Issues in Religion and Psychotherapy Volume 29 | Number 1 Article 10 4-1-2004 Redirection, Renewal and Redemption Truman G. Madsen Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/irp Recommended Citation Madsen, Truman G. (2004) "Redirection, Renewal and Redemption," Issues in Religion and Psychotherapy: Vol. 29 : No. 1 , Article 10. Available at: https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/irp/vol29/iss1/10 This Article or Essay is brought to you for free and open access by the All Journals at BYU ScholarsArchive. It has been accepted for inclusion in Issues in Religion and Psychotherapy by an authorized editor of BYU ScholarsArchive. For more information, please contact [email protected], [email protected]. AMCAP JOURNAL 2004 VOLUME 29 KEYNOTE ADDRESS PRESENTED AT THE FALL 2003 AMCAP CONVENTION ~ OCTOBER 2, 2003 Redirection, Renewal and Redemption TRUMAN G. MADSEN, PHD Brigham Young University he last time I was at the podium at an AMCAP together the solemnities of eternity with his sparkling T Convention (Bergin, et aL, 1978), I shared it humor, he said, "Truman the next time I see you, it will with Dr. Carlfred Broderickl . He is gone now. We be in the Celestial Kingdom:' talked briefly on that occasion about our overlapping I said, "Carlfred, I know where you're headed, but days at Emerson Hall in Cambridge while we were there are some questions about me:' attending Harvard University; we didn't know then He replied, "Oh no, Truman - there's nothing higher what the rest of our story would be. Shortly after that, than the Celestial Kingdom:' Carlfred was invited to write an article for the Even during the course of his final illness he was still Encyclopedia of Mormonism titled "Suffering in the thinking in terms of "things about Carlfred Broderick World" (Broderick, 1992). He was chosen because he that I need to change:' At the very end he acknowledged, had earlier given a talk titled "The Uses of Adversity" at least facetiously, that redemption was soon to be real­ (see Broderick, 1996, p. 121). Shortly after that I ized. These processes of redirection, renewal, and became one of the editors of this Encyclopedia chapter, redemption are my topic today. and we spoke long distance about it. When we fin­ ished, he and I were both in tears. REDIRECTION: EXPERIENCES IN CONVERSION One of the lines in Carlfred's article states: Redirection is often striking in the lives of converts to Suffering can wound and embitter and darken a soul as the Church. I'd like to describe three conversions, more or surely as it can purify and refine and illumine. Everything less recent, of persons who were professional caregivers depends on how one responds. (Broderick, 1992, p.1422) before they found their way into our midst. I have bene­ fited by the association of all three ofthese individuals. Carflred became the icon on that point. He was diag­ I want to talk about what they brought to the experi­ nosed with cancer. The first time around it was curable; ence and then point to some ofthe redirection that came the second time it was not (Lytle, 1999). We spoke inti­ into their lives. mately several times, and I remember three sentences from those conversations. One was: "You'll never hear Truman G. Madsen PhD, a graduate oj The University oj Utah (BS, MS) me say,'Why met'The second was:"I have learned some and Harvard University (MA, PhD), is Emeritus ProJessor oj Philosophy things about Carlfred Broderick that I need to change:' at Brigham Young University. He is the author oj numerous books and arti­ The third time, the last conversation we had, his voice cles, including The Highest In Us. Address Jar correspondence: <truman­ was weak. But in his characteristic way of bringing [email protected]> VOLUME 29 AMCAP JOURNAL 2004 First Convert: Benjamin Crue, MD Second Convert: Anonymous A man named Dr. Benjamin Crue2, now In our Now I move to a second conversion. This man's name midst, was years ago head of the chronic pain team (on I must not give publicly, as his whole family has rejected which subject he has written several books) at the City his acceptance of the GospeL This man was teaching of Hope hospital in Los Angeles, California. His most seminars and workshops trying to convey to people his recent book is an 800-page book titled The Myth of theory of human potentiaL He had a Christian back­ Chronic Pain (2004). Before he found his way into the ground, which he used as a starting point to develop this LOS church, he had come to certain conclusions. He philosophy. He was strongly influenced by the philoso­ had dealt with people who, despite every effort from pher Alfred North Whitehead (1861-1947), who could pharmacology to psychology, still had terrible pain and be called the grandfather of Process Philosophy. came to this hospital as a last resort to seek relief. It Whitehead (1929) undercut the great classical tradi­ became clear to Dr. Crue that sometimes such pain is tion that God is to be identified with static being and not the result of obvious physical conditions: he con­ instead identified God as becoming. There is, then, process cluded there are times when people, consciously or not, in God: Unless there is in this sense a progressing God, respond to unresolved emotions of anger, fear, guilt ­ there cannot be a feeling God - and if there is not a feel­ and most of all grief - by actually holding on to pain as ing God, for Process Theologians (Mesle, 1993; Farmer, a way of getting attention, concern or love. 1997,2003) there would be no healing God. When he would confront patients with that insight, So the man of whom I speak was telling people not of course the predictable response was "You think I only that he believed that Christ and Christ's atonement want to be suffering like this?" can influence healing, but that he believed there is power The answer, at least sometimes, was "Yes, you do to influence healing within each of us. He taught that at want something more than you want relief from pain; birth there is divinely implanted in each of us a brain you want attention, if only from the nurse who takes factor so powerful that if and when we turn away from your blood pressure:' That, and related recognitions, the hurts and hurtfulness of our past toward the future, led many patients at least to improvement and some­ in repentance and in faith, this mechanism actually times to cure (a little word play shows the name"Crue," revises the brain - practically rewires it. In contrast to if the letters are transposed, becomes "cure"). Freud's strategy of unlocking the past layer by layer, one Dr. Crue investigated the LOS tradition and applied should turn only to the future and not look back. The the kind of experiment described in Alma chapter 32. result, he explained, would be a brain change that would He really joined the church as an experiment; then affect everything - including, of course, mental and while he was riding on an airplane, the answer came as emotional functions. clear as it could be - not just that a particular doctrine What did this philosopher-psychologist find when he was true, but that the whole restoration was true, came into the LOS Church? Like Dr. Crue, he found including the Book of Mormon. many things compatible with his earlier thinking, but also Applying his new perspective, he probed deeply a higher, more inclusive perspective. He found, first of all, into the issues of chronic pain, redirecting some of that the prophetJoseph Smith talked about total change. his earlier ideas. Among other things, he raised the The prophetJoseph Smith taught about a process where­ crucial point of the importance in the lives of trou­ by one becomes a new person through the influence ofthe bled and pained patients of at least one significant Holy Ghost, transforming physical as well as spiritual real­ other whom they care about and who cares about ities: a condition described as a new birth. Many in the them. Without such an individual relationship, religious world talk about being"reborn" or"newly born" or patients face continuing sagas of hopelessness, "born again:' but they concentrate on only the first princi­ but with the presence of that significant other, ple of the transition - faith. Redirecting his thinking and the prognosis changes. What Dr. Crue came to know his life, he learned that there must be genuine repentance, and teach is that the most significant other is and then there must be the nurture ofordinances. Jesus Christ. With this perspective came significant This brother wanted to accept, not just the initiato­ changes in his personal and professional life. ry ordinances, but all which God has revealed for this 166 REDIRECTION AND REDEMPTION MADSEN dispensation. Now in his teaching he quotes a sentence painful and laborious than it is for many. He was not that the prophetJoseph Smith gave to the twelve before spared additional bouts with depression and mania. he sent them on missions to Britain: "Being born again When he was manic he made bad decisions, and when comes by the Sprit of God through ordinances" (Smith, he was depressed he made even worse ones. 1938, p. 162). The highest ordinances are the temple Three different blessings were given him, and in each ordinances. They are channels of power, not simply as the essential message was the same:"This [bipolar disor­ in the Protestant tradition, "outward signs of inward der] is going to be a trial for the rest of your life.