Counseling News from the Week of July 3, 2026
Explanation for this special Fourth of July weekly compilation of articles:
Because this is a special week, there have been fewer counseling articles than normal, but there have been more articles than usual discussing topics like the importance of our Constitution and Bill of Rights, which together form the foundation for our government and protect our individual rights. Our Constitution is the longest surviving Constitution in the world. The contrast between the longevity of our Constitution, which drew strongly from biblical principles, and the constitution of the French Revolution, which totally repudiated Christian principles, and which survived less than one century, demonstrates how Godly principles create a much healthier society than does a secular one.
And there have been recent reports about how most Americans are ashamed of our country. A recent poll shows that is not true, and that 2/3 of Americans are very appreciative of the freedoms and opportunities America offers them. I encourage you to read these articles as well as the counseling-related ones.
Explanation: Although I scan the Internet primarily for counseling articles, in the process I run across quotes and interesting facts that I sometimes include in these first two sections. If you’re just interested in the counseling articles, you can skip these first two sections and go directly to the section called Counseling Articles. HV
Interesting Quotes
“To study and not think is a waste. To think and not study is dangerous.”
Confucius, "Analects"
“The measure of a country’s greatness is its ability to retain compassion in times of crisis.”
THURGOOD MARSHALL
"Don't be afraid to feel as angry or as loving as you can, because when you feel nothing, it's just death."
Lena Horne
“Always dream and shoot higher than you know you can do.”
William Faulkner
“Be courteous to all, but intimate with few, and let those few be well tried before you give them your confidence.”
George Washington
"The bitterest tears shed over graves are for words left unsaid and deeds left undone."
Harriet Beecher Stowe
"The world breaks everyone, and afterward, many are strong at the broken places."
Ernest Hemingway, from "A Farewell to Arms"
Comment on the first Fourth of July celebration: "I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated, by succeeding Generations, as the great anniversary Festival."
John Adams, July 3, 1776
Fascinating Facts
An interesting fact I learned this week. If trees up North did not engage in a process called “hardening” each winter, the water in the cells would cause the cells to burst when it froze and cause all trees to die. To prepare for winter, God designed a process to happen each Fall that prepares the tree to survive temperatures as low as -40 degrees Fahrenheit. The following two sentences are quoted from the National Forest Foundation. “Hardening (or "hardening off") is a tree's natural cellular preparation for winter. Triggered by shorter days and cooler temperatures, the tree dehydrates its cells, increases sugar and protein concentrations, and thickens cell walls. This biological antifreeze prevents irreversible cellular freezing.” Just one more evidence of Intelligent Design!
Listen to the Soothing Sounds of Forests from Around the World
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Some Articles Related to Our Countries Founding and Pride in America
The Contrast Between the U.S. Constitution and the Bill of Rights and Secular Constitutions
This week we can look with thankfulness at our Constitution and Bill of Rights, which is the longest surviving Constitution in the world. Between it and the Bill of Rights these two documents not only set up the framework of government but also established the rights of citizens.
Contrast it with the secular constitution developed by the French Revolution, which went so far as to create its own secular calendar of world history, since it did not want to include anno domini (year of our Lord) in any reference. The French constitution and calendar lasted less than a century before collapsing. See the short video in the article below for a brief comparison of why one succeeded and the other failed.
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America and France: The Story of Two Revolutions
This 5½ minute video describes three important differences between the American Revolution, which produced one of the most successful countries the world has ever known, and the French Revolution, which produced the guillotine, much bloodshed, and collapsed within one century.
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The Theology of Thomas Jefferson
This 2½ minute video by Albert Mohler gives a balanced view of Thomas Jefferson. Mohler explains how Jefferson, although he created his own Bible (much to the consternation of evangelicals), was not a typical deist (someone who believed God created the world and then left it to run on its own), because he did genuinely believe that God intervened in the affairs of human civilization, including the founding of our country.
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Trump’s Religious Liberty Commission Releases Report Challenging Church-State Separation
The phrase “wall of separation of Church and State” does not appear in the Constitution or the Bill of Rights but was written in a letter by Thomas Jefferson to affirm that the United States would not set up an official state religion as some European countries had done. Most of the Founders were Christians, and biblical principles were thoroughly incorporated into the Constitution. Many of our laws are examples of applications of the Ten Commandments. So, what does it mean to have church-state separation? This commission wants to help us understand this. The draft prepared by the Religious Liberty Commission will be open for public comment for 15 days.
While most of us will not have the time or motivation to read the 200 pages of this report, it does include many things that Christians would affirm, including the idea that the United States was founded as a Christian nation, the fact that the U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights were designed for a moral country, the importance of respecting parental religious rights, and the importance of a culture encouraging religious rights of its citizens.
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Proof most Americans are proud of our nation, despite all our talk of falling patriotism
We’ve heard several reports this week of many Americans being ashamed of being Americans, but this poll of more than 2,000 generation Z citizens found that 2/3 are appreciative of living in America and of the privileges we have. And we should pay attention to the reports from visitors from other countries, who comment on what a great country this is.
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Counseling Articles
'Off With His Head': What Good is Prince Charming?
When I first read the title of this article, I was inclined not to read further. But I’m glad that I did. It explains what occurs symbolically in the traditional fairy tale—a beautiful character development for both the prince and princess. This contrasts with the contemporary female story, that includes a strong female who doesn’t need a man for her development. It contrasts with what the authors believe is a healthier story, where a maturing man and woman find each other, realize they are more complete with each other, and mature together.
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Fathers, Hope, and Working-Class Men's Discontent
This article, based on research in many countries, shows that many working-class men are not happy with their lives. Their level of happiness or unhappiness is not drastically different than that of college educated men, but it is lower.
The article identifies several things that cause young working-class men to be dissatisfied. Other writers and speakers have said this does not need to be because of financial issues—there are several skilled trades that offer very good earning potential. I would encourage counselors, parents and teachers to read this article to understand the factors that are causing working-class men to feel less than happy with their lives. I think through positive teaching this situation could be changed.
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Simulated Spirituality: How AI Is Shaping Religious Practice
Although I don’t think this has made a great impact on evangelical’s spiritual lives, among more liberal and secular individuals, there is an increasing reliance on chatbots and robotic monks for spiritual guidance. It helps to be aware of this trend since some of you are counseling secular clients, even though this practice may not be common in the lives of evangelicals at this time.
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Beyond the Paycheck: What’s Behind America’s Marriage Divide?
The percentage of young people getting married has been declining in the last 30 years, but among working class men it has been declining more rapidly, even though the stability of jobs for this group has been remaining steady or even improving during these years. Clearly more could be done with this age group to help them be aware that life is often better and more fulfilling when married than going through life alone.
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Can We Have Our Humans Back? Why Some Companies Are Rethinking AI.
In the early days of AI, some companies rapidly downsized, thinking they could save money by replacing humans with AI. But now companies are reconsidering some tasks where humans are better than AI. One quote from the article identifies such tasks: ““Human employees remain more cost-effective in client-facing communications that require empathy and judgment, tasks that require reading between the lines of what a customer actually needs, work involving proprietary context that cannot safely be fed into third-party AI systems, and any workflow where a mistake has reputational or legal consequences.”
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The State of the LGBT Movement at the End of Pride Month
I’ve changed the title of this article from the New York Times to more accurately reflect its content. Since it’s from the New York Times you won’t be able to read it without a subscription, so I’ll summarize its major points. Although June was advertised as Gay Pride month, it seems in the United States, that support for many issues within the LGBT movement is waning. For the first time, support for gay marriage has declined, which affects the first three letters of the LGBT movement, and support for transgender individuals, especially natal males playing in female sports and sharing female restrooms, has significantly decreased (some reports say about 70% of Americans believe that female sports and female restrooms should be restricted to natal females. (See next article for ruling that came out Wednesday morning.)
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Supreme Court upholds state laws banning transgender girls and women from school athletic teams
In a ruling Wednesday morning the Supreme Court ruled that state laws in West Virginia and Idaho accurately applied Title IX protections for girls and women in sports. The ruling does not apply immediately to the 23 states that presently allow transgender girls to play on girl’s teams, but it does open the door to plaintiffs in these states to bring suits saying that the state law is ignoring Title IX and placing girl’s health and safety in jeopardy. The Supreme Court ruling does not address protections for women’s spaces.
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The Supreme Court’s Ruling on Birthright Citizenship
To the disappointment of many conservatives, the Supreme Court disagreed with the Trump Administration’s executive decision to end birthright citizenship for children of persons who are not legal citizens and for people who fly to the United States to have a child here on a tourist visa. The original Amendment to the Constitution was created so that Negro children born here in the United States would be granted citizenship and did not envision the ways this is being employed in the 21st century. So political analysts are saying this needs to be changed via another Constitutional Amendment (a difficult process) or by finding another case to present to the Supreme Court, or by writing a new law to clarify the issue.
Some are disappointed with Amy Comey Barrett, who voted that the Constitution and 14th Amendment upheld birthright citizenship, but I think she is correct in her analysis that the words of the Constitution and Amendments as presently written, do say that children born in the United States do receive U.S. citizenship. So therefore, an amendment or new laws need to be passed to clarify this issue.
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Rapid and Ultradian Cycling in Bipolar
If you work with bipolar patients either occasionally or frequently I encourage you to read this article because of the helpfulness of the information in it, not just about rapid-cycling and ultra-rapid cycling bipolar illness, but also about bipolar illness in general.
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I Sold My Body and Couldn’t Quit Heroin. But God Pursued Me.
One speaker said this when comparing secular and Christian counseling: “We have better stories to tell.” This true story from Christianity Today tells of a young woman, addicted to heroin and prostitution, and how God transformed her life. She is now married and the mother of three, and even though she is facing both breast and brain cancer, her faith provides a strong anchor for her life.
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Why Evangelicals have been slow to discern Right-wing distortions of the Gospel
Since this has been a slow week in terms of counseling articles, here was an article from the Christian Post which, while having nothing to do with counseling, I thought was interesting.
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I hope you have a wonderful 4th of July!
Henry Virkler