GUEST POST ~ Toxic Positivity
Kate Bowler, professor of the history of Christianity in North America at Duke Divinity University, is a person I admire but have never met. I came across her account of American “prosperity” Christianity about two year ago. Later I read her book about her experience of dealing with stage four colon cancer. She continues this battle to this day. The realism of Kate’s faith, tested in the fire of suffering, has been a valuable source for me in my struggle with chronic physical challenges for two-plus decades. (You can check out Kate’a work at her webpage: https://katebowler.com).
On her most recent podcast Kate interviewed Harvard professor, Dr. Susan David. The subject was “toxic positivity.” This dialogue helped me see how this toxic teaching has often tripped me up. Let me explain why this matters for the church in America.
Toxic positivity deprives us of the serious motivation to make healthy changes. We face some massive challenges in the early 21st century. But forms of toxic positivity tell us all we need to do is seek to be more positive and trust God. In so doing this limits our awareness of almost every negative, and uncomfortable, reality that would lead us to make serious changes. It sets us up to judge those we think too negative. It easily leads many Christians to live a life that is set up for massive failure. You hear this when a person says, “We should just trust God and everything will be better.” I often hear Christians say things like: "We should not fear COVID19, the death of our loved ones or the problems of the poor and oppressed. Stop seeking to solve problems and just look for the world to come.”
Here is a major personal example of what I refer to – a person with toxic positivity will likely return (repeatedly) to an abusive relationship “because I want to just focus on the positive aspects of our relationship and hold out hope that he will change!" Another might run up huge credit card bills on frivolous things because they’re "staying positive" about their future earnings. Some Christians use Scripture to argue that they should give more generously because this will lead to bigger blessings. I could list dozens of examples but you get the picture.
Make no mistake about this – we do need to have a heart filled with Christ-centered hope. But real Christian hope is not positive thinking. Jesus was filled with hope and suffered immeasurably. If you think you might have been infected with some form(s) of toxic positivity ask questions like these: Are you afraid of conflict? Do you lack confidence in your problem-solving skills? Do you have a belief that certain emotions like anger are “bad” rather than recognizing that anger is often a healthy indicator that someone may be violating our boundaries? Christians commonly dodge such probing questions. They look for peace, in the wrong place, and end up embracing toxic positivity in new forms.
I am learning to face each day with hope, not positive energy generated by toxic self-help talk. The way to keep hope alive is to experience divine love leading me to deep joy in all circumstances. Can we find a way to seek joy in our suffering and darkest moments? Jesus did when he became God forsaken on Calvary. Look to him, not to cultural cliches and self-help counsel.
Pax Christi,
John H. Armstrong
www.theinitiative.org
They Initiative will again have an annual meeting at Green Lake (Wisconsin). We plan to gather in person, June 20-23, 2022. Go to the website and make plans now to join us.
I am seriously considering making short YouTube videos again. (I stopped about a year ago to focus on finishing my book, Tear Down These Walls.) Here is how you find my channel – https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCjylGCjuuS4rxZIQaic_7pQ
My good friend Steve Crosby put together a video that includes contributions I made to his project several years ago. Finally, after many delays, this film is available. https://youtu.be/MexBtKxtcrw
Brother Lawrence
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