Is Christian Cynicism, A Spiritual Sickness?

Today’s Scripture:

Hebrew 12: 14-15

Pursue peace with all people, and holiness, without which no one will see the Lord: 15 looking carefully lest anyone fall short of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up cause trouble, and by this many become defiled;

Bible in a Year: Ezra 1-2; John 19:23-42

We need to have a vital faith that is without illusions.  When we speak of success and failure, we have to refer to the individual attitude, are we optimistic or pessimistic?  Many people today are pessimistic about many things in life, to them, there is just problem after problem around every corner, and life just doesn’t seem to workout.  But, many others are optimistic, and take each day as positive and not negative.  Three words that you will see quite frequently through this chapter, I feel, need to be defined.

1.) Cynicism: cynical quality or disposition: distrustful of human nature: doubting or contemptuous of human nature or of the motives, goodness, or sincerity of others, Sarcastic:mocking, scornful, or sneering, I.E.  Cynical remarks to cover up disappointment

2.) Pessimism: tendency to expect worst:a tendency to see only the negative or worst aspects of all things and to expect only bad or unpleasant things to happen

3.) Disillusionment: loss of false belief:disappointment caused by a frustrated ideal or belief. Also called disillusion

Pessimism is rampant in our secular culture, more so than one might realize.  It flourishes among Christians as well, no one is immune to pessimism.  Is this caused, among Christians, because of disappointment, or dissatisfaction with the church or God?  Many people, Christians and non-Christians alike, have a dislike for the Church, whether it be overall or specific, this is because they expect it to be a perfect organization, just because it is called the house of God.   Folks, the Church is perfect, in the spiritual aspect, speaking specifically of Jesus, because He is the Church.  The imperfectness comes from the people attending the Church.  It is an untidy conglomeration of folks from all walks of life, each with a different idea of Church operation, and all with a specific margin of human error.  This is no minority of people, as far as the Church is concerned, it applies as such, “We are a dysfunctional family of sinful siblings, repeatedly failing and injuring one another.” 

Now please understand, an individual can be optimistic outside the Church, especially around work or other familiar places, but within the Church they are gravitated by a pessimistic attitude.  So we must ask why?  So many believers have slid into this dark pit, and often become so disenchanted with the Church that they just leave.  In the Baptist faith, there are thousands of Baptist Churches across this country that have closed their doors.  There are thousands of Ministers, Preachers and especially Pastors that are changing their jobs, why?  You know you can’t be a Pastor of a Church without members to fill the House of God, and this is the problem.  How much negativity does it take to close the doors and cause the Pastor to leave or have to get a different job?  This pessimistic, cynical attitude spreads quickly through the congregation, especially if there is not a balance of Spirituality.  Every Church will have a certain amount of persons that are not on board with everybody else, so there has to be a balance of doers and non-doers, believers and non-believers, monetary supporters and those that never support.  It is the spirituality of the 10% that prays for the other 90 %.  But to many times the ideology of the Church becomes something other than what the scripture describes.  Members loose their reverence towards God, we just come as we are, yet many of these would never be caught in public wearing the ridiculous T-shirt they seem proud to wear before God.  Does not God deserve respect in the way we present ourselves toward Him?  You better believe He does.  

Moses was told by God to consecrate the people in Exodus 19.  They were to wash their clothes and cleanse themselves, and were not to come near their wives, and on the third day God came down to speak with Moses in front of all the people at Mount Sinai.  The mountain was covered in smoke and fire as a furnace.  There were barriers set to keep the people or animals from getting to close, if anyone or anything crossed that barrier it was killed with an arrow or spear.  The people were so fearful, they told Moses for him to meet with God and then he could tell them what God said.

So why do we think that God has changed any?  The God we serve is the same as in the days of Moses.  Yet we seem to look at all this differently because of this loose society we are in.  Now don’t get me wrong, I know there are many dear souls that go to Church and they wear what they have, and that is fine.  When the Israelites came to Mount Sinai they did not have designer clothes or anything like unto it, but God told them to wash the clothes and to cleanse themselves.  Is that too much to ask?  In some cases yes, because it is not the style nor the mental attitude of some people.  Are we proud to be identified with Christ?  Are we proud to say I’m a Christian and God is my Heavenly Father?  Do we ask ourselves, “What would Jesus do in this situation?”  Or would we be embarrassed or humiliated if anyone found out we were Christians, and followed Jesus?  Many Christians today listen to secular radio and laugh at their jokes about Christians or church tails that story tellers make up.  Why is this?  Because they want to identify with the workers, or people they are with.  Folks, James tells us in scripture, that we can’t have it both ways.  We are not citizens of this world, this world belongs to Satan, and may I remind you, he is the enemy.

Many times in a Church service people avoid displaying to much emotion, even if the person feels like raising a hand or maybe saying “Amen” they won’t.  They are afraid someone might look down on them as being too charismatic.  We have so blocked the power of the Holy Spirit, how do we ever expect to have a revival, when we act as if we are ashamed to be a Christian.  God have mercy on all of us.  

You know the pessimistic Christian sometimes delights in watching fellow believers tread on life’s misfortunes.  They may say something like, “You know they finally got what they deserve.”   They place themselves as judges of others.  They know it is wrong, but they do it anyway.  They have to because they have no optimism, nor do they enjoy a positive attitude about anything.  They are negative about life and they make sure all others suffer the same.  Many times the judged or the accused forsake their faith and they leave the Church.  Now for obvious reasons, this anti-institutional attitude and this pessimism does not agree with or go well with the established church. These pessimistic Christians are therefore located on the outer reaches of Christian fellowship.  This position allows them to be close enough to the church to criticize, with amusement, its mistakes, yet maintaining a degree of allegiance to Jesus.  But may I say at this point, this is totally against scripture, you can’t just have a degree of allegiance to Jesus, you must be aligned 100% with Christ, surrendering everything for Him.  Now these pessimistic, cynics, praise themselves for being realist, and they belittle others by unplugging or disassociating themselves from the institutional church itself.  Now this is indeed cynical and ignorant on their behalf, because their separation or disassociation with the Church is in fact separation, and disassociation with Jesus Himself, because, the Church belongs to Jesus, the Church is the Body of Christ, and may I conclude by saying, “Jesus died for the Church.”

Now I know, and realize, that all that has been said thus far, raises questions about these folks being misguided, and dangerous.  These pessimistic, cynical types, are the way they are mainly because, they are wounded, or frustrated because of some event that has happened to them in the Church, or maybe another Christian Group.  Their edgy spirituality is evidence of these spiritual wounds, and frustrations that have now become infected.  Example; if your body was injured, and you ignored it and left if untreated or unprotected, it would soon become infected, and if not properly dealt with, your very life could be in jeopardy. 

So now having referred to all this, I think we can plainly see that, at least in the body of the Church, pessimism and cynicism is indeed a sickness.  When a person is injured spiritually, they must seek spiritual healing.  Now when we speak of healing we usually just think of the physical body, but in the arena of the Church, and within the body of Jesus Christ, we must seek spiritual healing through prayer, and fasting.  When people are suffering from brokenness and nothing is done to apply a healing Holy salve to treat their brokenness, it will soon turn into bitterness which is indeed more difficult to overcome.  Pessimism or cynicism leans towards a “Strong dislike, or being distrustful, of human nature, and motives.” Why is this?  Mainly because some painful experience has provided the firsthand evidence for becoming distrustful, and it most certainly hurts.  Now some of us, of course, have personalities that are more immune to cynicism than others. But it is important to note that full-blown cynicism or a very pessimistic attitude among Christians, and towards God, or the church, is often triggered by a series of events or painful experiences that hurt them, and eventually hindered their spiritual growth and health.  Another way, or attempt to define cynicism, and pessimism is an embittered disposition of distrust born out of painful disillusionment, and building a pessimistic mountain of untruths because of a simple incident.

As we said earlier, pessimism or cynicism is indeed a spiritual sickness, but please realize it is not terminal.  These Christians, even though they are injured in relation to their faith, can be treated, and healed.  The bible refers to the body of Christ as if a human body, each part of the body has a different purpose and job.  Every part of the body cannot be the same, or it would not be useful.  A cynical or pessimistic Christian is like a part of the physical body that is not acting correctly, when this happens we refer to the medical doctor for advice.  Right?  Also remember there are steps, or actions we can, and usually take, that are preventive steps to ensure we are OK, and healthy.  In our physical body we go to the medical doctor, but in our spiritual body, our Christian life, our doctor is the Holy Bible.  It directs our actions on what we should do to prevent spiritual sickness.  Wounds heal, physically and spiritually, and let’s remember pessimism is the negative side of attitude, which leads to disillusionment, which leads to cynicism.  Through preventative steps we can avoid this from happening.

Pop Christianity and the Gift of Disillusionment

Now we just stated earlier that cynicism as well as pessimism was a type of spiritual sickness, however we have come to a point of opportunity to ask this question, “Is all cynicism unhealthy?”  Is it possible to have a form of cynicism or a level of pessimistic attitude that could be beneficial?  Now, it is true, cynicism is very wide spread in the Church, but it is not the only illness out there.  Several of these other ailments, that are injuring the church, are the very means that promote cynics and causes them to become cynical or pessimistic.  We all know that God does not, nor has He ever changed.  The scripture says He is the same, yesterday, today and forevermore (Hebrews 13:8).  How can we believe this, and then change the Word to better suite our specific life style?  Christians come to church and are sometimes bombarded by an apostate religion of how someone interprets scripture.  These church errors lead to confusion and a cynical beginning.  More and more people today are simply becoming cynical about politicians also.  We become pessimistic against government because politicians seem to never come through with the promises they make.  Now in the church, many have heard the promises of God through His divine Word, but then they hear the new apostate message and become “cynical” against the Word of God, not trusting Him, and not truly knowing what to believe.  Then we also have the belief that if God saves us through His wonderful Grace, then I can sin, and live as I like, and God’s Amazing Grace will still save me. 

So many of these other ailments that plague the church are the very means by which cynicism gets started.  Pop Christianity is a term that appears every so often, usually referring to the oversimplified theology, and the unoriginal direction, which is over emotional, and is wide spread through the Western Church.  This extremely populist version of Christianity, is “purged of complexities, niceties, and darkness” and lacks “poetry and emotional breadth.”  
Many illnesses can be identified under the title of pop Christianity, to which cynicism has become a common response.  If a specific church is spiritually sick, then you can’t fight sickness with sickness, this will just promote a mass infection and contagion of disease.  Our Churches are in need of corrective voices, but the cynical voices will only hurt more than help.  So now we have to ask this question, “Are there alternative responses to pop Christianity that can promote healing in the church?” Can we be discerning Christians without becoming full blown cynics?  Is there a way to challenge the church more out of love than out of disgust?  Yes.  Pop Christianity is nurtured in the church, and as long as Christians are inadvertently accomplices in spreading the spiritual sickness of cynicism among the pews, which will only spread beyond into a wider culture.  The Christian is a living example of Jesus to the unbelieving world.  There is only one Gospel of Salvation, Jesus was very specific throughout the bible on how to live and be saved.  He also said that the world would fill up with false prophets, and they would say, “Many will come in My name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and will deceive many.”  (Matthew 24:4-5). 

Now cynicism is a negative term, but the persons that are in cynicism are referred to as being cynical or cynic’s.  Now let’s look at this particular word and we will find it has an ancient history from Greece.

Cynic: a member of a school of ancient Greek philosophers founded by Antisthenes, marked by an ostentatious contempt for ease and pleasure. The movement flourished in the 3rd century B.C. and revived in the 1st century A. D.

Now we need to come to God seeking forgiveness for the negativity towards Gods children and Jesus Church.  We need to stop franchising cynicism through the apostasy against the Church.  We need to actively seek the rehabilitation of those already diagnosed as cynics, then we would secure an army of voices within our own ranks that can provide brilliant insights which, if tempered with love, could possibly lead to the reformation and renewal which the Western church so desperately needs.  This is because Christians who have been disillusioned are among the most discerning people in the church. Disillusionment is illumination. Those moments of painful discovery are revelatory experiences from which others could benefit.

Just as surely as God desires to lead us to a knowledge of genuine Christian fellowship, so surely must we be overwhelmed by a great disillusionment with others, with Christians in general, and with ourselves …. Only that fellowship which faces such disillusionment, with all its unhappy and ugly aspects, begins to be what it should be in God’s sight, begins to grasp in faith the promise that is given to it. The sooner this shock of disillusionment comes to an individual and to a community the better for both.

This great theologian passionately calls us to disillusionment. But for the disillusionment to bear its fruit, we have to embrace it without collapsing into cynicism. When we experience hurtful illumination and resist turning cynical, we may realize that we have been entrusted with a tremendous gift that can be used for the edification of the church. If we can manage to find healing and regain our footing a bit after the rug has been ripped out from beneath us, then we may be used by God to free others from faulty ideas about our faith. Redeemed cynics have much to offer.

The Apostle Pauls’ revelatory encounter with Christ (Acts 9) disabused him of terrible misconceptions, and the degree to which the church has benefited from that disillusioning experience on the Damascus road is incalculable. Before his disillusionment became beneficial, he endured three days of blindness. From what we know about Paul’s impressive ancestral line, and in the knowledge of the Pharisees, it does not seem like much of a stretch to suggest that those three days were profoundly miserable for him as the extent of his misunderstandings about God and his faith were exposed. At the height of his religious zeal, he made the shocking discovery that he was violently at odds with the God he thought he was serving. After Ananias’s visit, however, he was strengthened and, rehabilitated enough to evade debilitating modes of cynicism in his legendary ministry as the apostle to the Gentiles. His disillusionment was a gift, the benefits of which we are still reaping today.

Those prone to cynicism possess insights, which the church, sick with populist misconceptions and ridiculous practices, desperately needs. Their voices will only be helpful, though, if, like Paul after his experience with Jesus on the Damascus Road, their wounds can be restored to health. We are in dire need for redeemed cynics to dress their wounds that they may rise up and flourish in the truths revealed to them for the health of the church and for the glory of God.

Rising to Hopeful Realism

Our Bibles are bookended with paradise: creation in Genesis 1-2, then new creation in Revelation 21-22.  We live in between the reality of the original Eden and the restored Eden. Pop Christianity tends to deny the reality of the original Eden’s existence, offering overused and unoriginal slogans and clichés that idealize our experience of faith and rightly ring offensive in cynical ears. The attitude of cynicism, in contrast, denies the reality that God has promised new creation, that it is just around the corner and that it is making appearances in the here and now through the work of Christ, and his Spirit. We need to foster a biblical spirituality that embraces the grim reality of our ex-Eden life along with the joyful reality that God is making all things new. Some folks call this “hopeful realism.”  We need to take an honest look at a number of clichés and trends of pop Christianity that fuel the anxiety and anger of Christian cynicism. We need to identify a number of disappointing “isms” within the church that need reproof, while also considering how cynical responses to those “isms” are also in need of reproof. For instance, anti-intellectualism (not intelligently thinking) thrives in many Christian circles. This is unfortunate, but also unfortunate is intellectual elitism (being superior), a typical response from many a cynical Christian. The standard cynical approaches are counterproductive.

There are biblical models for expressing corrective voices alternative to the approach of cynicism. Scripture vividly portrays the people of God as a community prone to wander, and ever in need of renewal, and reform. Scripture also offers guidance on the proper means of promoting that renewal, and reform. I’m thinking that those prone to cynicism, actually have much to offer the church. But there are alternative models of critique, rather than cynicism, such as the biblical examples of the prophet, the wise person, and of those tragic poets behind the biblical lament literature. Since no voice is more pressing to hear than the voice of the One who loves the church enough to die for it, we need to look at how Jesus himself addressed misconceptions and wrestled with his own disappointments with his followers—and also with his Father.

The resurrection of our Lord makes possible for us to embrace hopeful realism instead of cynicism. Paul avoided cynicism (while serving dysfunctional local churches) because of his keen awareness that resurrection changes everything. We may live on the dark, eastern edge of Eden, but new creation awaits, and for the hopeful realists who have eyes to see and ears to hear, it keeps bursting into the present.