Healing Informational Technology

In his recent book, “The Chaos Machine”, Max Fisher describes the dark side of social media.  It is a frightening  history.  The reader is left uncertain of an answer to the management of this powerful technology. 

One answer is my yearly January educational experience!  I look forward to January of each year specifically because I get to hear new voices and perspectives of our faith and healing.  It is called the “January Series” from Calvin University.  It is a gift!    

I look for themes among the diversity of presenters.  For this year, I would suggest that “disability” was a strong theme.  Here is my list of favorites in that group:

         Dr. Sara Hendron “What can a body do?”

         Dr. Amy Kenny, “My body is not a prayer request”

         Dr. Kate Bowler, “Life after perfect”

What was most impressive technically was the ability to provide remote presenters, across “time zones” flawlessly as if the presenter was present in the auditorium.  Nate Mook, “The urgent pursuit to nourish the world” did his presentation from Ukraine!  

Lastly, I would recommend the presentations by Dr. Efosa Ojomo on the creation of markets as as a response to poverty and the educational vision of Calvin University by its Provost, Dr. Noah Toly, “Learning together, living together: What the world needs from Christian liberal arts education”.   These are some of the faithful visions of redemption in our world.

All of this happened with the latest technology but more importantly with the people that have worked hard to bring thousands of learners into this “hybrid” virtual educational space.  They have learned how to engage an intergenerational audience into this growing educational reality.  As I mentioned, this has been a wonderful gift!

Thank you,

Marvin

References:

Fisher, M. (2022). The Chaos Machine. Little, Brown.

Calvin University - January Series 

https://calvin.edu/january-series/

2023 January Series Presentations:

Dr. Sara Hendren, “What can a body do?”

https://calvin.edu/directory/series/sara-hendren

Dr. Amy Kenny, “My body is not a prayer request”

https://calvin.edu/directory/series/amy-kenny

Dr. Kate Bowler, “Life after perfect”

https://calvin.edu/directory/series/kate-bowler

Nate Mook, “The urgent pursuit to nourish the world”

https://calvin.edu/directory/series/nate-mook

Efosa Ojomo, The Prosperity Paradox: How Innovation Can Lift Nations Out of Poverty https://calvin.edu/directory/series/efosa-ojomo

Dr. Noah Toly, “Learning together, living together: What the world needs from Christian liberal arts education”https://calvin.edu/directory/series/noah-toly

 

Healing Ecology

“How we meet the built environment depends on both bodies and worlds.” Hendren, Sara

A custom built chair for a Kenyan child with cerebral palsy

“New Prosthesis Day” at Tenwek Hospital

There are books that connect with your experiences but from another point-of-view.  Sara Hendren’s book, What Can a Body Do?: How We Meet the Built World, is one of these.  Her perspective, as a mother and a professor of engineering, explores the reality of disabilities and the environments individuals face.  What connected with me was the variety of the creative design responses.

As she emphasizes, many of the environmental responses are not appreciated and are invisible to the broader community.  It takes creative design responses and deep investigation of our assumptions about the meaning of disabilities to respond in effective ways to create more inclusive  communities.

The larger community responses become the ecology of healing.  I have seen those responses in the development of Friendship Houses here in the United States and the Special Needs Clinic in Africa.

Thanks, Sara Hendren for expanding this important healing conversation.  You can hear her on the “January Series” from Calvin University on January 9, 2023 at 12:30 pm EST.

Marvin

References

Hage, M. L. (2016). Another Kind of Healing.

http://healingagents.blogspot.com/2016/04/another-kind-of-healing.html

Hendren, Sara. What Can a Body Do? (p. 3). Penguin Publishing Group. Kindle Edition. 

Friendship House - Western Seminary Holland Michigan

https://www.westernsem.edu/welcome-friendship-house/

Special Needs Clinic - Tenwek Hospital

https://friendsoftenwek.org/medical-specialties/special-needs-clinic/

 

Healing Truths

 

“You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor.”      Exodus 20:16 (NIV)

There is a strong modern medical ethic of “truth telling” and “truth finding”.  It is the basis of evidence-based medicine.  With patients, making the clinical diagnosis frequently results in complicated conversations that happen over multiple encounters.  In contrast during my episodes of medical practice in Africa, I learned that family communication was a critical first step in sharing medical information with patients.  It was a stark contrast to the HIPPA environment that informed my Western practice.  

The current cultural “truth” debates have challenged our understanding of how we hear and tell the truth.  The “information age” has challenged our information management as outlined in the recent book by Max Fisher, “The Chaos Machine”.  It is a dark story of the addictive design of the social media platforms.  

During this same time, I read David Meyer’s book, “A Quiet World”, a memoir of his journey  with hearing loss.  It is a “old” book, but valuable as it chronicles the rapidity changing technology of hearing assistive technologies.  

These two perspectives on the values and hazards of our information age, brought me to the importance of truth telling as a communitarian ethic.   I was reminded of a sermon by Peter Jonker at the beginning of the pandemic that pointed to the origins of that wisdom.

Truth telling, at its best, begins with listening that builds and heals communities.  

Thanks,

Marvin

References

Huang HL; Cheng SY; Yao CA; Hu WY; Chen CY; Chiu TY  Truth Telling and Treatment Strategies in End-of-Life Care in Physician-Led Accountable Care Organizations:

Discrepancies Between Patients' Preferences and Physicians' Perceptions. 

Medicine. 94(16):e657, 2015 Apr.

Fisher, M. (2022). The Chaos Machine. Little, Brown.

Myers, D. G. (2000). A Quiet World. Yale University Press.

Jonker, P.  (11/18/2020) Advance my Neighbor’s Name - Ninth Commandment Devotion

-

Hage, M. (2014). Hearing Stories.

http://healingagents.blogspot.com/2014/04/hearing-stories.html

Hage, M. L. (2021). Healing Hearing

http://healingagents.blogspot.com/2021/02/healing-hearing.htm

Healing Discernment

                                                 

One of the religion scholars came up. Hearing the lively exchanges of question and answer and seeing how sharp Jesus was in his answers, he put in his question: “Which is most important of all the commandments?”

Mark 12:28 (MSG)

“If we submit everything to reason our religion will be left with nothing mysterious or supernatural. If we offend the principles of reason our religion will be absurd and ridiculous.” (Pensées #173-273)

Blaise Pascal(1623-1662)

We live in times of great uncertainty, debate  and change.  I think it is clear that the technological creativity have brought changes and debate that have challenged our social structures.   We need “tools” and stratagies to address these realities.  Adam Grant’s recent book, “Think Again: The Power of Knowing What You Don’t Know”, helped me rethink some of my previous ideas.

I have a long term interest in understanding the nature of “agreement” as it applies to the practice of obstetrics.  The issue is more complex than what we would like to believe and more than a medical issue.  What I have come to believe is that discernment is more than an individual activity that requires careful management of the context and structure of the question.  So before we look for agreement, we need to clearly articulate the question.

The second issue for all of us is creating “safe spaces” where dialogue and discussion will lead to productive outcomes.  These difficult issues always need nuanced responses.  This is where discernment is at its best.  It is not competitive!  It is consensus building.

That brings us to the roll of the church as a place where these conversations and discernment can be put into practice!  This has a long tradition within faith communities  where these are places of discernment more than dogma.  

Thanks to Adam Grant for the clarity that he brings to discernment.

Marvin

References

Grant, A. (2021). Think Again. Penguin.

Hage, M. L. (2012). Thoughts.

http://healingagents.blogspot.com/2012/10/thoughts.html

Hage ML: Nonstress test interpretation. Am J Obstet Gynecol 153: 490-495,1985. 

Sacks, J. (2014). The Great Partnership: Science, Religion, and the Search for Meaning (Reprint ed.). Schocken.

Healing Ministries

Duke University Hospital Room

“Light shining in from the Nursing Station”

May 2, 2022

“In a church we learn to do ministry together.  We teach each other what Grace looks like and how it feels to be treated like a child of God.”

Douglas Brouwer, September 3, 2006 

Second Presbyterian Church, 

                                                        Indianapolis, Indiana

“Ministry is a robust theological category that brings divine action into human experience, helping us recognize God’s presence, even in a secular age.”

Andrew Root

I have become aware of the challenges to pastoral ministry that resonate with the dilemmas found in the current practice of medicine. 

In mid April, 2022, I contracted Covid and was treated quickly.  I got to see medical care at all levels of its provision.  What was most remarkable was my hospitalization at Duke University Medical Center.  At a time when the U.S. health care system is breaking, I experienced wonderful care from multiple providers at all levels.  What I experienced was based on the implementation of a “Theory of Care“  as articulated by Kristen Swanson.

Swanson’s work is similar to the work of Andrew Root in his series of books looking at the status of pastoral ministry.  What emerges is a thorough assessment of the “malaise” with a return to an expanded and historic response of caring  His prescription is based on a deeper understanding of Western culture as described in the work of philosopher Charles Taylor.  

The good news is that there are robust models of caring that are still working within the the caring professions.  Nursing has demonstrated the reality of that caring ministry.  

Thanks,

Marvin

References

Root, Andrew. The Pastor in a Secular Age (Ministry in a Secular Age Book #2) (p. xxii). Baker Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.

Taylor, C. (2009). A secular age. Harvard university press.

Brouwer, D. J. (2022). Chasing After Wind: A Pastor’s Life. Wm. B. Eerdrmans Publishing, Co.

Swanson,  KM Kristen Swanson’s Theory of Caring

https://pmhealthnp.com/kristen-swanson-theory-of-caring-and-healing/

Hage, M. L. (2017). Healing Charity.

http://healingagents.blogspot.com/2017/05/healing-charity.html

Hage, M. L. (2016). Healing Doctors.

http://healingagents.blogspot.com/2016/12/healing-doctors.html 

 

It's Still Easter!

The painting The Three Marys at the Tomb 

by Nikolai Haberschrack  15th century

Wikipedia

Some women were watching from a distance, Among them were Mary Magdalene,

 Mary the mother of Janes the younger and of Joseph, and Salome.  Mark 15:40(NIV)

I still have a lot of questions.   It’s not just about the triumph of life over death, it is about the deep problem of evil in the world.  What do survivors do wherever they are?

An answer for me to these theological questions happened on “Good Friday” in the Eastern Orthodox calendar(4/22/2022).  It was the holy experience of listening to the reports of Covid and maternal mortality from the “frontline”.  I was a witness to the healing in the lives of the residents and staff in the “locked room” of HIPPA.  My message to them was this needs to be shared.  That won’t be easy!

Thanks be to a God who shows up in places that continue to surprise us.  We need to be there as individuals and as the Church.

Peace,

Marvin

References

Washington Post: How Russia’s war in Ukraine is dividing the Orthodox Christian world

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/04/24/russia-ukraine-orthodox-church/

Hage, M. L. (2019). Suffering Revisited.

http://healingagents.blogspot.com/2019/10/suffering-revisited.html

Hage, M. L. (2022). “Holy Covid”.

http://healingagents.blogspot.com/2022/04/holy-covid.html

"Holy Covid"

Jesus said to them, “Surely you will quote this proverb to me: ‘Physician, heal yourself!’ And you will tell me, ‘Do here in your hometown what we have heard that you did in Capernaum.’” Luke 4:23 (NIV)

And the people stood by, watching; but the leaders scoffed at him, saying, “He saved others; let him save himself if he is the Messiah of God, his chosen one!”

Luke 23:35 (NRSV)

Each Lenten period in the Christian liturgical year brings a reckoning on “How Shall We Live”.  This has been the title of a Lenten book study at Brownson Memorial Presbyterian Church.  It has been a wonderful way to hear individual stories of suffering and healing in this community of faith.

In the middle of Holy Week, after finishing the book study, a cough appeared that seemed like my typical exacerbation of seasonal allergies.  The other event were reports of an “outbreak” of Covid in our community, so I performed my Covid Home testing which returned positive in a few seconds.  I was quickly evaluated, the test confirmed and treatment initiated.  

What is interesting is the context of pandemic fatigue with relaxation of masking and social distancing.  There seems to be an effort of “active forgetting” the reality of our recent history of global suffering.  We all are desperately seeking healing.

For me, the intersection of Covid in the middle of Holy Week is another reminder of our human fragility.  This is the mystery of healing that we will celebrate.

Thanks be to God for this Good Friday and Holy Week.

Marvin

References

Bowler, K; Powery LA Living and leading from our mortality.

Christian Century, September 29, 2021.  

Bowler, K. (2021). No Cure for Being Human. Random House.

Hage, M. L. (2011). The Mystery of Healing

http://healingagents.blogspot.com/2011/04/mystery-of-healing.html

Hage, M. L. (2021). Promised Healing.

http://healingagents.blogspot.com/2021/03/promised-healing.html