INTERNATIONAL PASTORAL
 CARE  NETWORK  FOR
 SOCIAL  RESPONSIBILITY


NEWSLETTER MONTHLY UPDATE
February, 2003

by Howard Clinebell
 

GLOBAL TRAGEDIES REVEAL THE CRUCIAL NEED FOR IPCNSR’S MESSAGE AND MISSION

     The shattering tragedy of 9/11/01 changes our country and world radically.  It also changes drastically many things in 21st century wholistic pastoral caregiving.  On a personal level, 9/11 awakened painful memories of collective trauma spanning six decades.  Beginning with the attack on Pearl Harbor, these memories include two visits to Hiroshima’s Peace Park and several Holocaust death camps.  Also included are the assassinations of national heroes JFK and Martin Luther King, Jr., the Viet Nam tragedy, and, more recently, a series of school shootings, and the Oklahoma City bombing.  In addition, the staggering reality of global collective trauma has hit me repeatedly during volunteer teaching in developing countries, especially in Latin American nations that had suffered military dictators, death squads, and the "disappeared."

      The horrible tragedy of February 1, 2003 when the Columbia spaceship disintegrating on reentry killing the seven of creative scientists aboard, is a recent example of collective trauma creating enormous collective grief and anxiety.  A unique dynamic in this was another shattering of humankind’s collective faith in technology.  The rituals of several televised memorial services brought some collective healing but much more is needed.  As I write, a global epidemic of collective rage and anxiety is being generated by the likelihood of an invasion of Iraq with tragic consequences in death and destruction.  The consequences include a much-increased motivation for terrorism like that which murdered over 3,000 persons on 9/11.

      Each of these rude encounters with tragic realities awakened an uneasy sense that something crucial has been largely missing in pastoral caregivers’ responses to collective trauma.  9/11, the  "day that changed the world," pushed me harder than ever before to ask myself again: What is the missing piece in facilitating wholistic healing of collective trauma and systemic grief?  Here are some tentative reflections on this important question:

    ++ The missing piece is an in-depth understandings of the unique dynamics and process of healing collective as compared with individual trauma, anxiety, terror, rage and grief.  Both the PTSD and the CISD (Critical Incident Stress Debriefing) literature focus mainly on individual and family trauma.  Although collective trauma trigger many responses like those elicited by trauma in individuals, the unique dimensions must be understood more fully and addressed effectively by caregivers who strive to be truly wholistic.

     ++The unique dynamic in all collective trauma is a terrifying, disorienting, shattering of the collective identities that give large social systems like nations a sense of shared security, meaning, and sense of defensive superiority.  In trauma produced by violence from external enemies, as in the Pearle Harbor and 9/11, this identity shattering produces intense, defensive in-group bonding.  This defense is expressed in uncritical flag waving and immediate, non-rational transference elevation of key leaders (like the president), along with self-righteous glorification of "us" vs the totally evil "them".  All this feeds the collective ethical craziness of the social psychology of wars.

     ++The unique role of pastoral psychotherapists is illuminated by awareness of the tidal wave of collective existential anxiety triggered by the terrifying awareness of our extreme human vulnerability and the unpredictable nature of death for all we love and for ourselves.  This Urangst  creates a wave of defensive religious passion and expressions intertwined with intense, uncritical patriotism.  Mobilizing our expertise in diagnosing and treating pathogenic belief and value systems can enable us to help care-receivers—individually and in groups--eventually move toward more constructive and salugenic faith and values..  Our knowledge of the healing potential of group rituals should equip us to coach clients in creating and participating in healing rituals for the PTSD responses that will continue long after 9/11.  I was pleased to discover, in a personal communication from Hebrew scriptures scholar Walter Brueggemann, insights about the nature and healing of collective grief that far surpass that of most pastoral caregivers and other health professionals.  In a meditation he delivered the day after 9/11, he shared keen biblically based insights derived from his understanding of the collective responses to the destruction of the Jewish temple in Jerusalem.  This was a comparable trauma in that context to the destruction of the temples of the USA symbolic of our country’s worship of military and economic  mega-power.  He pointed to healing resources for the ancient  collective grief expressed in Psalms 44, 74, 79, 137, as well as in
Jeremiah.

       ++9/11 and other collective trauma highlight the inadequacy and incompleteness of hyper-individualistic, intrapsychic pastoral counseling and the urgent necessity of integrating systemic, prophetic strategies in our caregiving responses.  The good news is that the International Pastoral Care Network for Social Responsibility, the multi-guild network working for prophetic caregiving was awakened to new life by 9/11.  (See the other pages of this  website for 9/11 resources and links with resources provided by the other pastoral care specialists’ guilds.)

         The challenges for pastoral caregivers of  collective trauma are immense and many faceted.  Let’s hope is that we who are trained to think in disciplined ways about cultivating spiritually-centered, wholistic healing will use this window of opportunity to make innovative discoveries of healing modalities for not only countless wounded individuals and families but also for wounded nations and global community.  Let’s hope and pray that we can use our expertise to help our country’s leaders face and change the ways its economic, political and military policies contribute to the basic causes of terrorism in the two-thirds world by increasing widespread poverty that breeds starvation and diseases accompanied by collective hopelessness, rage, and violence.  Only if this changes will 9/11 and other collective tragedies be used by our country to grow into a more mature and ethical member of the family of nations!

         The devastating collective tragedies, confront all of us pastoral care specialists with unprecedented opportunities—to become proactive in helping to lead efforts to shape constructive responses to these gigantic tragedies!   Our dual training in theology and psychology equips us to make unique contributions to the crucial challenges now facing our country and the world.   After 9/11, one of the founding members of IPCNSR stated:  "In its
nearly 20 year history, no events in the world—not even the threat of nuclear holocaust—surpassed this global crisis in making the justice and peace mission of the International Pastoral Network for Social Responsibility so urgent and vitally important!"

      The North American Board of IPCNSR is pleased to announce that moved to implement innovative strategies to offer resources to pastoral care specialists for responding to this collective challenge.  We are convinced that it is important to do this because the violence and injustice of our world, epitomized by that day, sharpens our awareness to the basic truth that is the network’s continuing mission.  This is the fact that the justice and peace context of caregiving impacts everything that we caregivers do to help individuals and families.  This truth must be kept in mind as we struggle to respond in healing ways to the overwhelming collective grief, fear and anger of September 11th—our own as well as those we serve.  To take advantage of these resources, you are invited to do four things soon:

1. CHECK THE IPCNSR WEBSITE FREQUENTLY to see what has been added related to the September 11th tragedy.  You soon will discover that a new page has been added. It is labeled "CAREGIVERS’ HEALING RESPONSES TO SYSTEMIC VIOLENCE (INCLUDING THAT OF 9/11/01)".   (We  hope you will include the IPCNSR website address on your list of "Favorite Internet Addresses" and hit it often. The website address is  < http://www.ipcnsr.org>

2. SHARE your comments, reflections, views. and clinical examples concerning pastoral caregiving responses to September 11th and other collective tragedies.  SEND THESE TO MICHAEL CORDNER AT  <Drcordner@aol.com>.  He is the IPCNSR webmaster and editor who will direct your contributions to the network website page.   We encourage you to send respond to views expressed by other caregivers on our Internet website, thus promoting dialogue among us.

3. PLEASE JOIN OR RENEW YOUR MEMBERSHIP in IPCNSR by sending $25.00 dues and your name, addresses (snail mail and email), to Lerrill White, treasurer of IPCNSR at Chaplain’s office 4-184, St. Luke’s Episcopal Hospital, 6720 Bertner Ave, POB 20269, Houston, TX 77225 (email: Lwhite@sleh.com).   By joining IPCNSR you help enable our international network of caregiving specialists to dialogue provide leadership and resources in many countries confronted by the global crisis of violence.

4. CONTINUE PEACEMAKING BY CONTINUING TO PROTEST THE POLICIES OF THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION THAT SEEM TO BE COUNTING ON BLIND PATRIOTISM TO BUILD IRRATIONAL SUPPORT OF ITS MISGUIDED AND TRAGIC FOREIGN POLICY!   Insist that the UN handle the Iraq problem.  FOR THE SAKE OF YOUR HEALING MINISTRY AND THE WORLD’S HEALING, PLEASE PARTICIPATE IN THESE WAYS BEGINNING TODAY!

[The original draft of this statement was written on 9/27/01.  A shorter version, entitled  "9/11--Exploring The Shadowed Mystery Of Collective Trauma And Grief," was published in the Summer 2002 issue of AAPC’s periodical Journeys.]