The Oates Journal (ISSN: 1098-1446) is a publication of the Wayne E. Oates Institute addressing issues related to spirituality, ethics, and healing from the perspective of pastoral care and counseling.

As I sat through the first couple of the weekly rounds on patients, I heard powerlessness and frustration in the tone and manner of staff discussing patients impacted by alcoholism. I was a new staff person to this cancer outpatient program, but the chaplain was only one small personnel change among many. The Medical Director was retiring, a search was on for a new manager, and both the Clinical Nurse Specialist and the corporate Vice President for Oncology were new. I volunteered to sit with these patients, being with them throughout the treatment process.

Brodmaw Bay by F. G. Cottam (2011) is the fifth in his recent series of paranormal themed novels. Brodmaw Bay does not disappoint. Suspenseful, thought provoking, and seamlessly composed, it brings us (and we willingly enter) into its world of darkness masquerading as light.

I reach through cold bars to touch his hand.
I hear the familiar plea.

You’ve got to get me out of here.
I need my freedom.
I want my self back.

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I hear the description more frequently than I like. A pastor, a teacher, an executive director, a CEO has turned into an autocratic manipulator.  Until recently, I suspected that there might be a theological component to this phenomenon, but I did not have data to back it up. The other day, across the coffeehouse table from me, my conversation partner wanted my opinion about leaders who overuse their power. 

It starts with a whisper about six weeks out; the quiet voice of one of the monsters under the bed wondering, “What if…?”. As the date grows closer, the whispers grow louder and voices from Milo’s “anxiety closet” start joining in the conversation. It is that middle of the night dread that awakens you at 2 a.m. or keeps you up until dawn’s early light with thoughts of “What will they find?” “Is it back?” “Is it growing?” “What is next?” “How much longer do I have?” “How much is it going to hurt?”

With the passage of the hotly disputed healthcare reform act of 2010, the entire issue of healthcare delivery has become intensely politicized rather than rationalized.  The rhetoric that has been used on all sides of the issue has been very misleading and divisive. The end result? Healthcare reform has become an entitlement more geared to producing votes than bringing meaningful reform for the sake of social justice.

For years there has existed an almost unchallenged understanding that our healthcare delivery system has been in need of extreme change.  Opinions on the nature, purpose, and scope of that change have, however, been anything but unanimous.  The debate moved beyond the practical issues to the area of political philosophy.  The central question, which still lacks a consensus answer, is whether healthcare is a right, or a right coupled with personal responsibility.

For over 35 years now, art and the creative process have given me a perspective on health and healing, mine and that of others. But the focus of this column will be on imagination. With imagination, one is free to use a variety of approaches, artistic mediums, and relational skills with which seminary, C.P.E., and life have equipped us. Imagination uses the same skill set, which will be shown through references to theory, but applies them to a different context, metaphorically for example. Research has shown that right-brain experiences or metaphors, of which the creative process would be one, speak and best facilitate change (Barker, 1985). “What clients usually need is not a better logical understanding of their situation, but different emotional attitudes and different ways of interpreting the world around them” (Barker, 1985, p. 21).

What gift do you give when you are borrowing money just to make it through the month? What sort of happy holidays do you wish to children and adults, when you are worried about keeping the power on or whether you need to apply for food stamps?