This is a post I borrowed from my friend Jen Reid's blog http://jenperkins.blogspot.com/ Like me, she has a social work degree. What she talks about here is so true! Since being in the social services workforce I have constantly struggled with balancing my professional ethics and faith - some of the time they are aligned with each other but sometimes they are in conflict. There are times I have to work with families when I don't agree with their lifestyle choices and I have to give them the same professional courtesy and hard work that I would give any other family. One of the things social work has taught me is to have an open mind and open heart when dealing with people. I have to be polite and considerate of parents I internally might despise because they hurt or neglected their children - but I also have learned to look at them with a fresh perspective and try to see what their strengths are, what contributes to their circumstances and what they need. Sometimes I think that all Christians should have social work training. As Christians all to often we look down on others instead of thinking what we can do to help (the panhandler on the corner, the alcoholic, the pregnant teen, the man having an affair). As social workers, we try to first ask what people are needing and what we can bring to the situation to help. Bottom line of my ramblings - While social work and faith have many of the same values at times they are drastically different and it is a challenge to balance them.

"I received my BSW (social work) from ACU and was taught about this helping profession from people whose knowledge of social work and their deeply rooted faiths fit together like white on rice. somehow, at UT, this has gotten lost for me; lost in the severely opinionated, political, and let's just say different lens of which these subjects are taught to me. I think as a general whole, social workers are passionate about the rights to which all people should have, being the voice for those who can't speak, being advocates to change policy that effects those who are vulnerable, even changing the way we perceive those with the worst stigmas in our society. That is common. But then there are foundational biblical truths that have become...blurry. I lost my own voice, wanting to be polite, wanting to conform, and wanting to fit in. It is sad that is true for me at 25. I am not ashamed of what I believe, it is apart of who I am, but I am afraid of how to communicate that to a school so obviously fighting for worldly acceptance. Not in reverence to an all loving and all powerful God.

I have been searching why I have had my attitude about school. I have complained about the program, the teachers, the whole process, without identifying why I may feel so out of place, so uncomfortable in my school. It took me a year and a half to communicate that.

Let me clarify one thing. It is not a waste of time, I value the education that I am receiving and there is no doubt that a professional degree will open doors for me to do a job that I do believe I have a God given gift for. I just didn't realize that some definite soul searching and questioning, not to mention some serious attitude, would be such a big part of the deal."