Episode Details

Episode 25.  Drill Sergeant Gods, Statue Gods, and Preoccupied Manager Gods, Oh My…

July 13, 2020

Intro: Welcome to the podcast Coronavirus Crisis:  Carpe Diem, where you and I rise up and embrace the possibilities and opportunities for spiritual and psychological growth in this time of crisis, all grounded in a Catholic worldview.   We are going beyond mere resilience, to rising up to the challenges of this pandemic and becoming even healthier in the natural and the spiritual realms than we were before.  I’m clinical psychologist Peter Malinoski your host and guide, with Souls and Hearts at soulsandhearts.com.  Thank you for being here with me.  This is episode 25,  released on July 20, 2020 and it’s called Drill Sergeant Gods, Statue Gods, and Preoccupied Manager Gods, Oh My…

Self-concept: This what we intellectually believe about ourselves, who we profess ourselves to be, what we understand about ourselves, our mental construct of ourselves.  The self-concept of a practicing Catholic, for example, may include being a beloved child of God.  There’s a link between God concepts and Self-concepts – they go together, they harmonize.  Loving Shepherd, little sheep.  

Self-images on the other hand, are much more emotionally driven, much more intuitive, subjective, and they vary a lot more from moment to moment.    These go together with God images – they impact each other 

My God image is my emotional and subjective experience of God, who I feel God to be in the moment.  May or may not correspond to who God really is.  

Initially my God images are shaped by the relationship that I have with my parents.  This is my experiential sense how my feelings and how my heart interpret God.  My God images are heavily influenced by psychological factors, and different God images can be activated at different times, depending on my emotional states and what psychological mode I am in at a given time.  

God images are always formed experientially.  God images flow from our relational experiences and how we construe and make sense of those images when we are very young. 

My God images can be and usually are radically different than my God concept.

My God concept   What I profess about God.  It is my more intellectual understanding of God, based on what one has been taught, but also based on what I have explored through reading.  I decide to believe in my God concept.  Reflected in the Creed, expanded in the Catechism, formal teaching.  

So in the text exchange with a listener who I will call Beth, because that’s her name, Beth told me that she was having a hard time figuring out her own God images.  So I thought I would bring in the best resource

Mistaken Identity William and Kristi Gaultiere  1989 Fleming H. Revell  -- 3 decades ago. 

14 Unloving God images – drawn from I Corinthians 13, 4-7.  

Preoccupied manager director God

Statue God

Robber God

Vain Pharisee God

Elitist aristocrat God

Pushy salesman God

Magic Genie God

Demanding drill sergeant God

Outtogetcha Police Detective God

Unjust dictator God 

Marshmallow God

Critical Scrooge God

Party-pooper God

Heartbreaker God  

Preoccupied Managing Director God:  God is busy running the world, but God doesn’t take the initiative, time, or energy to really relate with me, to connect with me. God cares about me, but he is overtaxed.  He is impatient, it is hard to get His attention.  God may want to give more to everyone, but He has limited resources and has to allocate them carefully, to those who most deserve them.  Comfort and help might come if I my situation is desperate enough.  

Bible verse: Psalm 13 opening:  How long, Lord? Will you utterly forget me?  H