These days we live in a culture which takes emotions very seriously.
The old way of not making too much of your feelings (the British 'stiff upper lip') is derided. This outlook has already brought changes and new challenges to our society. Christians need to be aware of the way this ethos is developing.
A search of 300 UK newspapers in 1980 did not find a single reference to the term 'self-esteem'. It found three citations in 1986. By 1990 this figure rose to 103. A decade later in 2000, there were a staggering 3,328 references. Similar figures apply for words like 'trauma', 'stress', 'syndrome' and 'counselling'. A tendency to reinterpret not just major difficulties but also normal experience through the medium of an emotional script is emerging. Along with this goes the inevitable proliferation of psychological labels and therapeutic terms. The tendency is to pathologise or medicalise bad feelings.
The re-emergence of heavy shepherds
What would you think if you received a letter from your church leaders that read like this? ‘Are church members …