This Ain’t Your Father’s Sin … Or Maybe It Is

c. 2005 Religion News Service (UNDATED) Struggling with alcoholism? A failing marriage? An abusive personality? Psychologists might say you can blame dad, grandpa or someone even further back for your personal problems. Familial patterns of behavioral or emotional issues are a key component of modern psychology, but one counselor and author now says the theory […]

c. 2005 Religion News Service

(UNDATED) Struggling with alcoholism? A failing marriage? An abusive personality? Psychologists might say you can blame dad, grandpa or someone even further back for your personal problems.

Familial patterns of behavioral or emotional issues are a key component of modern psychology, but one counselor and author now says the theory is older than most experts think, and she has the biblical verses to prove it.


Beverly Hubble Tauke, a licensed clinical social worker in Fairfax, Va., grounds her sessions in the scriptural lessons of “generational sin,” the belief _ particularly prevalent among some evangelical and conservative Christians _ that sins committed by one generation will be repeated in the next three.

Tauke, author of the recent book “Overcoming the Sins of the Family: Becoming the Redemptive Generation,” says people can understand the problems plaguing their lives by mapping out genealogical patterns through a process called trans-generational therapy.

Tauke says the Bible provides the blueprint for how to do it.

“There is just kind of a remarkable overlap between biblical concepts and what is now known scientifically,” Tauke said in an interview. “These seeds planted in the family reflect not only in that family but then in the next phase of the journey.”

Tauke leads sessions at churches and in private practice in Virginia with titles like “Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Joseph: What a Family” and “Family Forensics: How Did I Get Here?”

At Gospel Rescue Ministries in Washington, where Tauke has counseled homeless men and women for eight years, director Don Melvin said sometimes people need professional help to realize patterns and work to stop them.

“She brings the Scriptures into play,” Melvin said. “For almost every one of these clinical theories, there is a scriptural foundation where you can find this information given to you from the Word of God.”

But not everyone is buying it. Some evangelical leaders eschew generational sin and modern psychology, holding that both prevent Christians from taking responsibility for their actions.


“Much talk these days of generational sin is rooted in an evasion of personal responsibility,” said Russell Moore, dean of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary’s School of Theology. “That’s true from a mystical religious standpoint as well as from a psychotherapeutic point of view.”

More than a few counselors are troubled by the idea of using the Bible to map out family dysfunction _ especially for non-religious clients _ or adding the baggage of guilt that is often associated with sin.

“It concerns me very much to hear that there is actually … a book entitled `Overcoming the Sins of the Family,”’ said Laura Forman, an expert in trans-generational family therapy in private practice in Norfolk, Va. “I don’t see family dysfunctions as sins.”

Still, other counselors think Tauke may be on to something, at least in theory. Carl Pickhardt, a psychologist with an independent practice in Austin, Texas, and a specialist in family conflict, said in his experience it is impossible to address current issues without first addressing the past.

“If you want to help someone understand their adulthood, you help them understand their childhood,” Pickhardt said. “Either you recover or you repeat.”

Tauke looks especially at Deuteronomy 5:9-10, in which generational sin is described as “punishing the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments.”


Tauke, a practicing Baptist, is heartened that families can practice righteousness for three generations as well, but takes even more inspiration from the book of Nehemiah, which says that confessing the sins of the fathers expiated sin in biblical times.

The same method, she said, is also effective in modern-day therapy.

She has seen it work in her own life: Tracing her family line revealed an alcoholic great-grandfather who had influenced the life of her fundamental Baptist minister father, and then her own life.

Tauke admitted some personal discomfort with the implications of the word “sin,” since it implies more blame and shame than she wants to associate with the process. Yet she argues that couching the practice in biblical terminology helps people to understand the concept.

“I end up with more resources so I’m able to tap into these factors that really resonate,” Tauke said. “Ninety percent of Americans do believe in God and 60 percent attend church on a pretty regular basis, so the population is really wired to consider the spiritual factors that are helpful to them.”

But there are critics. Moore, from Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, said some evangelical Christians misinterpret these biblical lessons. He said people always have a choice not to repeat their ancestors’ sins.

“You have the sons of Solomon, for instance, who continue in his idolatry,” Moore said. “It’s not because he’s being held for his father’s idolatry, it’s because he’s continuing in that sin.”


In addition, Moore said the idea seems less a product of scriptural teachings than of modern psychotherapy. He said it doesn’t seem much different from the counseling promoted by Dr. Phil or Oprah Winfrey.

“Evangelical churches have been extremely susceptible to every psychotherapeutic fad one can imagine,” Moore said. “I think it’s less often preached in religious circles than in secular settings influenced by a psychotherapeutic worldview.”

Others are concerned about the role of religion in counseling, even though religious faith can “have enormous worth when people try to recover,” said Pickhardt, the Austin psychologist.

Still, he cautioned that faith must come from the patient and not be pushed by the counselor. “I try not to impose my own world or try to challenge their world or how they live within that world,” he said.

From her perspective, Tauke agrees. She said she is not always able to note the scriptural and faith-based links in her private practice.

“I have clients who aren’t people of faith and I’m licensed by the state so I can’t push my spiritual perspective on them,” Tauke said. “I feel like I have an obligation to note the link. If a person is not interested, then they’re not interested.”


But at the end of the day, counselors and pastors say Tauke’s theories may have merit, even if all they do is help people to recognize and try to address the problems in their lives.

Mark Petersburg, senior pastor at Knollwood Community Church in Burke, Va., where Tauke led a recent session, said it is usually difficult for Christians to engage in such self-evaluation. That’s why Tauke’s use of biblical lessons is so important to engaging them in the sessions, he said.

“Some well-meaning Christians want to dismiss the fact that emotional and psychological pain is real,” Petersburg said. “God can empower us to move out of our past and into a present that he wants us to live. I think it is that we need to take that responsibility.”

KRE/PH END GAMACHE

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