Toxic Faith

Toxic faith is real, unhealthy, and dangerous. In their book by the same title, Stephen Arterburn and Jack Felton write, “Toxic faith is a destructive and dangerous relationship with a religion that allows the religion, not the relationship with God, to control a person’s life.” (slipcover of book). My colleague, Dr. Jennifer Degler, at the Interfaith Counseling Center recently gave a workshop on “How to Recognize and Respond to Ministry Burnout.” One of her repeated signs is to watch out for “bad theology.” Bad theology is toxic faith. Bad theology or toxic faith sees God as something other than a loving and forgiving eternal being whose primary purpose is to bring wholeness, healing, and forgiveness to all of us. Good theology is trusting that ‘God loves me’ and there is nothing I can do to make God love me more than God loves me this moment and there is nothing that I have ever done that has caused or will cause God cease loving me. God does not put harsh or unhealthy expectations on us; we do a more than adequate job of doing that to ourselves and others. God loves me and cares for me even more than I love and care for myself. This truth is more than I can comprehend so I trust that God really means it. Healthy trust or faith is like a child who rests in his/her mother’s/father’s arms because the child knows, beyond words, understanding or cognition, that all is well. Jesus said, “You must be like little children.” (Matthew 18:3). Toxic faith or bad theology is binding whereas healthy faith and good theology is freeing.