We’re reflecting on an excellent essay by Christian Smith, “On ‘Moralistic Therapeutic Deism’ as U.S.Teenagers’ Actual, Tacit, De Facto Religious Faith,” which I found at the website for the Princeton Theological Seminary.
Christian Smith wrote Soul Searching: The Religious and Spiritual Lives of American Teenagers
In what sense is the Christianity practiced by most of our teen and adults members “therapeutic”? And isn’t Christianity in fact therapeutic? Shouldn’t we understand that Jesus helps our marriages, relationships, and emotional well being?
Well, yes, in fact Christianity is very good for our emotional well being. It builds our self-esteem, helps us in our marriages, our parenting, and our relationship. No doubt about it, Christianity is good for our mental health — and it’s supposed to be.
The problem arises when we see our emotional well being as the end-all of Christianity. If we think that Jesus died and was resurrected so that we’d feel better about ourselves, then we have a very self-centered, narcissistic religion. Any time Christianity becomes “me” focused, it becomes heretical.
About 30 or 40 years ago, it become popular for preachers to preach sermons built on a Christianized pop psychology. Many churches hired fulltime counselors. Many preachers earned degrees in counseling. Indeed, today many see the primary role of ministers and elders as mental health counselors.
Now, the truth is that there is a desperate need for excellent counseling among our members. Please don’t take me as being against counseling or helping our members with their emotional needs. That’s not at all my point.
Rather, my point is that this is not the central point of Christianity, and yet it’s often the central focus of our preaching and teaching. Indeed, many of our youth ministers and preachers are far more comfortable talking about neuroses than theology. Indeed, many consider theology secondary to the real job of preachers: helping members cope with emotional and relationship issues.
Now, you just won’t find any of that in the Bible. You will find quite a lot of concern about defeating sin in our lives, and hardly anything about low self-esteem. But here’s the irony of it: God’s solutions to our problems are vastly superior to our efforts to read modern mental health therapy into the text.
You see, if we’d just stop viewing sin legalistically — as breaking arbitrary rules — and instead see sin as failure to achieve theosis — that is, divergence from the image of Christ — we’ll all have better relationships, mental health, and emotional well being.
By calling us back to Eden and to the character and heart of Jesus, God is calling us to a style of living and a way of thinking that leads to the abundant life. We want to find the abundant life through counseling whereas the real path to abundant life is kenosis — self-emptying to become like Jesus.
Have you been to a Christian gift shop or bookstore recently? Did you notice all the plaques and knick knacks being sold filled with emotionally uplifting verses —
(Isa 40:31 ESV) [T]hey who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.
(Isa 66:12 ESV) For thus says the LORD: “Behold, I will extend peace to her like a river, and the glory of the nations like an overflowing stream … .
There are great verses, and they are true. It’s quite a good thing to hang them on your refrigerator and over your door frames. But they don’t mean what we pretend they mean.
God isn’t saying, “Follow me and life will be nice and great and prosperous.” Rather, Isaiah is speaking of the coming Kingdom after a time of exile and horrific suffering. Yes, the Kingdom came with Jesus, but it’s not yet fully realized. Much of this won’t be true until Jesus returns.
In the mean time, God called Paul to be tortured imprisoned, left for dead, persecuted, slandered, vilified by his own countrymen, and ultimately executed for Jesus. He really did live an abundant life — but his life had nothing to do with American middle class values, a brick house, and a barbecue grill on a deck out back. Paul found abundant life in giving his life to Jesus in service to the Kingdom.
Paul was lifted up on eagles’ wings and experienced peace like a river, even when shipwrecked and beaten and left for dead. We want to interpret these passages as being all about the good life — defined in terms of a soulmate for a spouse, a good job, great friends, and a supportive church — rather than mission. You see, we see these things entirely in selfish terms — and that makes us heretics.
Why don’t we hang these verses over our doors and on our refrigerators?
(Mat 10:34-39 ESV) 34 “Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. 35 For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. 36 And a person’s enemies will be those of his own household. 37 Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. 38 And whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. 39 Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.”
(Mat 5:10-12 ESV) 10 “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 11
“Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. 12 Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”
There verses — and countless others like them — call us to a standard of selflessness and sacrifice that leads to the true abundant life. But the Therapeutic gospel sees the path to the good life as being through counseling and good mental health.
I’m all for counseling. I’m all for good mental health. But the biggest reason so many of us have messed up lives, marriages, families, and relationships is that we’re self-centered, narcissistic folks who expect God to be our personal valet, serving our every whim. We’ve turned Christianity upside down, and this leads to many serious problems in our lives.
And the cure is Jesus, that is, to create a new culture and new way of living in our churches in which selflessness and service and sacrifice are expected, honored, and cultivated. It’ll heal a lot of broken marriages. In fact, given time and the power of the Spirit, it’ll heal the planet.
