Welcome!

“Do Not Be Afraid … You Are My Dearest Friends”*

Toxic Fear is perhaps life’s greatest hostage-taker. One psychiatrist calls it a “disease of the imagination.” Fear and disabling Worry can start off like a tiny seed and, watered by thoughts that emphasize worst-case scenarios, grow into a virus-like fiend that ends up dominating our mental state. It then holds us back from our ability to enjoy nearly every dimension of our life: our talents, our work, our love, our play, and our approach to a life in the Spirit.

This website is dedicated to three major Defense Systems that can be effective in helping us overcome the insidious nature of fear, as well as other mental health demons like depression. It will also focus on how we can better live out our lives free of those persistent foragers that roam throughout the corners of our minds… relentlessly haunting us.

Those three Defense Systems are: Spirituality, Psychology and Addiction. All three of these provide newly developed means of delving into the root causes of fear and depression and other mental health disorders, and assisting people in finding improved pathways to freedom, joy, and peace.

“Do not be afraid” – a phrase found 365 times in Sacred Scripture!

*Luke 12:32; translation found in The Bible in Contemporary Language, Eugene H. Peterson

Recent Posts

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  • Conforming to “the Real World”

    My friend, Ted Wolgamot, a retired psychologist, also writes a weekly essay on religious matters and last week included this anecdote. A priest received a phone call from an irate …

  • Is Forgiveness Overrated?

    A recent article in the New York Times reports on a new book by trauma therapist Amanda Gregory entitled, “You Don’t Need to Forgive: Trauma Recovery on Your Own Terms.” …

  • The Best We Can Do?

    It’s strange what you remember, and don’t remember, in old age. I remember, for instance, the oddity of the snail darter – a tiny, seemingly insignificant fish that stopped for …

  • All About Heaven?

    Fox News interviewed former president Donald Trump in early June and among the questions was one on the meaning of religion. I’ll provide his answer, but first, a caveat. This …

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Past Posts

mm Tom Carney

Who, or What, is God?

Jul 25, 2024

Do you ever stop to think about who, or what God is, and where we get our image of God? The title of this blog, “Who or What is...

mm Tom Carney

Conforming to “the Real World”

Jul 18, 2024

My friend, Ted Wolgamot, a retired psychologist, also writes a weekly essay on religious matters and last week included this anecdote. A priest received a phone call from an...

mm Tom Carney

Is Forgiveness Overrated?

Jul 11, 2024

A recent article in the New York Times reports on a new book by trauma therapist Amanda Gregory entitled, “You Don’t Need to Forgive: Trauma Recovery on Your Own...

mm Tom Carney

The Best We Can Do?

Jul 04, 2024

It’s strange what you remember, and don’t remember, in old age. I remember, for instance, the oddity of the snail darter – a tiny, seemingly insignificant fish that stopped...

mm Tom Carney

All About Heaven?

Jun 27, 2024

Fox News interviewed former president Donald Trump in early June and among the questions was one on the meaning of religion. I’ll provide his answer, but first, a caveat....

mm Tom Carney

The Problem with Randomness

Jun 20, 2024

I was working on my bike a couple of weeks ago and in lifting it onto a rack where I could move the chain freely, I put my right...

mm Tom Carney

My Friend Peter

Jun 12, 2024

If you’re a Christian, or seeking God in the Christian tradition, do you ever feel like you don’t quite measure up? I do, and I mentioned this in a...

mm Tom Carney

Does Education Jeopardize Faith?

Jun 06, 2024

I recently read an online article from the publication, desiringgod.com, based on research by the Pew Research Center that reports that “roughly 70 percent of high school students who...