STORY OF THE WEEK: Unmasking the Pitfalls of Toxic Positivity in the Church
Moving Beyond Hallelujahs and Embracing the Full Spectrum of Human Emotion
So there I was brainlessly scrolling through Facebook reels before bed.
I know, I know.
Of all the things I could do before bed, this was a bad choice.
On this particular evening, the Facebook algorithm decided that for some reason I needed to be fed a steady diet of evangelical preaching and worship. I just wanted cat videos, but Facebook would have none of it.
Instead, I got a bunch of sermon grabs, excerpts from hyped up prayer and praise expression sessions, and Bible verses set to music with nature photos in the background.
Some of it made me feel nostalgic for the time in when my life was immersed in evangelical church culture. After all, it wasn’t all bad. But, other videos left me feeling triggered and angry, particularly the one I want to talk about here.
The offending video
The video in question was a sermon bite by a preacher names Dr. Steven J. Lawson, a 40 year veteran of the ministry and the current pastor of Trinity Bible Church in Dallas, Texas.
The video is an exhortation about how Christians ought to be grateful and praise God in every single circumstance.
“If you’re a Christian, then you have ten thousand reasons to praise God. And your song of praise should be that of David in Psalm 103:1 — “Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me bless his holy name,” says Dr Lawson.
Then he continues, “Even if you’ve come here today and there is great difficulty in your life, which may well be the case, I want you to know, nevertheless, you have every reason to praise God.”
“And when you put them on the scales, the reasons to praise God so far outweigh whatever would be weighing you down, that you should just be constantly praising God.”
If you want to view the video, here is the link.
Now, you might think to yourself, “What’s the problem with this video?” and I wouldn’t blame you. In fact, in my former life, this was the kind of video that might stir me to shout “Amen!”
But not anymore.
And there are a few simple reasons why this video triggered me. Here they are:
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