Calling out the stupidity of would-be keyboard warrior pastors on Twitter is becoming a full-time job. It’s hard to keep up with the self-styled “men of God” who intentionally stir up controversy with their malformed opinions masquerading as spiritual insight. Today’s ‘pearl of wisdom’ comes from Pastor Justin Bullington of Princeton Bible Church in Illinois, who had this to say.
Yes, anxiety is a sin, now… apparently.
You know, I have a friend who was once so anxious that when he prayed, his sweat had drops of blood in it.
His name was Jesus.
If only Pastor Justin had been there to tell Jesus how sinful and bereft of faith he was. I’ll bet Jesus would have been impressed with how much more Justin knows than he does.
The Bible welcomes anxiety
Yes, reading through the account of Jesus’s struggle in the Garden of Gethsemane, you would have to conclude that even the very son of God was not immune from anxiety. And yet, no one would argue that he didn’t trust God, would they?
But that’s not all.
Take a look at the books of poetry — Psalms, Lamentations, and Ecclesiastes — and you will notice that so much of it are words of sadness, grief, fear, and even self-loathing:
Who was the likely author of these uplifting words? Most scholars believe it was King David — a man after God’s own heart — supposedly.
How about Jeremiah — known as the weeping prophet? Read through some of his writings, and you’d have to conclude that the man could have been clinically depressed:
Even the man who said “we are more than conquerors through Christ” was stuck with some kind of “thorn of the flesh” that God refused to relieve him of. Yet, the Apostle Paul managed to boast about his weakness.
Face it.
Nowhere — absolutely nowhere — does the Bible call anxiety a sin. Pastor Justin has added some thoughts of his own to the sacred text that Christians say can’t be added to.
Far from condemning those who were anxious, the Bible is full of messed-up people who became Biblical heroes in spite of their physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual weaknesses. God is not so fragile He would find your anxiety an offense to Him. This is the good news of the scriptures: The Bible welcomes your anxious thoughts and offers comfort in the valley of your pain.
On the other hand, Pastor Justin’s message is one of condemnation and judgment — designed to shame those who don’t experience the kind of “victorious life” that Pastor Justin is pretending to have.
He says, “If you’re suffering from mental illness, then it’s all your fault!”
Pastor Justin is just making sins up.
Pastoral malpractice
Anxiety is a medical problem, not a moral one.
And since Pastor Justin, to the very best of my knowledge, is not a doctor or a clinical psychologist, you had best ignore his take on anxiety.
His views are ill-informed and false — dangerously false. In fact, in my mind, they amount to pastoral malpractice. Rhetoric like this keeps Christians from experiencing empathy, help, and support and sometimes prevents them from accessing life-saving interventions.
Anxiety is not a sin.
Being a willfully uninformed abuser of those who trust your guidance is a sin.
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This post was previously published on Backyard Church.
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