Unmasking the Pitfalls of Toxic Positivity in the Evangelical 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.
