positivity-2/3/07
Originally uploaded by xo_apryl.
A favorite Saturday ritual of mine includes getting up early. OK, 7 AM isn't that early. But I get up, I throw on some comfortable clothes, drop by Jack's for my small black coffee and a muffin, and I walk the dog to the park for grooming.
The longer I take in this ritual, I ensure that I can listen to the entire program of On the Media. I love this radio program. Less a news program, it's a program about news--how it gets made, why we hear the stories we hear. It's more about the psychology of news making and news consumption than anything else.
This week's program was a dynamite exploration of freedom of the press in modern day Russia--an exploration into whether freedom of the press is a universal value. Some Russians today contend that freedom of speech doesn't exist anywhere--not even in the US, with our news-as-business system... so why invite hypocrisy with criticism of limited freedom in Russia? If, as some Russians argue, people don't WANT a free press--they don't care about it, then do journalists have an obligation to pursue it? Or whine when it's not there?
The question below these questions is: who drives the train--the conductor or the passengers?
So, in the middle of this program, there was a bit about a woman who quit the Russian News Service when it was taken over by a business outfit. She quit because she was told that 1/2 of her stories would have to be positive. She couldn't imagine news being positive and remaining real news. The reason for this change in the RNS, ostensibly, is that people don't like when all the news stories are downers. People don't want to watch news that depresses them--they want to see positive and hopeful stories, too. More positive news, better ratings. To hell with journalistic freedom.
It made me think about my own context as a pastor at a church that became famous as the home of "positive thinking." I've never been told to "keep it positive" in my preaching--not in so many words. But I have heard many times stories along the lines of: "Dr. Peale knew that every person who came into the church was broken--they didn't need to be reminded of it." Dr. Peale believed that a positive outlook was a solution to most human problems. His books and sermons largely stay on this message.
It served him well. His church grew. People responded well to positive messages. His book became an international bestseller. He was read and sought out by millions.
All indicators suggest that many people like it when things stay positive--in news media and in preaching. Truth be told, I prefer hearing positive preaching rather than the alternative.
But my biggest critique of Peale and positive thinking is that it strikes me as being somehow too single-minded--too insufficient to be a life orientation. If preaching is, at bottom, telling the truth and helping people adapt to God's world as it is, positivity doesn't fully adapt the human personality to all that life throws at us. Life is suffering and pain much of the time. This is not a "problem" to be solved nor something to be denied. It's being real. Seeing life's shadows for what they are (part of life and not something to be fixed or denied) is to appraise the human condition accurately and sensitively. I think that part of preaching and part of comforting people is reminding them that this is real. Biblical faith is not positive--at least, not in terms of individual life outcomes.
The question that the story about Russian radio provoked in me is whether an authority figure who cultivates a large following through positive messages is selling a bill of goods? Can news that tells 1/2 positive stories really be news? Or is it about creating a palatable product that will sell to advertisers and consumers? Is a church focused on positive thinking missing something critical? Or is emphasizing positivity about putting people in pews, creating a feel-good ethos? Can I be consistently positive in my preaching without being willfully ignorant?
These are questions I have been wrestling with off and on since I began ministering in the long shadow of Dr. Peale. What I've found is that positivity is much deeper and richer than I first suspected. I've also found that it creates a warm and loving church community. But I also feel like it's not enough. Maybe it's just a matter of semantics, but in my mind, hope--not positivity--is the more biblically-rooted life orientation. Positivity doesn't take an accurate appraisal of how bad things really are--how strong the power of sin is over the human psyche, spirit, and culture. But hope in God allows me to live... hope, not positivity, is what enables me to believe in the power of love over death.
Hmmmm. This post really bothers me, and I'm trying to figure out why. Not the part about the Russian news organization...I've read about the fifty-fifty policy they've enacted, and it's absolutely ridiculous. It's the part about positive thinking and how you seem to equate that with denial. I don't think keeping positive necessarily means not looking at life's shadows or seeing that all human beings suffer during their lifetimes, many tremendously. I think a positive outlook can help nurture our innate resilience. In the face of tragedy, it is natural to feel pain, depression, rage, sadness, but what good does dwelling on it do? Of course, I'm tainted by my own personal experiences. My mother passed away when I was a teenager, and I'm taking care of my father, who's battling advanced cancer now, putting up a hell of a fight, but will probably die in the next year or two. Yet, in the past few months, I've learned of a young neighbor of mine who's already lost both parents and have also lose a family friend and neighborhood fixture die of a sudden heart attack after going missing for two days. So, in a way, I'm grateful for my situation. It hurts me to hear of so much suffering, but unless I keep a positive outlook, I'll go out a window. When I go to church, I'd like to hear some positive thinking, because I am broken. But it's not to avoid any reminder of that condition but rather part of a desperate search for another tool I can put in my toolkit so I can better deal with the mess life throws at me.
ReplyDeleteIn any case, my apologies for this long and meandering response. You struck a chord, and that's a good thing.
Thanks for this. That's exactly the counterbalance that my post needed.
ReplyDeleteFirst, I would admit that my equation with the Russian situation was too rough--it's not the same thing.
Second, I am with you in that there HAS to be a place in this world that brings GOOD news. And I do think that faith--God--is such a place.
I suppose the oversimplification that I've made is by suggesting that positivity has to be naive or ignorant. I actually don't think that has to be the case at all. This, I think, is where Christian hope is most powerful--in its appraisal of the world in its fullness (pain, suffering, and all) and its steady conviction that love (not happiness) conquers all.
Thanks for pushing on this.