by Tom King | Mar 2, 2026 | Integral Insights
I recently heard the term moral elevation on a radio podcast. In doing follow-up research I learned that this is a simple, yet important psychological concept, which is in essence that warm, uplifting feeling you get when you see someone do something good, something...
by Tom King | Feb 3, 2026 | Grace, Integral Insights
Author and professor of theology and ethics at Fuller Theological Seminary, Lewis B. Smedes, who died in 2002, wrote an interesting book entitled Shame & Grace: Healing the Shame we Don’t Deserve. In this book, Smedes talked about “gracious grace” as well as...
by Tom King | Jan 25, 2026 | Integral Insights
This is not my usual newsletter regarding religious shame but I wanted to share my own thoughts and feelings about what is going on in this country because many of us are struggling with feelings of national shame and horror. As a therapist, I know how important it is...
by Tom King | Jan 10, 2026 | Integral Insights
These are challenging times we live in as we witness the eternal battle between good and evil being played out in dramatic ways before our eyes. None of this is new, of course, but today we have the impact of firsthand recordings of events and the immediate...
by Tom King | Dec 6, 2025 | Integral Insights
For Christians, Christmas is a season of hope, joy, and faith, with treasured traditions going back centuries. These are beautiful and meaningful for believers, yet of course, many struggle to believe or reject religion altogether. We all know that for...
by Tom King | Nov 1, 2025 | Integral Insights
1 Corinthians 13: 11-12 When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. The apostle Paul understood the developmental process of growing mentally, emotionally, and...
by Tom King | Oct 4, 2025 | Integral Insights, Wholehearted Faith
We all seem to be struggling with the effects of violence, polarization, and shame-based rhetoric and behaviors that are hitting us every day. These things have been around forever but never, in my experience, to this level of consistency and volatility. It...
by Tom King | Sep 5, 2025 | Integral Insights
We are daily reminded of the complex, distressing, and frightening challenges we face on both local and global scales. Here we are again, this time in Minnesota, dealing with a horrific act of senseless violence against children. Some scholars are...
by Tom King | Aug 19, 2025 | Integral Insights
I have been struggling to find words to express the dark thoughts and feelings many of us who are Christians are confronting these days. A recent article in the Sunday edition of The Minnesota Star Tribune about Vance Boelter and his religious beliefs and...
by Tom King | Jul 4, 2025 | Integral Insights, Wholehearted Faith
Sometimes the reality of extreme, shame-based religious and political views hit very close to home as we have seen recently in the tragic assassinations of Melissa Hortman, Speaker Emerita of the Minnesota House of Representatives and her husband Mark, and attempted...
