keep in mind that all such lines are arbitrary to some extent- that is, they do not carve Nature at the joints.
cheers from sunny Vienna, zilch
May 30, 2012 at 01:38 PM
@ Josh
"so unless you have medications that can control thoughts (which I hope you would not consider giving/taking) it sounds to me like medication isn’t the answer."
Medication can't control your thoughts, but some medications can, for example, provide the chemicals that may be absent in the brain in order to assist one in thinking rationally.
My son is ADHD. While he was growing up my wife and I always joked that "we should all live in Timmy's world." We have always taught him that he will always be held accountable for his actions. That he cannot use his condition as an excuse for bad behavior or doing wrong. But medication balances his brain chemistry in a way necessary for a clearer thinking process that in turn allows him to make better decisions. I can imagine that there are people whose conditions are much more serious and severe than our sons, who without medication are practically on the border of pathological.
Again, no one is saying that a terrible upbringing is an excuse for anything. Many people have terrible upbringings and manage to rise above it. But just knee-jerk labeling every aberrant behavior willful sin is to not take the totality of the effect of the fall seriously.
May 29, 2012 at 12:02 PM
@ Josh
Yes sin is always sin, but we do want to make sure that what we call sin is actually something that was within an individuals control. If a lung, heart, kidney, or other organ can fail and require medicine, then why can't the brain, which is also an organ, also be impaired to one degree or another and necessitate the assistance of medication to help control actions which otherwise may be beyond the control of an individual?
As I read Steve's premise he doesn't reduce calling sin actually just a case of bad nurturing, as you have. But rather he wants to take into account all of a person's makeup, including their physiological components. As Steve had mentioned, all of creation reels with the effects of the fall. We need to be about the hard work of discerning carefully, what is willful sin and what are perhaps chemically or physiologically induced urges and behavior that can be treated, just as we treat the heart or lungs.
May 29, 2012 at 09:44 AM
There are a lot of interesting discussions that could spin off from this interesting article. One thing that this article reminded me of was the pattern of family sin in the patriarchal history of Genesis 12-50. The sinful acts of marital infidelity and lying plague Abraham's line. Yet, God chose to work redemption for his people out of this broken family. I would say, that even when the text does not overtly condemn their actions in words, their faults are laid bare to the readers.
I think in the context of nature/nurture, the theological framework for understanding sin's effects of both corruption and guilt is important. Original sin resulted in both corruption and guilt for all mankind, and while we are now freed from the guilt in Christ, we long for the removal of the corruption under which all creation is groaning.
May 29, 2012 at 09:16 AM
Sin is always sin, to even question calling it that becuase of a persons "nurture" is doing them a huge disservice. Quite frankly I'm surprised someone from TGC would even propose this. Absolutely Christian councilors should be cognizant of an individual's upbringing, it's imperative, but an individuals upbringing does not magically make their sin not sinful, nor should we think it's ok to call it anything other than what it is. We don't stand sinless before the father becuase we had crappy parents, we stand sinless becuase of the Cross.
May 29, 2012 at 09:16 AM
This is a very thoughtful article. I wish I had found this during my recent Psychology course in which I had to review the nature/nurture issue from a Christian perspective.
I agree that Christians, no matter the professional field, must not separate the findings of science but filter them with the knowledge and discernment of a fallen world, the truth of Christ, and overall a Biblical worldview.
I enjoyed this article. Thank you for writing and sharing.
May 29, 2012 at 08:34 AM
This is very interesting food for thought (which itself testifies to the unity of mind and body in that if I do not feed my stomach, but mind will suffer for it).
It is intriguing to frame certain chemical, mood affecting circumstances in the same category as being born with a literal hole in one's heart or immature lungs or arthritis, etc...
It feels like "blame" might more rightly be associated with moods and state of minds, but perhaps that is just a gut reaction to it. Some people have heart disease because of their lifestyle and they do it to themselves. Some people have heart ache because of their lifestyle and they do it to themselves
This is a fascinating genre of thought. God's sovereign will for who we are and how we are made combined with the will of those who have sinned against us individually and societally.
http://onceforalldelivered.blogspot.com/
May 29, 2012 at 04:46 PM
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May 29, 2012 at 01:19 PM
@Chris
I’m not refuting we as Christian sometimes overlook the physiological influences of the human body, but I don’t see ANY scriptural basis to call sin, however it is conceived, anything but sin. Judgment for sin is not lessened on an individual basis because of someone’s upbringing, that idea is certainly not found in scripture.
Paul clearly shows in Romans 2 that all men know what is right and wrong; he even proposes that Gentiles who have never read The Law (OT) have it written on their hearts. So while there is definitely responsibility by the parents, this is no way lessens or changes sin for an individual. It’s certainly not right to try and call it something else, which at its root, moves us towards saying things like "It’s not my fault, it’s how I was raised." And I acknowledge that the author explicitly states that this is not his intention, however I contend that by renaming sin, you are in fact doing just that.
Also just out of curiosity, how would medication help this? I mean Christ points out that just lusting after a woman in your heart is sinful, so unless you have medications that can control thoughts (which I hope you would not consider giving/taking) it sounds to me like medication isn’t the answer. It sounds to me like the answer is the Gospel.
June 30, 2012 at 08:33 PM
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June 1, 2012 at 12:03 PM
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sam
May 31, 2012 at 05:26 AM
Neither our bodies, nor our parents, nor our culture, nor even the demons can make us sin, but they can surely tilt the playing field in such a way that choosing the good is uphill...sometimes a little and sometimes a lot. Such is the contagiousness of the most deadly virus on this fallen planet.
According to Luther and Edwards (and a plain reading of Scripture), we are all in bondage until Christ sets us free...and even then it is God who is at work within us both to will and to act in accord with His good pleasure.
A variety of influences, with varying degrees of potency, "yes"; utter culpability before a holy, holy, holy God, "yes". God help us...and He has.