Toxic Faith Two
When tragedy strikes, true believers should have real peace about it.
In the book Toxic Faith, the authors present twenty-one beliefs that they say constitute a Toxic Faith. They write,
“Faith is slowly poisoned as lies and false ideas are integrated into a person’s beliefs about God. At first glance they make such good sense. And plenty of people support and distort beliefs that have been around for thousands of years.”
My question is, “Why have these distorted beliefs been around for thousands of years?” Perhaps, it’s not the individual christian who has a adopted a Toxic Faith. But rather, maybe it’s religion itself that’s toxic.
Let’s look at toxic faith #2.
When tragedy strikes, true believers should have real peace about it.
“The desire for instant peace in the midst of tragedy leads to denial, unresolved emotions and a complete split from reality.”
Sometimes religion itself is completely split from reality. But that’s a topic for another blog.
Since the author of Toxic Faith (Stephen Arterburn) has questionable qualifications, I thought it might be appropriate to check out the writers who are handing out advice about how to deal with tragedy and see what specific qualifications they might bring to the discussion.
This is not a “how to” blog about dealing with tragedy. If you’ve experienced a tragic loss, there is a great deal of help available on the web. All you gotta do is ask the A-eye gods. In this blog we are looking at how christians are instructed to handle tragedy.
Theists
A guy named Wes, who writes a blog called “Radically Christian” gives his qualifications as simply that he is “a passionate follower of Jesus”. Where he follows Jesus is really not very clear. It’s one of those things that christians say, but in reality, has very little meaning. Let’s just look at Wes’ advice.
“Christians must be obedient and faithful, no matter what is happening in the world.”
His bottom line for christians is that “when tragedies do occur, believers need to conduct themselves as Christians, (whatever that means). He advises them to remember that “Jesus is Lord and that they must be obedient and faithful, no matter what is happening in the world.” Seems rather Draconian, doesn’t it?
Anyone who has been a part of a christian community can tell you that just about every aspect of a believer’s life is controlled by rules and expectations; both spoken and unspoken. Wes seems to imply that even while grieving, christians are required to conform to certain christian standards. Wouldn’t that constitute a toxic faith?
Another christian writer named Joel, believes he is qualified to give advice about dealing with tragedy. He earned a PhD in Reformation and Post-Reformation Historical Theology. His dissertation was entitled “Personal Assurance of Faith: English Puritanism and the Dutch Second Reformation.”
Okay!! Not quite sure how that qualifies him to hand out advice, but he does it anyway.
His bottom line is that tragedy is not God’s fault (of course not) because the god he believes in is “perfectly and entirely good”. Well, that begs the question, “So, who’s to blame for natural disasters like famines, earthquakes, tornadoes, hurricanes, wildfires and tsunamis?” Joel’s answer is that “We now live in a dangerous world because mankind is evil.”
Surprise, surprise!
Let me see if I’m understanding Joel’s christian rationalization. The blame for the 9.3 earthquake that happened in the Indian Ocean on Boxing Day in 2004 and the disastrous tsunami that followed which resulted in almost 230,000 deaths, conveniently falls on the fictitious Adam and Eve and fallen mankind, but definitely not on God. Wow, talk about being completely split from reality. The interesting thing is that the Boxing Day tragedy doesn’t even make the death toll top 10 list.
Michael, yet another so called expert about how to deal with tragedy, has a Ph.D. in social anthropology. Perhaps that’s a step up from “post-reformation historical theology” but I still fail to see how this makes him qualified to address tragedy. His solution to facing tragedy is that everyone is “in need of salvation” and the christian response should be to make sure everyone knows that they need to “Come to Jesus”. A lot of good that did 200,000 Indonesian Muslims on December 26, 2004.
Another christian writer named Jamie earned a Master of Theological Studies. Unlike most of the other experts, his tragedy was a personal one. He lost a young son in a tragic accident. Because he is speaking from personal loss, I am reluctant to criticize his personal experience with tragedy. However, he makes some points that are perhaps worth exploring.
He says that Christians should not grieve like those who have no hope and that christians grieve differently than the rest of the world. He believes that christians should experience grief and tragedy differently than those who “do not know Christ”.
“As Christians, we don’t grieve like those who have no hope.”
Really? Christians experience grief differently? How ignorant of him to suggest that those of us who don’t share his religious beliefs have no hope. We do have hope, but it’s not based on supernatural fantasies.
Then he dives into the deep philosophical ocean of the Logical Problem of Evil. He writes that there are only three options available for him to believe about God in this tragedy: (Actually, there are many more than three.)
He writes,
- God had the ability to protect his son but did not want to.
- God wanted to protect his son but did not have the ability to do so.
- God had the ability to protect his son, but God desired something that in the grand scheme of his sovereign purposes was greater than protecting his son.
He proposes that if it’s the first option, God is distant and uncaring. If it’s the second option, God is loving but isn’t powerful enough to do anything. In the third option, God loved Jamie’s son, and could have protected him, because “God can do all things” but chose not to. His conclusion was that God in heaven can do whatever he pleases because God’s thoughts and ways are higher than his own. He then resorted to using an old and highly overused cliché by saying, “God moves in mysterious ways.”
He finds comfort in the thought that his son is now “in heaven experiencing God’s presence and he is happier today than he has ever been.”
Many people choose to deal with tragic loss by imagining their loved one is in heaven. If that’s what it takes to deal with the pain, I get it. But it seems to me that this kind of hope (that christians have) is based on faith rather than reality. It might be the easiest way to find peace in tragedy, but it’s a false hope, nevertheless.
Jarrod, another christian writer dispensing advice on this topic, says that he is passionate about exalting Christ and is pursuing a master’s degree in Preaching and Pastoral Ministry. He says that a believer’s first response to tragedy should be prayer. Surprise, surprise! He even gets pretty specific about how christians should pray. They need to pray for comfort, for wisdom, for trust and for openness. The main emphasis is that those who have experienced tragedy need to “come to know Jesus through their tragedy”.
His bottom line is this, and I quote, “Tragedy, suffering, and loss are a natural part of life, but Christians are called to be precise in their responses. Love your neighbor. Weep with those who weep. Look forward to the hope we have in Christ and, above all, draw close to God.”
The common thread running through all the christian writers is that even in grief, christians must conform to religious expectations. These christian bloggers use a lot of “shoulds”, “oughts” and “need to” phrases. It’s not difficult to see how toxic faith #2 came to be adopted by some believers. Every one of the five christian bloggers I found were authoritative and directive in their advice about grieving. Apparently, there are guidelines and expectations that must be followed by christians, even during the grieving process.
In the next blog we take a look at what secularists have to say about the grieving process. The difference really is quite striking.
From Where I Stand
June 21, 2026
Dale Crum