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Smile or dieShelf life: Looking at secular booksSMILE OR DIE Jemimah, aged six, came home from school yesterday saying that she had done well at school because ‘I believed in myself’. Her siblings sing in assembly, ‘I can do anything I want to, I can climb the highest mountain’. Those in the workplace are encouraged to ‘think not about your frustrations, but about your unfulfilled potential’ by Pope John XXII. Positive thinking is all around us and, Barbara Ehrenreich claims in this accessible and significant book, it has fooled us all. All down to attitudeEhrenreich’s starting point is her own experience of breast cancer, when online support groups told her, ‘When life hands out lemons, squeeze out a smile’, and she discovered a world of teddies, pyjamas and crayons all adorned with pink ribbons. A more worrying discovery was the theory that by thinking positively she could boost her immune system and so defeat her cancer. It was all down to her attitude, hence the language of war applied to cancer sufferers; they ‘battle bravely’ and ‘fight fiercely’, they are ‘survivors’. Such thinking made Ehrenreich uneasy and she began to research how this phenomenon had so pervaded US society. Blaming CalvinismShe discovered that this ideology began in the 1860s, when an American clock-maker called Phineas Quimby developed a ‘science of happiness’ and used it to treat individuals languishing in what now appears to be a form of ME. One such sufferer was Mary Baker Eddy who went on to found Christian Science. Their fundamental doctrine was that illness and want were a state of mind, which would disappear once one’s mental and spiritual energies were properly focused. More contentiously, Ehrenreich claims that the ideology sprang up as a reaction against the dreariness of Calvinism, and even attributes Mary Baker Eddy’s illness to what she sees as excessive introspection and a preoccupation with judgment. Sadly, this stereotype of Bible Christianity as dour and damaging seems embedded in the collective consciousness, but it is surely a long way from the reality of many Calvinistic churches in the 19th century. With different chapters on the influence of positive thinking on business, academic psychology and economics, Ehreinreich’s argument appears to be sound; positive thinking has encouraged Americans to be greedy and irresponsible. What is worse, she believes, is that such determined optimism ironically leads to dissatisfaction and depression, because unrealistic ambitions cannot be fulfilled and ‘when you’ve set a goal you’ve committed to CANI (Constant, Never-Ending Improvement)’ (Tony Robbins). Who is at fault if you don’t achieve? Only yourself. Prosperity gospelThe church is a ripe target for Ehrenreich’s attack. She takes great relish in lambasting the revolting preaching and practice of the Prosperity Gospel, but also takes to task the more mainstream seeker-sensitive churches like Willow Creek and Risk Warren’s Saddle-back Church. In the architecture, busyness, business models and above all the fuzzy-edged positive teaching, she claims that these churches are simply aping the world. Ehrenreich is not a Christian; she is a left-wing cynic, and clearly her preference is for a church that is not too ambitious and remains in its place offering other-worldly counsel and transcendent experience. Nevertheless, we need to listen to her criticisms; in our desire to meet people where they are at, are we ratifying a ‘world without beauty, transcendence or mercy’? I want to agree wholeheartedly with Barbara Ehrenreich; positive thinking is, at its worst, the pagan belief that we can manipulate the inanimate through our thoughts, or at lower level, the still obnoxious belief that we are all invincible. Positive thinking is merely a variant of false religion the world round; it is directly opposed to the gospel. I’d encourage church leaders and others to read this book; while we all know this positive thinking is toxic, it often seeps into our consciousnesses undetected. God’s promisesChristians, however, can’t simply opt for her alternative of cheerful realism; it seems only to work if you have a reasonable income, education and home. No, Christians surely should be holding to something far more powerful and effective than positive thinking or mere realism. We have Jesus; we have the promises of God; we have the indwelling Holy Spirit; we have the certain hope of heaven; we have the body of Christ. I could go on and on. So we, individually, and our churches too, need to examine ourselves. How far have we imbibed the foolish mantras around us? Are we practicing a godly realism which grieves over the devastating effects of sin in our world and in our lives while celebrating the abundant, overflowing, beyond-our-imagining grace of God. It is Friday, but Sunday’s a comin’! Sarah Allen© Evangelicals Now - April 2010 |