 Today I'm going to be responding to a therapist on TikTok who basically claims that Christianity Christian teaching is traumatic for people that are engaged in it. So it's not just people that call themselves Christians that do terrible things and cause trauma and hurt people. No, it's actually the teaching itself. This is a really interesting take that I haven't heard before. So let's watch this video and I'll comment on it. A lot of people don't understand religious trauma because people look at religious trauma through the lens of their religion and they will say things like it wasn't it wasn't the religion that traumatized you. It was the way it was taught and that is simply not true. Simply understanding Christianity in and of itself is traumatizing. Understanding that there is a God that created everything and that if you don't listen to what he has to say that you will burn in hell for eternity and you need a savior to keep that from happening. Internalization of that belief in and of itself one will cause anxiety because it creates a problem in you that can only be solved by something external from you. In fact it starts off by telling you that you're born with an issue. So the trauma in religious trauma is simply understanding the religion. That's where the trauma comes from. You're in a constant state of worries. Jesus is coming soon. Jesus is coming soon. That sounds a lot like anxiety. This is really interesting to me. I want you to step back from the Christian worldview for a second and just imagine okay take this man's you know point to heart and say okay you know Christianity is traumatic for people and the belief that the teaching itself it's not good for people's hearts it's not good for people's souls. So what are they to believe alternatively like okay outside of a God that created us are you saying that no God created us are you saying that we're just kind of evolves protoplasm over millions and millions of years that we have no intrinsic worth or dignity or value. You think that belief is better for people's mental health really that's really really concerning to me. Furthermore in that worldview how do you get any kind of sense of identity or love or or truth like it's all just kind of subjective absurdity in that world we're just animals we're just chemical reactions there's no kind of emotional security that can be found because look it's all just meaningless. I don't know about you but that would send me into a mental death spiral very quickly and so when I look at Christianity when I look at the teachings of Christianity here's what I find right we find ourselves created in the image of God right and we're created and he calls us very good but we've rebelled against him so but ultimately we have that security okay first security in knowing that we're created in the image of God that's good but then there's a reality here that we have rebelled and he says this is going to cause anxiety the fact that God if we don't obey him or listen to his commands we're going to be sentenced to hell the question isn't does that belief cause anxiety the question should be does that belief is that belief true right because if that belief is true right then it should be something that we should take account for we should we should okay well I need to do something about this think about this the idea that oh if I walk across the street and I'm not looking both ways that I could get hit by a car that could cause anxiety absolutely but the the but the the solution to that is not believing that I won't get hit but rather understanding come to terms with okay this is the reality of the situation this is the truth of the situation and what can I do about it what okay I can look both ways and so here this idea that we need to just expel any kind of belief that might cause anxiety or fear it's like no no not if this is the truth and ultimately we should have a fear of God and an understanding of of his judgment and his wrath a lot of people don't understand how could God judge people and this is a little bit of a sidetrack but how could God you know send sentence people the hell it just seems unreasonable or maybe just extreme but when we understand God as a judge like think of God as a judge and you're standing before God and you're saying okay God you know I realize I've done some bad stuff right I know I'm not the perfect person but ultimately like I can walk old ladies across the street I can do all these sorts of good things just kind of forgive me and God looks at you and he says well no I'm a good judge I you have to kind of serve the punishment for the crime if I let you go I'm not being good and because God is infinitely holy that means that the punishment that we deserve should be eternal death as well but that what's makes the beauty of the gospel so relevant to us is that God in his mercy sent Jesus fully God and fully man to die on the cross the death we deserve to die for our sins against God that we would be raised to newness of life that we would find identity and security in him being adopted into his family I think about the ramifications and the implications of actually understanding the gospel in its true light there's so much security and identity to be found the idea that I can be forgiven and the idea that I am a child of God created in his image that I can't earn my own salvation that I can't fix what is wrong with me but rather somebody God has come and he's fixed it for me he's done all the work for me he says that it's it's a troubling thing to to believe that you can't fix yourself right to need to look beyond yourself in order to fix what's wrong with you I actually think that's a really comforting feeling because ultimately we know we don't have what we need in and of ourselves right we can exist in denial or create excuses for our sin and we can try to convince ourselves that we're okay that we're at peace but we don't have what we need on the inside to really find that peace to find that acceptance we need somebody external somebody objective that can look at us and say you are my child you are forgiven you don't need to strive anymore this is your identity when we try to manufacture that out of just nothingness it's unstable there's no really no real concrete foundation now we need to talk about the fact that Christian teaching can be distorted and manipulated in such a way where it actually does cause emotional harm to us and I've experienced that in terms of shame so for so long I kind of operated on this belief that I need to earn God's love for me that I needed to do something to prove that I was enough to God that I needed to measure up and ultimately what I was finding was I was falling short on every account that I wasn't doing enough to to merit God's favor I wasn't enough as a person I dwelled in insecurity and lack of self-confidence because I just had no concept that that I could be a be and do enough right and so then I just kind of wallowed in the shame even as as a Christian but then understanding the truth of scripture was what freed me from that bondage of shame it wasn't that oh you're perfect just the way you are but rather hey even in the midst of your weaknesses you can be secured in Christ because his righteousness is enough for you he calls you his child he delights over you like can you believe that he delights over you and he bears your burdens he's bore your shame on the cross that you wouldn't have to bear that anymore that you are invited into rest these are the things that that I've tried to internalize over the last few years that have really been a freeing process where somebody that's in an atheistic worldview they're navigating shame or guilt the solution to that is just to dispel those feelings entirely to say well shame is just kind of a societal concept and and guilt is just like morality is is very subjective and so you really shouldn't feel guilt for anything in particular you should just have you know radical acceptance of every behavior that you've ever had and disregard the shame is just meaningless it's like no like actual when when we look at the truth of what God has done in our world he set it up in such a way when we do sin we experience a level of shame and guilt and that causes us to look to God but then when we are in Christ when we do sin that shame and guilt is designed to draw us back to God to reaffirm the fact that hey actually this isn't me anymore right this isn't who I am where before when we were outside of Christ and we were sinning it was a testimony to who we were now that we're in Christ right that shame and guilt is a testimony to the fact that this is not who we are I am not this person anymore I am in Christ I am loved I am forgiven like these are the truths that actually bring emotional healing and when I think about it I think when we talk about anxiety or any kind of like mental health or trauma one of the most healing things is those things can only heal in relationship they can only heal in in safe community and I think about the ultimate safe relationship is with God right he is the ultimate comforter he is the ultimate father who can listen to the the cries of our heart and he affirms us in in our identity and that is a securing that's a healing thing if you're navigating shame if you're navigating anxiety if you're navigating depression to have that perfect relationship and then also within the the body of Christ in general having those relationships where we can say hey look this isn't just my own opinion this is what God says of you that is powerful we're in the atheistic worldview it's just everybody's opinion hey man yeah you're you're good don't don't feel so bad you know I I know you're going through some stuff but it's okay like it's not a big deal at the end of the day um we're just all stardust like really is that emotionally more healing than realizing that God has created us and and that he is with us and that his his nothing can separate us from the love of God don't believe the the the narrative that Christianity is just some cold dusty old religion that has no really connection to our emotional life no it does God has things to say about it the all these beliefs all these teachings the truth of scripture has implications to how we see ourselves how we operate in this world emotionally how we navigate mental health it's all connected I hope you guys got something from this video I hope you were encouraged in some way I'd love to hear your thoughts in the comments down below about how you kind of navigate some of these more challenging emotional issues in light of scripture in light of what Jesus has said about you I'd love to hear from you a huge thank you to everyone on patreon you guys know this is my full-time gig this is what I love to do this what I'm passionate about you guys enable me to continue to make this content I'm not big on accepting sponsors or doing promo deals I want to focus on the heart of the content and by you guys signing up on Patreon even today on the description down below you can enable me to continue to do that so thank you so much and I will see you guys next time God bless