“In short, we stigmatize the sorrowing by fostering an emotional prosperity culture.”
“We subconsciously oblige the sorrowing among us to swallow their grief, pipe up, and praise the Lord. Disconnected from the celebratory riffs and confident proclamations, the crushed in spirit become sorely neglected by the exclusion of their spiritual pain in corporate worship.” - Making Church a Safe Place for Sorrow
The author concentrates on sadness, but it’s worth noting that there are other emotions that our church culture will proscribe—anger comes to mind. And when we proscribe emotions that God gave us for His glory, we are going to have a lot of problems.
I confess as well that recently, I “punted” when a guy said he had scored high on a quiz that tried to see signs of PTSD. Sent him to a therapist, a Christian one. Maybe an opportunity for growth.
One other note in this regard is that when a church has “approved” and “unapproved” emotions, especially if they try to “push” the “approved” emotions via the choice of songs, the end result is going to be a congregation of people who are emotionally disconnected from one another. It will be bad.
Aspiring to be a stick in the mud.
Discussion