Bio
Gary Berg is a retired Lutheran pastor (ELCA) and mental health chaplain. For 25 years, he served as the Chief of Chaplain Service with the Department of Veterans Affairs in Saint Cloud, Minnesota. While leading his service as a mental health chaplain, Gary developed an electronic medical records program that assessed the spiritual needs of more than 4,000 veterans suffering from addictions, post-traumatic stress disorder, and mental illness. In this assessment program, he defined and developed the Berg Spiritual Injury Scale, which measures the significance of spiritual and moral injuries suffered by individuals who have experienced traumatic and existential crises.
Gary has published articles in The Journal of Clinical Psychology, The Journal of Pastoral Care, the Journal of Health Care Chaplaincy, and Chaplaincy Today. These articles provide quantitative data demonstrating the importance of spirituality and religious faith in people's lives. Also indicated are the damage and tangible harm done to a person's spiritual or existential core by spiritual and moral injury. Gary continues to write about post-traumatic stress disorder, spirituality, and spiritual and moral injury.
The spiritual assessment and the spiritual injury instruments included with this website emphasize the importance of gathering quantitative information when assessing religion, spirituality, and core values in a person's life. With the advent of artificial intelligence (AI), Big Data, and algorithms to understand human nature and define our future, those of us spiritually orientated must develop a hard science of religion to find a place at the table.
Gary and his wife, Margaret Brossoit, live in Saint Cloud, Minnesota. Besides writing, Gary enjoys golf, playing guitar in a church band, and traveling with Margaret. Before his marriage to Margaret, Gary spent six winters sailing solo on his boat Sierra, along the Gulf Coast and Atlantic seaboard between New Orleans and Boston. Along with travel and grandchildren, Margaret enjoys gardening, which she has developed into an art form.