Jesus Therapy
The spiral of miracles and guilt
Jesus is the answer
“We are weak, but he is strong.” Whatever is wrong with you, wherever you are broken, Jesus can fix you. Jesus will make you whole. You just have to surrender yourself to him. Abandon your pride. Trust him. Have faith.
This was the mantra I learned in my university Baptist Student Union. Any issues you had — depression, phobias, anxiety, PTSD, trauma, addiction — the cure was not in man’s secular treatments. Secular psychology was a delusion. The answer was Jesus.
Let go. Stop trying to fix yourself. Surrender to Jesus. Stop holding out on him.
Week after week we heard it. Day after day we tried to practice it, praying over each other with laid-on hands, asking Jesus to cure our issues: the boy with emotional problems who was constantly creating scandals, the girls who declared themselves their “own summer mission” to overcome the anxieties and insecurities that hampered their faith, and the boy whose issue was “too shameful” to even say its name.
Day after Day. Week after week.
Dosing dependency
Every week our Thursday night club meeting would feature an inspirational message followed by a clapping musical sing-along. As we heard about the miraculous love and power of Jesus, sang along to Andre Crouch and Amy Grant, and held hands in prayer, all our troubles melted away and all was right with the world.
Because now we finally had it. Now, safely inside our meeting room, we saw everything clearly. All the little daily details that got in our way of focusing on Jesus 24/7 no longer mattered. We had the faith of a mustard seed and then some. Everything was going to be okay. We were going to be okay.
We had let go of ourselves and our stubborn pride. The Holy Spirit was inside us and Jesus was going to make us whole. No more hang ups, doubts, insecurities, secret vices, depression, or alienation. Our souls were healed.
We were high on Jesus. We were on fire.
Until the meeting ended, and we walked back out into the night. That was when it all came crashing down. The cold, the rain, the long walk back to campus, the awkward negotiating over who might walk with whom or give whom a ride, a room-mate’s failure to clean the bathroom yet again, and a paper due tomorrow afternoon.
All of a sudden, all this mattered — and then some. And focusing on Jesus was not going to get any of it resolved.
Hello, hang ups, doubts, insecurities, secret vices, depression, alienation — our old friends.
The only way to get back that Jesus high, and claim that spiritual healing of all our woes, was to make it through the week and get back in that meeting room.
Week after week.
Snake oil
Evangelicalism makes big claims about its cures. Testimonies bubble over with claims about recovery from all kinds of mental and psychological ills. “I was an addict, child abuser, or agoraphobic. And then Jesus healed me. Jesus took my hand and led me out of it. And now I’m clean, cured, and saved!”
The insidious thing about Jesus therapy is that in some cases, it does indeed work. Whether the healing comes from the Holy Spirit of just from having a new social group and a new outlook can be debated, but the initial result cannot be denied.
Certain addicts, abusers, and criminals do indeed convert to evangelical Christianity and credit God for their rescue and reform. And despite its toxicity, being an Evangelical Christian is arguably better than being an addict, criminal, or abuser.
The question becomes, then: if it works for some of the people some of the time, why doesn’t it work for all of the people all of the time?
Answers to the miraculous cures for these people may be elusive, but questions abound:
- Why do other people overcome the same issues without Jesus, relying on secular psychology and therapy instead?
- Why do other people who try the Jesus solution never get better at all?
- Why do many people relapse after Jesus cures them, just like those who relapse after secular treatment?
- Why does Jesus only seem to cure problems evidenced by sinful behavior, like drinking, drugs, crime, and “illicit” sex, but not other psychological issues?
Answers may only be available to professionals, but as laymen, we can make one factual observation — Jesus is not nearly the cure-all therapist he is made out to be.
An insidious trap
Some churches use Jesus therapy as a way to fill their pews. They create therapeutic groups designated for specific problems, or generic “small group” cells that function like group therapy for whatever may be causing parishioners’ unhappiness.
Whether it’s martial problems, insomnia, depression, scars from an abused childhood, grief, or porn addiction, our church has help for you. And help it does. For most people, just the chance to discuss their problems with someone can feel like relief.
No more hiding it, no more suffering in silence.
Yay Jesus!
But what happens later on? After months or years of discussing, confessing, praying, and rousing services that promise freedom and salvation, the core issues still plague us.
And it gets worse. Because Jesus is the answer. Jesus is the way. Jesus wants to heal us, but we just won’t let him. We are stubborn, prideful, faithless. He keeps knocking on our door but we won’t let him in to our inner sanctuary.
We are holding out on God.
Now, in addition to our problem, we add guilt. And shame. Because if we continue to confess that the problem still plagues us, everyone can see our faithlessness.
Just look at that speaker we had last Sunday. He was in prison. He was involved with the mafia. And he had enough faith for Jesus to save him from all that including his own mafia family!
And then look at me, miserable and faithless as ever. I even skipped my private devotions and prayer three times last week! I’m such a failure and worthless disciple! It’s no wonder Jesus won’t heal me.
The truth shall set you free
Jesus does not cure depression. God will not free us from anorexia. Faith will not heal the scars from abusive parents. Small group will not cure low-self-esteem. Prayer will not save a marriage. Neither will one more rousing service shamelessly engineered to manipulate our emotions.
Heaven has no magic wand. The road out of our issues is long, rocky, and possibly travelled with a professional. And it lies elsewhere.
