Preacher John Hagee’s Insensitive “GET OVER IT” Sermon – Christians remain ignorant and insensitive to those who suffer tragedy, pain, or mental health problems
Tub- of- lard San Antonio preacher John Hagee gave a sermon televised today called “As a man thinketh.”
(Side note: John Hagee is essentially an older, fatter version of preacher Mark Driscoll, only Hagee doesn’t tend to get nearly as much coverage by Christian media and feminist Christian bloggers as Driscoll does.)
In one clip from this “As A Man Thinketh” sermon, Hagee goes on and on about how, “there is only one phrase you need, it’s three words…”
I used to watch this guy’s show almost daily a few years ago, for over five years. I already knew what those three words were before he said them, because Hagee screams them in other sermons.
Those three words are “Get over it.”
People such as Hagee think if you simply shame someone who admits to being in pain, that you can shake them out of it.
I don’t know about you, but when I go to someone else because I am deeply wounded – over the death of a loved one, for example, or, having clinical depression, or over some painful event that happened ten years ago – and their response is to tell me (or scream, as Hagee does), “GET OVER IT!!,” that is not the least bit helpful, but is very damaging and demoralizing.
I blogged about this issue before:
(Link): People’s Insensitivity: “Just Get Over It”
The fact is, a lot of things in life require TIME to work through.
Healing is a PROCESS, not a one-step event someone overcomes in five minutes by simply “getting over it.”
Now, yes, I have seen some people who do need to hear a “get over it” message, but they tend to be few and far between.
I have met people who are choosing to hold on to bitterness, anger, and pain. The people who are choosing to wallow in pain, anger, or grief do probably need to be prodded to let go and move forward (for their own benefit).
People who have been raped, molested as a child, who have been through an unexpected divorce (the spouse suddenly announces after X years of marriage that he wants out, for instance), people who have lost a loved one, or who have clinical depression, or who have undergone some other sort of calamity, need time to get over and through the wounds and pain.
That time might involve months or years. Some people who suffer these things may need years and years or therapy and medication before they begin to recover.
During this sermon, Hagee is quoting Bible passage about how God is the Christian’s shield and protector, and so on and so forth, and quoting the passages about how ‘one will fly on the wings of eagles and not tire.’
What insensitive, idiotic preachers such as Hagee don’t seem to comprehend is that although the Bible is chock full of pretty-sounding verses, more often than not, they do not come true.
I’ve known Christians who “stood on the Word” for healing and trusted God for a healing but who still died.
I personally prayed for years for a spouse, while appealing to verses in the Bible about God answering prayer and being a provider and such, and I still remain single in my forties.
I used to pray for healing from depression, and God never healed me (I recovered from depression from reading books by Non Christian therapists; it’s a long story).
But prayer, church attendance, volunteering at homeless shelters, Bible reading, and having faith, did not help at all with the depression.
Just because the Bible has lovely sounding promises does not mean God will honor them at all times in all situations with all people.
People who are Christians will still suffer and face pain in life, and most people do not rebound instantly from trauma or emotional pain.
In the past two years, more articles and editorials have been written about Christian preachers, or sons of famous Christian preachers, who killed themselves.
Some of these articles highlight a situation I’ve known about for years, which is:
most evangelical, Neo Reformed, fundamentalist, and Baptist Christians are completely unqualified and clueless in addressing those who suffer psychological pains – and this would include John Hagee.
That a preacher thinks it perfectly acceptable to coach people, via screaming “GET OVER IT!” at them, is sufficient for them to find healing and work past a painful episode, is heartless, ignorant, simplistic, and juvenile.
Hagee keeps recycling this, by the way. I used to watch his show daily for years, and every so often he would yell at people from his pulpit, “GET OVER IT!,” when he told them to stop harboring some kind of animosity over something that happened to them 20 years ago.
It’s really easy for you to scream at someone else that you think they should get over a past pain or betrayal when it did not happen to you personally.
I think Ted Haggard, a preacher who was caught in scandals years ago, seems to understand how poorly evangelicals deal with those who are hurting or undergoing mental health problems:
(Link): Ted Haggard Says Suicides of Pastor Isaac Hunter, Others Reflect Flaws in ‘Evangelical Culture’
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- BY ANUGRAH KUMAR, CHRISTIAN POST CONTRIBUTOR
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- December 14, 2013|10:46 am
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Sharing from his own experience of being involved in a sex scandal in the past, former megachurch pastor Ted Haggard suggests the apparent suicides of Isaac Hunter and that of other evangelical pastors and their family members in recent months, reflect an evangelical culture that alienates those who fall and spiritualizes their struggles.
“Some researchers are reporting that the suicide rate among Evangelicals is the same as that of the non-Christian community. How sad,” Haggard, who made national headlines for a sex scandal involving a male prostitute in 2006, writes on his blog, days after Hunter, founder and former pastor of Summit Church in Orlando, Fla., died of an apparent suicide.
..It is natural that “when God’s holiness is infused into our humanity, that sets us all up for some degree of struggle,” states Haggard, founder and former pastor of the New Life Church in Colorado Springs, Colo.
“I was so ashamed in 2006 when my scandal broke,” he admits. “The therapeutic team that dug in on me insisted that I did not have a spiritual problem or a problem with cognitive ability, and that I tested in normal ranges on all of my mental health tests (MMPI, etc.). Instead, I had a physiological problem rooted in a childhood trauma, and as a result, needed trauma resolution therapy… Contrary to popular reports, my core issue was not sexual orientation, but trauma.”
Haggard says when he explains that to most evangelical leaders, “their eyes glaze over.”
“They just don’t have a grid for the complexity of it all. It is much more convenient to believe that every thought, word, and action is a reflection of our character, our spirituality, and our core. They think the Earth is flat. Everyone is either completely good or bad, everything is either white or black, and if people are sincere Christians, then they are good and their behavior should conform.”
Haggard goes on to say that his sin never made him suicidal, “but widespread church reaction to me did.” “Do we actually believe that the many pastors who have been characterized as fallen decided to be hateful, immoral, greedy, or deceitful? I think not.”
But many in the “church-world” had to “demonize” the facts, he says, of his “struggle,” which “was easily explained by a competent therapeutic team.”
“Saints, I have a high view of Scripture and am persuaded that the theological underpinnings of Evangelicalism are valid, but I am growing away from the Evangelical culture we have created. I think our movement has abandoned the application of the Gospel, and as a result we spend too much time on image management and damage control,” Haggard points out. “Maybe we should be willing to admit that we are all growing in grace, be willing to be numbered with the transgressors, and stop over-stating and over-promising.”
Evangelicals have a “core, fundamental, essential problem” with their application of the Gospel, he says. “We need to re-read the New Testament and modify some of our interpretations. The Bible is true. God is faithful. But at this point, too many are missing the mark.”
Many are known to have fallen because of “obvious sin,” Haggard admits, “but I did not mention the proud, envious, gluttonous, angry, greedy, blamers and scrutinizers in the body of Christ who have equally fallen but their sins are acceptable in our culture so they do not even realize their sin or need for repentance.”
He adds: “They are too busy with the sins of others. Often we actually laude these Pharisees and Judaizers because of their stand against sin, not realizing that they are still not teaching us the New Testament solution to mankind’s sin problem. When the New Testament becomes Torah in their hands, that law, too, stimulates sin.”
Related posts this blog:
(Link): Life Lessons After Recovering from Codependency – I Can’t Save You, and I No Longer Want To
(Link): Mental Illness Doesn’t Make You Special by F. Deboer
By the way, preacher John Hagee is father of preacher Matthew Hagee who thinks that unmarried women have no purpose in life:
(Link): Being Bitter and Blaming Others Can Ruin Your Health by Elizabeth Cohen
(Link): Choosing Sadness: The Irony of Depression – article from APS – by Wray Herbert
(Link): Clinical Depression Doesn’t Make People Incapable of Making Choices or Changes
(Link): Addendum – Mental Health and Treatment and the Goals of Mental Health Professionals
(Link): Christians, Selective Compassion and Bootstrap Theology: It seems to happen to black Christians, too
(Link): Clinical Depression Doesn’t Make People Incapable of Making Choices or Changes
(Link): P.T.S.D. is Not Biblical Says Evangelicals / Charismatic Christians K. Copeland and Barton
(Link): Famous Evangelical [historian David Barton] Says Drinking Coffee is Destroying Marriage
(Link): Measles Outbreak in Word of Faith Church [Kenneth Copeland related]
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