Growth of the Internet makes it easy for surfers to access hundreds of thousands of pornography web sites, which are now the main source of pornographic materials in the world. As pornography found in the Internet is almost impossible to avoid, problems with pornography among people are rapidly growing and becoming increasingly severe. As a result, the number of people who struggle with sexual addiction is increasing and seek counseling in individual, group, and couple therapy settings. In order to assist a sex addict in his or her recovery, a comprehensive understanding of sexual addiction is essential to a Christian counselor. Sexual addiction can be understood through the following perspectives: biblical, neurological, and psychological. One single perspective does not fully identify complicated issues of sexual addiction. The root of sexual addiction has multiple aspects. Thus, a holistic approach to sexual addiction is necessary for a Christian counselor to help the sex addict recover. First, this blog explores the neurological perspective of sexual addition.  

Sexual addiction from a behavioral psychology viewpoint focuses on objectively observable behavior, learning, and habit information. If a sexual behavior or fantasy provides people with pleasure or relief from pain; then, the body learns how the attachments occur. This behavior then tends to occur more frequently and repeated behaviors become a habit. Repeated experiences of association between sexual behaviors and attachments form a type of learning known as conditioning. The process of learning is so deep and automatic at the physical level, that the conditioning is highly difficult to break and extremely powerful. 

Neurological science also has a similar mechanism to behavioral psychology. The nervous system is an essential part of the human body. Sexual addiction is maintained by mood-altering chemicals which stimulate the body. Sexual addicts become neurochemically tolerant to the chemicals that sex produces, such as adrenaline, serotonin, and dopamine. For sex addicts, sexual behavior or fantasies becomes the primary way sexual addicts condition their brains to meet their neurological needs. Sexual behavior or sexual fantasy creates an altered state. The brain of sexual addicts craves more and desire to achieve this same state because it becomes less sensitive to pleasure that the addiction creates in the brain. A repeated altered state leads to neurological conditioning. Tolerance develops after becoming desensitized to the chemicals that sexual addiction creates in the brain. If sexual addicts’ brains do not generate enough neurochemicals to achieve the same effect, then the sexual addict will pursue neurological balance through sexual activities or fantasies. 

It is very important for a Christian counselor to consider the neurological condition of sexual addicts in order to help them recover because the brain is the largest sexual organ humans have. If a counselor only evaluates sexual addiction from a psychological or spiritual perspective without considering the neurological perspective, treatment for the sex addict will not be effective. For sexual addict’s recovery, new pathways in the brain must be created because the sexual addict has neurologically conditioned the brain with sexual stimuli. The sexual addict must learn how to stop sexual fantasies and have relational sex. The sexual addict’s sexually and neurologically conditioned brain must be changed and reconditioned by a new healthy life pattern.  

Another aspect of the neurological understanding of sexual addiction is that the brain never completely forgets its past learning and conditioning. Even after breaking a sexually addicted habit or reconditioning, the potential for relapse always exists in the sex addict. The new neurological conditioned systems can never obliterate the old systems that have been formed in the brain. As times goes on, addictive behaviors will not be as intense. However, the brain is quick to be reminded of old patterning and conditioning through slight stimulus and momentum because the brain does not forget old patterns. Thus, the recovery of sexual addiction is not a one-time healing but an ongoing process. 

Why is the neurological perspective of sexual addiction is important? 

Sin pollutes not only the individual’s spirit but also his body. It is easy for a Christian to downplay the value of the body. Yet, the effect given to the body also must be considered very important in order to understand sexual addiction because humans consist of both body and spirit or soul. The Bible does not see body and soul as separate from one another. Humans are unified beings. A spiritual nature is not completely independent from the body. In the Old Testament, the most frequent word is basar (“flesh”), which refers to the body as a whole. A human being’s bodily nature indicates not only one’s mortality with physical needs, but it also provides the plane of attack for sin. In the New Testament, the body is not only mortal, but it also serves as the place of proper worship and the temple of the Holy Spirit. A Romans 12:1 says, “I urge you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, [which is] your spiritual service of worship.” A divine soul is not liberated from the body but offers the body in service to God. The Apostle Paul also argues that the inner life is as important as the outer life, and both are related to each other. Thus, sexual addiction rules the body as well as the heart.  

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Did you enjoy this blog? We think you’ll like the other blogs in this series, too! Be sure you check out what Dr. Lee has to say about the psychological and spiritual perspectives on sexual addiction in his other posts.

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Reference 

Erickson, M. J. (2013). Christian theology (3rd ed.). Grand Rapids, Mich.: Baker Book House. 

Struthers, W. M. (2009). Wired for Intimacy: How Pornography Hijacks the Male Brain. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press. 

The “60-day Lifestyle Project” is an assignment given in one of my classes that requires students to pick one good habit that they want to create (e.g., exercising more, drinking more water, reading the Bible regularly) and to keep doing that same activity every day for 60 days. As a professor, it has brought me great joy to see many of my students building good habits successfully. In just a few years of experience with this project, I found that one of the most popular activities students chose was to reduce their screen time. Since we are living in the digital age, it is impossible to imagine our lives without digital products. But my experiment has been providing evidence that many people are realizing that they are spending more time on screens than necessary.   

Why We Do What We Do  

Why are we spending excessive time on digital screens? Basically, we do what we do because we wish to seek pleasure and avoid pain. Therefore, we use digital products as a way to make ourselves feel better. Moreover, such products are useful in many ways, and they can increase our productivity to a certain point. But once you pass that threshold, your productivity actually decreases ¹. Even though you might recognize the harmful effects of digital products on your productivity and well-being (such as distracting our attention from very important things, including studying, taking care of our kids, and working), it is hard to reduce or stop this behavior. Uncontrolled and heavy consumption of technology disrupts the pleasure control system, leading to the bad habit becoming an addiction. You might be uncomfortable naming this behavior along with other severe forms of addiction, such as substance abuse; however, the two have much in common in terms of their definition and in how they work.   

Defining Addiction  

The root word addict comes from the Latin word addictus, which means “to devote, sacrifice, sell out, betray, or abandon.” In Roman law, an addict was a person that became enslaved through a court ruling—a secondary derivation from its legal usage that persisted as descriptive and no longer literal². The modern definition of addiction is a “persistent compulsive use of a substance known by the user to be harmful.” While the modern and Latin definitions are quite different, a connection can certainly be drawn between the two. Research has shown that addiction is a disease that chemically alters your brain, making you “a slave” to a behavior or substance². 

Brain Disease Model of Addiction  

In the past two decades, research has increasingly supported the view that addiction is a disease of the brain³. The brain disease model of addiction holds that addictions are chronic, relapsing brain diseases and that the relapses are symptoms—and part of the expected course—of the disease. As with other diseases, addictions can be caused by multiple factors, which can be behavioral, environmental, and biological. The brain disease model of addiction suggests that addiction can be explained by findings on the desensitization of reward circuits, which dampen the ability to feel pleasure and the motivation to pursue everyday activities; increasing strength of conditioned responses and stress reactivity, which results in increased cravings for alcohol and other drugs, as well as negative emotions when these cravings are not sated; and weakening of the brain regions involved in executive functions such as decision making, inhibitory control, and self-regulation, leading to repeated relapses³. 

Digital Addiction  

Behavioral addiction is a lot like substance addiction in many ways; however, it is much newer. Although such behavioral addictions do not involve a chemical intoxicant or substance, a group of researchers has posed that some core indicators of behavioral addiction are similar to those of chemical or substance addiction⁴. First of all, it is similar to substance addiction in that the addiction develops when we have a psychological need. We use substances when we are bored or feeling lonely (these are the moments when you are looking for what some people call the “adult pacifier”). Second, excessive use of digital products bears striking similarities to those diagnosed with substance abuse in terms of dopamine stimulation. While we are trying to remain connected by means of texting, tweeting, surfing the web, online shopping, and gambling, these actions activate the same neural circuits in our brains involved in the use of substances⁴.  Although not as intense as a hit of cocaine, the extensive use of digital products similarly results in a release of dopamine, reinforcing whatever behavior preceded it. Thus, users find themselves unable to stop, for when they are not using their devices, they are in a state of dopamine deficit ⁵.  

How to Break the Bad Habit?  

Is there any way to break the bad habit? This is a big question to answer here, but research has found some factors that can increase the possibility of success. People with a certain social status, meaningful jobs, spouse, and people who have bright futures are less likely to become addicted and stay addicted to something. In other words, people who have more things to lose are more likely to be resilient to addiction. Fortunately, this could apply not only to their physical condition but also to their psychological mindset and what they believe. To illustrate, if we believe that we have a lot of potential things to lose (e.g., if you know who you really are in Jesus Christ), then we will be less likely to become addicted and will have more of a chance to break the bad habits ⁶.   

Digital products aren’t going anywhere anytime soon, so it is up to us as users to decide how much of our time we want to dedicate to them. If you believe you are experiencing harmful effects from overusing digital products, why don’t you try some of the tricks that have been successful for my students. For example, some of them have set up a time limit use on their phones, placed their phone in a locked drawer, designated screen-free zones, and so on. More importantly, we need to remind ourselves of what we are losing while we are on screen.  

References 

1. https://www.brookings.edu/research/the-economy-and-the-internet-what-lies-ahead 

2. Richard J. Rosenthal & Suzanne B. Faris (2019) The etymology and early history of ‘addiction’, Addiction Research & Theory, 27:5, 437-449, DOI: 10.1080/16066359.2018.1543412 https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/epub/10.1080/16066359.2018.1543412?needAccess=true 

3. https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/nejmra1511480  

4. Alavi, S. S., Ferdosi, M., Jannatifard, F., Eslami, M., Alaghemandan, H., & Setare, M. (2012). Behavioral Addiction versus Substance Addiction: Correspondence of Psychiatric and Psychological Views. International journal of preventive medicine, 3(4), 290–294. 

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3354400/pdf/IJPVM-3-290.pdf

5. Constant craving: how digital media turned us all in to dopamine addicts https://www.theguardian.com/global/2021/aug/22/how-digital-media-turned-us-all-into-dopamine-addicts-and-what-we-can-do-to-break-the-cycle 

6. Myles, D. (2020). The Age of Addiction: How Bad Habits Became Big Business DAVID T. COURTWRIGHT Cambridge, USA: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2019 ISBN: 9780674737372, 336 pp. Hardcover. Price: US$27.95. Drug & Alcohol Review, 39(4), 428–429. 

https://doi-org.libproxy.calbaptist.edu/10.1111/dar.13047

Apologist Lisa Fields is the founder of the Jude 3 Project, a ministry with the intention of helping millennial and Generation Z Christians defend their faith through Scripture. As she was completing her Master of Divinity degree, she realized there was a need for apologetics that were specific to the Black American experience. The Jude 3 Project accomplishes this through a podcast, seminars and lectures, and numerous events, including an annual Courageous Conversations conference which gathers Black church leaders and theologians to discuss a variety of issues. In addition, Lisa Fields and Jude 3 have traveled to Historically Black Colleges and Universities to dispel racially based lies that stand in the way of effective evangelism. Lisa was recognized in Christianity Today for her impact on modern apologetics in the African American community.  

In addition, Lisa has innumerable resources, videos, curriculum, and courses available for those who desire to defend and know their faith. Lisa breaks down and clarifies complex theological concepts in a way that equips listeners to apply and ultimately defend their faith as referenced in Jude 3. Furthermore, as a Black woman in a male-dominated discipline, she stands out as an innovator in modern Christian thought. May God continue to build on the foundation Lisa Fields has set.  

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Check out the Student Contributions to this series here:

Paving the Way to Worship: Black Christian Leaders You Should Know by Hozell Francis II

Rev. George Liele: Church Planter, Missionary, and Servant of God by Hozell Francis II

Andrew Bryan: Pastor, Church Planter, and Servant of God by Armon Patrick

Dr. E. W. McCall: Innovator, Educator, Trendsetter by Hozell Francis II

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You can also find 2022 Black History Month blogs authored by CBU faculty here:

Why Black History Month? by Dr. Charles Lee Johnson

Why I Can’t Wait to Get my Ida B. Wells Barbie by Dr. Krystal Hays

Remembering to Forget, to Begin Again by Dr. Viola Lindsey

Not Black History Just History by Dr. Stephen Brown

Dr. Elisha W. McCall was born in Lake Providence, Louisiana on March 12, 1940. In 1962, racial discrimination led him to relocate to California. In response to the injustices he had encountered, he considered joining the civil rights movement. Instead, he employed the education he had received at Grambling State University as a teacher for 20 years.  

Pastor McCall’s emphasis on education influenced him to make Sunday School a hallmark of his ministry. In 1995, Baptist Press reported that St. Stephen’s Sunday School had grown to 1,000 in attendance. McCall stated in an interview, “When I came to California, I had this seething rage within me, but God turned and tilted it toward the Kingdom” (Roach). To this day, Sunday School is an integral part of the culture of St. Stephen where it is considered to be “the flagship” of the church. 

In 1970, McCall began his tenure as pastor of St. Stephen Missionary Baptist Church in La Puente, CA where he served, led, and innovated faithfully for 37 years. In addition to his bachelor’s degree, E.W. earned a Master of Divinity degree (MDiv) from American Baptist Seminary of the West and a Doctor of Ministry degree (DMin) from Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary. Under his leadership, the congregation grew from a group of 35 members meeting in a house to an all-purpose campus accommodating roughly 4,000 members.  

In 1993, Dr. McCall was instrumental in founding the National African American Fellowship of the Southern Baptist Convention. Today, this group represents about 4,000 predominantly Black congregations. In 2002, E. W. McCall was elected as the first African American to serve as second vice president of the Southern Baptist Convention. After retiring from the pastorate, Dr. McCall served as an African American ministry specialist with the Southern Baptist of Texas Convention. In honor of Dr. McCall, the SBTC endowed a scholarship for African American Master of Divinity Students at Gateway Seminary in 2013.  

Dr. E. W. McCall was the first African American to chair the board of trustees at Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary (now Gateway Seminary). Dr. McCall served as first vice president of the California Southern Baptist Convention and was a longtime trustee at California Baptist University where he served as Board Chair twice. He also served in several leadership positions within the Los Angeles Southern Baptist Association.  

Dr. Anthony Dockery, who is the current pastor of St. Stephen Missionary Baptist Church, remembers Dr. McCall as “a husband, father, grandfather, brother, uncle, and cousin on the highest level. Family was critically important to him. It would have been easy to get overwhelmed with education, church, convention life, serving on boards, and mentoring future leaders but he still nurtured a healthy and strong family first and foremost. He was also an exceptional administrator managing human and static resources with wisdom, intelligence, and prayer. Leading souls to Christ, discipling believers, and setting the table for them to eat from was Pastor McCall’s expertise. It was a God sized task to have a church with four thousand members that had a full time staff of five! Dr. McCall mastered lay ministry leadership and servanthood. He was a very balanced leader that had vision and strategy implementation that were unprecedented.” Dr. E.W. McCall left a legacy that continues to bear the fruit of his contributions to the church. Prayerfully, future generations will continue to highlight his life, ministry, and pioneering accomplishments. 

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Check out the Student Contributions to this series here:

Paving the Way to Worship: Black Christian Leaders You Should Know by Hozell Francis II

Rev. George Liele: Church Planter, Missionary, and Servant of God by Hozell Francis II

Andrew Bryan: Pastor, Church Planter, and Servant of God by Armon Patrick

Lisa Fields: Apologist and Servant of God by Armon Patrick

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You can also find 2022 Black History Month blogs authored by CBU faculty here:

Why Black History Month? by Dr. Charles Lee Johnson

Why I Can’t Wait to Get my Ida B. Wells Barbie by Dr. Krystal Hays

Remembering to Forget, to Begin Again by Dr. Viola Lindsey

Not Black History Just History by Dr. Stephen Brown

Andrew Bryan was born August 16, 1737, in South Carolina. He received Christ hearing the gospel preached by George Liele. Andrew Bryan was baptized in the Savannah River by George Liele and was a founding member of the First African Baptist Church. On January 20, 1788, Bryan was ordained as a minister. About nine months after George Liele left Georgia for Jamaica, Bryan had begun preaching to congregations of both Black and White parishioners. Bryan was willing to go to the extreme to make sure the gospel was preached, and fellowship was maintained within his congregation. This was evidenced by his imprisonment twice for conducting church services. On one occasion, Andrew was whipped so severely that one of the White men present said that “such treatment would be condemned even among the barbarians” (Davis, 124). Nevertheless, as Andrew Bryan was being whipped, witnesses reported that he rejoiced. He had concluded that even if he died during the punishment, he could take joy in knowing that he had died for the cause of Christ. 

The more Andrew continued to reach the lost among Black American slaves, the more attention he drew from masters who saw black American slaves coming to saving faith in Christ as a threat for revolt. Slave patrols would whip, arrest, and punish church-going slaves even when they had permission to be there. This is one of the earliest Christian persecutions in American history. Additionally, we see the Pastoral staff face grave injustice. “The culmination was that Andrew Bryan, their pastor himself, and his brother, Sampson Bryan, one of the first deacons, were ‘inhumanly cut and their backs were so lacerated that their blood ran down to the earth as they, with uplifted hands, cried unto the Lord; but Bryan in the midst of his torture, declared that he rejoiced not only to be whipped but would freely suffer death for the cause of Jesus Christ’” (Woodson, 49). This posture of rejoicing when receiving whipping and even facing death comes from knowing that being patient in suffering will lead to life in Christ for those who believe no matter how excruciating and heinous the persecution is.  

Bryan, his fellow staff, and congregants understood that the present suffering does not compare to the coming glory. Jesus explains to his disciples that the injustices they will face in this life will not only be an outstanding gospel witness, but that not even death can conquer the eternal life and glory we have in Christ. Andrew Bryan continued to serve the Kingdom, and by God’s grace the church grew exponentially. Furthermore, the growth of his church, which reached 700 members, caused the Second and Third African Baptist Churches of Savannah to be birthed. Andrew Bryan was willing to endure violence and persecution that provide the opportunity for gospel fruit to survive and thrive beyond his earthly days, and that truly is a blessing we ought to hear, celebrate, and model.  Let us remember, celebrate, and continue the legacy of Andrew Bryan. 

To learn more about George Liele check out this blog: Rev. George Liele: Church Planter, Missionary, and Servant of God

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Check out the Student Contributions to this series here:

Paving the Way to Worship: Black Christian Leaders You Should Know by Hozell Francis II

Rev. George Liele: Church Planter, Missionary, and Servant of God by Hozell Francis II

Dr. E. W. McCall: Innovator, Educator, Trendsetter by Hozell Francis II

Lisa Fields: Apologist and Servant of God by Armon Patrick

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You can also find 2022 Black History Month blogs authored by CBU faculty here:

Why Black History Month? by Dr. Charles Lee Johnson

Why I Can’t Wait to Get my Ida B. Wells Barbie by Dr. Krystal Hays

Remembering to Forget, to Begin Again by Dr. Viola Lindsey

Not Black History Just History by Dr. Stephen Brown

“Without any consideration of the merits or demerits of what is called the exceptional man theory, perhaps no two men stand out more prominently in the early history of the Negro church than George Liele and Andrew Bryan” (Davis, 119). For a statement like this to be made about these two men after the hundreds of thousands of Black preachers who have followed in their wake speaks volumes. George Liele was born in Virginia around 1751. After moving to Georgia as a youth, he was called to ministry.  

George Liele had a deep conviction that enslaved Blacks needed to hear the gospel message and after satisfying a quarterly meeting of White preachers of his ability to preach, he began to travel to plantations sharing the Word with his fellow Blacks. “Desiring to prove [the sense I had of] my obligations to God, I endeavored to instruct [the people of] my own color in the word of God” (Mitchell, 45). One of these endeavors led to the conversion of a young man named Andrew Bryan. In 1773, George Liele organized the First African Baptist Church in Savannah, GA. marking it as the first Black Baptist Church in North America. In response to this, his owner Mr. Henry Sharp granted him freedom from slavery.  

Liele was forced back into servitude when his manumission papers were called into question by individuals who likely sought to use him for their personal financial gain. By indenturing himself to a White man, he was able to prevent being re-enslaved. When the British military entered Savannah, Liele was forced to evacuate Jamaica because of the debt that he owed. After earning freedom for himself and his family, he began to preach to a congregation in Kingston, Jamaica in 1784.  

Eventually, he had organized a congregation of slaves and free Blacks numbering around 1500 regular members. Liele’s meetings were often interrupted by violent Whites who feared that Liele’s preaching would encourage slaves to revolt. To keep the gospel from being impeded, only slaves who had the permission of their owners could become members. In addition, the Jamaican legislature gave the right to freedom of religious expression to everyone on the island. By 1814, his efforts had resulted in around 8,000 Baptists in Jamaica. Many credit George Liele as the first American missionary. Throughout his career in ministry, Liele was well known to have accepted zero compensation for any of his church responsibilities. 

First African Baptist Church is still worshiping today and occupies a space on the National Register of Historic Places. The sanctuary contains many of the original fixtures, including pews which were crafted by slaves and contain cursive Hebrew, Ancient Ethiopian/Ge’ez, and Aramaic inscriptions. The legacy of faith, resilience, and Christian service that this man left behind is terribly underreported. May that cease to be the case. We thank God for the life and ministry of George Liele.  

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Check out the Student Contributions to this series here:

Paving the Way to Worship: Black Christian Leaders You Should Know by Hozell Francis II

Andrew Bryan: Pastor, Church Planter, and Servant of God by Armon Patrick

Dr. E. W. McCall: Innovator, Educator, Trendsetter by Hozell Francis II

Lisa Fields: Apologist and Servant of God by Armon Patrick

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You can also find 2022 Black History Month blogs authored by CBU faculty here:

Why Black History Month? by Dr. Charles Lee Johnson

Why I Can’t Wait to Get my Ida B. Wells Barbie by Dr. Krystal Hays

Remembering to Forget, to Begin Again by Dr. Viola Lindsey

Not Black History Just History by Dr. Stephen Brown

Black students of theology, and Black Christians in general, often find themselves wondering why the contributions Black Americans have presented to the collective fabric of our faith are often absent. Outside of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., very few if any Black American Christians are celebrated in our church-related academic studies. This leads to the false notion that Black Americans have adopted Christianity solely through various forms of forced conversion. Furthermore, it bolsters the assumption that Black people in this country have not made any notable contributions to the Kingdom of God. This series will serve to correct these fallacies by providing profiles of notable Black church leaders and the accomplishments of their ministries. 

This series explains how Christian persecution driven by slavery was the reason that the Baptist tradition flourished among Blacks in the American South, as well as on the island of Jamaica. While it is unfortunately true that many of our forefathers were introduced to the gospel as slaves, what they did with the message speaks volumes. The fact that these largely uneducated people could understand the redeeming and liberating love of God, in the midst of a culture that used the same Scriptures to enslave them, speaks to the actual condition of a saved soul. One of the great lessons the Black American church has shared with the world is that God often uses adversity to draw us closer to him. My hope is that through education, we can become more aware of the things we say and do in terms of our display of spiritual fruit. 

The overarching mission of this series is to recognize those little known Black American Christian leaders who have paved, and are paving the way for every Christian to worship God in spirit and in truth. We hope to accomplish this by drawing insights from Black American Christians who have had a consequential impact for God’s Kingdom both in this nation, and around the world. In addition, it explores the dichotomy that exists within the overall American Christian experience. It highlights Christian persecution inflicted by other Christians on account of race. It begs us to ask “How?” in hopes that what we derive from these exceptional Christian leaders will drive us all to be better disciples of Christ. As Armon Patrick and myself demonstrate through the profiling of the individuals in this series, the Black American Christian tradition has often been the pioneering force in church culture. In other words, Black Americans have always had a foundational place in American Christian history and continue to do so.  

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Check out the Student Contributions to this series here:

Rev. George Liele: Church Planter, Missionary, and Servant of God by Hozell Francis II

Andrew Bryan: Pastor, Church Planter, and Servant of God by Armon Patrick

Dr. E. W. McCall: Innovator, Educator, Trendsetter by Hozell Francis II

Lisa Fields: Apologist and Servant of God by Armon Patrick

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You can also find 2022 Black History Month blogs authored by CBU faculty here:

Why Black History Month? by Dr. Charles Lee Johnson

Why I Can’t Wait to Get my Ida B. Wells Barbie by Dr. Krystal Hays

Remembering to Forget, to Begin Again by Dr. Viola Lindsey

Not Black History Just History by Dr. Stephen Brown

In a recent blog series, Dr. Smith explored some ideas and tools for writing well (you can find an overview of the series here). An important resource available to you as a CBU student is the University Writing Center (UWC). Read on to hear from the Director of the UWC and two of the UWC’s Writing Coaches to learn how they may help shape the development of your writing skills! 

From Dr. Tae Sung, Director of the University Writing Center  

I don’t know about you. But I never thought I would ever go back to school after college. I remember completing my last final exam and thanking God I would never have to take another class. After all, Jesus gathered a bunch of fishermen—not degrees—to be his disciples, right?  

It is true… But after several years of serving God in full-time ministry, I also began to see that fishing wasn’t the only skill God needed. There’s Paul, for example, who lists his many accomplishments in his letter to the Philippians, which must have equaled at least to a master’s degree. Sure, he considered it all a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Jesus. But there’s still a reason why he wrote almost half the New Testament. Peter, one of the fishermen, barely wrote six pages in my Bible. 

Once I realized that God calls different people to serve as different parts of one body—some like Peter without higher education and others like Paul with a lot of it—I had this fishy suspicion that God was calling me to the very thing I thought I would never have to do. I still serve the church. But no one including myself would have guessed I would go on from a master’s to a doctoral degree and become a university professor.  

That transition from a youth pastor to a university professor, however, was far from easy. When I first began my graduate studies in an M.A. program, I was lost in at least two ways and unsure if I would ever be found again. The first challenge was realizing that graduate studies was less about getting a degree and more about becoming a professional in my field of study. It wasn’t just about doing literary criticism; it was about becoming a literary critic. Likewise, for you, it’s no longer just about doing this or that assignment; it’s now about becoming a scholar in your discourse community.  

Related to the first was a second challenge that had to do with my writing and communication. A big part of my problem was that over the years I began to rely on some bad habits and cheap tricks that no longer worked. I was so worried about my grammar and vocabulary that I failed to persuade anybody of what I was saying. It was not possible anymore to be satisfied with being a bad or mediocre writer. And it wasn’t just because I was in an English program. Effective writing and communication, in case you haven’t realized already, are essential to every profession out there. And a lot of times, they are the reasons why some people keep moving up and others don’t.  

The University Writing Center exists to remind you that the two challenges above are related. Becoming a professional means being an effective writer and communicator in the profession. This is not an easy task. But with the proper foundation, the mystery of writing will begin to dissipate and you’ll see more clearly how you can improve with some hard work. One key principle that you’ll need to remember is that writing is not just about correct grammar or number of paragraphs but, more importantly, about greater awareness of your credibility, audience, and purpose.  

Below, you’ll read from two of our writing coaches. Allison will share what she’s learned from the Writing Center and Sammy will share how the Writing Center can help you.  

What I Learned from My First Appointment and Since Becoming a Writing Coach 

By Allison Weaver, Writing Coach 

I realized I needed help when I received the grade for my first college writing assignment. I had always thought of myself as a decent writer, but it became clear that even good writing could always become better. And what I have learned since my first appointment with the Writing Center is that becoming a better writer had less to do with checking off a list of requirements and fixing my grammar and more to do with learning how to engage in an academic conversation.  

Now that I am a writing coach, I have gained a better understanding of what a purpose-driven writer should look like. The leading element to purpose-driven writing is writing clearly and persuasively. That’s the secret to a well written paper! This is something most students aspire for their writing to be once they leave a writing center appointment. It is most important as writers that we provide all the information upfront then guide our readers step-by-step to how we got our conclusion. By doing this, readers are able to see the well-developed format of your paper, leaving no room for confusion. Once you have mastered this element of your paper, it is now onto articulating your words in such a way that persuades your reader you know the material well. As writing center coaches, credibility is crucial. Stating your ethos will allow for your argument (logos) to better compliment your academic tone which is achieved through your pathos. 

How the Writing Center Can Help You 

By Sammy Carter, Writing Coach 

To accommodate each student’s availability, the Writing Center offers three types of appointments: on-campus, online, and email.  Each type is also designed with different stages of writing in mind. So, online appointments are usually best for the prewriting or outlining stage, while email appointments are usually better for complete drafts. On-campus appointments can go both ways with the added benefit of being able to talk with your writing coach in person.  

Even if a writing coach is unfamiliar with your particular subject, we are all trained to offer a general academic reader’s feedback to help with the clarity of your structure and the persuasiveness of your argument. If you need help with your sentences and grammar, we provide additional support through Grammarly, which you can sign up for at our website free of charge.  

Also, on our website, you can find other great resources like our video tutorials, as well as opportunities like our yearly Distinguished Public Lecture series, where we invite influential writers to share their work with the CBU community. Our first lecture last year was given by Nancy Duarte, CEO of one of the largest communication firms in Silicon Valley. We are hoping to release a study guide soon for you to dive deeper into DataStory and incorporate her insights into your own writing, just as we are getting ready to announce our next exciting speaker.  

As I reflected on what I wanted to say for my perspective for this Black History Month blog series, I’m always struck by the fact that many times Black History is relegated to our American history. That history for many of us starts at slavery and our ancestors being brought here against their will. In tracing my own history, my story can only back to a gentleman named Tom Pittman who “owned” my great-great grandparents. This led me to some sobering truths. First, that I’m literally only 2 generations removed from slavery. Secondly, that I am essentially cut off from my true history as an African living in America. As much as I would love to know the story of how my ancestors lived before being brought to the United States, or even the chain of specific events that landed them here, I know this information is now lost forever.  

Another sobering truth is that we rarely consider African history during Black History month. We rarely teach nor make sure our children are taught about Mansa Mousa, the Moors, or Hannibal. We rarely teach nor are our children taught that there weren’t slaves that were brought to this country, but doctors, chemists, philosophers, musicians, and mathematicians, etc. There is no way that “slaves” brought here to work, individuals who supposedly had no sophisticated language, could be responsible for the inventions and contributions to our society that we recall each year if this were truly the case. In fact, as we are now bombarded daily with new information about COVID and vaccines, it is impossible to tell the story of vaccines in the country without bringing African science into this narrative. In fact, as Herbert (2009) writes, “Inoculation for smallpox, the forerunner of vaccination, has had a long and variegated history. The earliest known descriptions of the practice in sub-Saharan Africa were given by African slaves in colonial America in the early and mid-eighteenth century”, meaning that the vaccination process that we know take for granted originated from Africans. These were the Africans who were brought here as slaves, remembering the customs of their homeland that served to cure their entire village from illnesses like smallpox. This was initially met with skepticism, but a gentleman named Cotton Mather introduced a process shown to him by one of the Africans that he “owned” who essentially inoculated his entire plantation, including Mr. Mather’s family, essentially giving them immunity from smallpox. Unless you’ve done research specifically on smallpox, how would one know about this groundbreaking contribution to creation the healthy country that we now enjoy?  

Our history is truly world history and shouldn’t be relegated to simply Garrett Morgan and George Washington Carver, although equally as important.  

I’ve recently began to research my African history through DNA testing in hopes of uncovering some hidden history, a history that my grandfather passed away without ever knowing. I want to pass this information to my own children who will hopefully take it even further as technology advances. It saddens me that many of my elders never had a chance to even consider this new information during their lifetime, but I feel like I owe it to the generations that follow to provide them with as much information as humanly possible. Hopefully this journey of personal discovery can lead me to my ancestral country of origin. The same origin that many non-Africans in the US have had available to them since their birth. It has been said that African Americans in this country are essentially a lost people. Every other nationality in the country can trace their ancestry through the generations back to their ancestral country of origin without interference or missing information other than information missing due to family secrets for example. African Americans are essentially cut off from this ancestry voyage which leaves a void that can never be filled. That sense of belonging, connection, and pride for their ancestral home is lost for many African Americans due to no fault of our own. This loss manifests itself in a variety of ways our society, from the cycles of drug abuse and poverty that plague many cities in America to the many broken homes that exist in many of these same cities. Many scholars attribute this to the historical tradition of breaking up family through the sale of family members based on the needs of slave owners which routinely sold children and spouses, never to be heard from again. This served to eradicate the family structure as family were simply not allowed to exist as intact family unit.  

My hope is that African Americans, just like many of our friends and neighbors are all privileged enough to have this discovery and begin to think more as global citizens and realize that our history begins far before being brought to this country. My hope is that we travel extensively to other countries to see other faces that look like ours in other countries and recognize that kinship and sense of belonging that I have felt in my travels. It is only then that we will begin to see collectively as a people that our history far more than what is being discussed every February and far more extensive than we can ever conceptualize. Our true history is not simply Black history, but the history of this world. This history can never be fully told without making known the immense contributions from people that look just like me.  It is not until our brothers and sisters who have not been affected by these same atrocities are as upset by these atrocities as those who suffered from them, will things ultimately begin to change for the better.  The question that I have is will this legacy end with us as we owe it those that have come before us to pay it forward? Sadly, whenever there are good faith attempts to address these wrongs, it is often met with silence or even aggression.  Is America truly willing to do her part to begin to right this wrong or will she continue to look the other way in the essence of comfort? 

“In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.”  

   ~Martin Luther King, Jr.  

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Want to read more in our 2022 Black History Month Blog series? Check out all the posts below!

Why Black History Month? by Dr. Charles Lee-Johnson

Why I can’t wait to get my Ida B. Wells Barbie by Dr. Krystal Hays

Remembering to Forget, to Begin Again by Dr. Viola Lindsey

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Check out the Student Contributions to this series here:

Paving the Way to Worship: Black Christian Leaders You Should Know by Hozell Francis II

Rev. George Liele: Church Planter, Missionary, and Servant of God by Hozell Francis II

Andrew Bryan: Pastor Church Planter, and Servant of God by Armon Patrick

Dr. E. W. McCall: Innovator, Educator, Trendsetter by Hozell Francis II

Lisa Fields: Apologist and Servant of God by Armon Patrick

Viola W Lindsey, MSW, PhD

Surely, he shall never be shaken. The righteous man will be remembered forever, Psalm 112:6

My mind is in a concentrical circle, at the core of which is wonderment; wondering how might it be possible to condense 400 years and 146,000 days of Black History into one-twelfth of a year and 28 days. The answer came in the form of a question from the inquisitive mind of a 10-year-old who had the audacity to ask, Grammy, how come every year during Black History month we only talk about Dr Martin Luther King and Rosa Parks; weren’t there any other people involved in the cause?

While the question felt almost blasphemous, it was a reminder to consider remembering the names of some of the lesser known and lesser talked about individuals. There are many individuals who not only participated in but gave their lives in the struggle for Black rights and freedoms. Sometimes we forget to remember. Our forgetfulness does not make them any less a necessary part of history. There will be others who will ask the same question: weren’t their others whose names are never mentioned? The very thought of such a question should arouse the collective consciousness of our dereliction in failing to remember, and hence its collective neglect of preserving deserved stories. As practitioners and social scientists, research has shown us the power of storytelling in teaching, forging relationships, and, arguably above all, inspiring people to make change.

Tangential as they may seem compared to the role of an individual like Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., there are individuals whose contributions to the Civil Rights Movement are just as noteworthy. Take for example, Claudette Colvin. At age 15 in 1955, Claudette preceded Rosa Parks in her refusal to give up her bus seat to a white woman. She was arrested and charged with being a juvenile delinquent. That charge made Claudette Colvin unsuitable to be the face of the Civil Rights Movement. Nine months later, Rosa Parks was arrested for the same ‘crime’ as Ms. Colvin. At this point the Montgomery bus boycott is now in full swing. The story of Rosa Parks remains etched in our storytelling today. But we also remember Claudette Colvin. In 2021, at the age of 82, Ms. Colvin’s record was expunged, and she is no longer considered a juvenile delinquent.

We remember the “Little Rock Nine” during Black History Month. But little is said about Autherine Lucy. Under protest, riots, and civil unrest, Autherine Lucy enrolled in the University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa in 1955. Within three days she was expelled ‘for her own safety’. Her dismissal would later be annulled. Re-enrolling in the University of Alabama in the 1980’s along with her daughter, Lucy earned a master’s degree in elementary education and an honorary doctorate degree from both the University of Alabama and her alumnus, Miles College, A Historical Black University (HBCU). A historical marker now hangs at the University of Alabama in honor of Lucy’s courage. Vivian Malone and James Hood would later enroll in the University of Alabama in 1963 as the then Governor of Alabama, George Wallace, stood in the door to block their entrance. Malone became the first African American to graduate from the university.

We remember the 16^th Street church bombing in Birmingham, Alabama where four young girls ages 11 and 14 were killed. I want to remember James Chaney, Michael Schwerner, both Jewish, and Andrew Goodman, an African American, who were murdered in Philadelphia, Mississippi in the midst of offering art classes, and curriculum on Black History while participating in a Black voters’ registration drive.

Who can forget Viola Liuzzo, a White civil rights activist from Detroit, Michigan was horrified by the images she saw of ‘Bloody Sunday’ on television? Leaving her husband and children in the care of others, she drove to Marion, Alabama where she took part in the three-day march from Selma to Montgomery. While transporting marchers from Montgomery to Selma, Viola Liuzzo was shot and killed by four Klansmen.

Sometimes during remembering, we forget. Perhaps it is the time to begin again to acknowledge and shine the light on ‘weren’t their others’?

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Want to read more in our 2022 Black History Month Blog series? Check out all the posts below!

Why Black History Month? by Dr. Charles Lee-Johnson

Why I can’t wait to get my Ida B. Wells Barbie by Dr. Krystal Hays

Not Black History Just History by Dr. Stephen Brown

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Check out the Student Contributions to this series here:

Paving the Way to Worship: Black Christian Leaders You Should Know by Hozell Francis II

Rev. George Liele: Church Planter, Missionary, and Servant of God by Hozell Francis II

Andrew Bryan: Pastor Church Planter, and Servant of God by Armon Patrick

Dr. E. W. McCall: Innovator, Educator, Trendsetter by Hozell Francis II

Lisa Fields: Apologist and Servant of God by Armon Patrick