Lie #8 – Change Is Instantaneous
from Helena Sorensen Aman:
Lie #8: “Change is instantaneous.”
Only a fool would deny that something is possible merely because it is outside her experience. If quantum entanglement and quantum tunneling are things, then miraculous healing and walking through walls are things. But Christian teaching about miracles, the presentation of salvation as a single-magical-moment-that-changes-everything, and the concept of the rapture all combined to create the lie that God-change is instant change, and it happens independent of human action.
One example: a person’s instant and complete salvation transformation meant that past behavior had no bearing on what he or she (but almost always he) was allowed to do in church. Someone could show up on a Sunday, drop a handful of Christian phrases that functioned like universal passwords, and in no time at all be volunteering in the nursery or leading the youth. “Saved” meant “changed.” No questions asked.
The lie of instant change meant addictions could be cured in an instant, too. Therapeutic and psychological intervention were unnecessary. Besides, that stuff was secular, and the only thing Christians needed was “God.”
The lie was a scourge to people with disabilities or chronic illness. It forced them into the role of second-class citizens because their continued physical difficulties broadcast either a lack of faith or a need for continued suffering. But the same held true for any kind of illness. Healing was supposed to come in dramatic communal moments or as a result of prayer. If you took steps to reclaim your health through Western medicine, that was less than ideal, but acceptable. If you tried other means, God help you. Changing your diet was ridiculous because God had made all things clean (or something like that). It didn’t matter that Chinese medicine has been around for five thousand years. It wasn’t Christian. To acknowledge that the body is energetic as well as biological was to question your faith. And stretching your body was outright paganism.
In fact, in this paradigm, the more steps you take to seek healing, the further you have moved from God. Action becomes the opposite of faith.
And if action is the opposite of faith, then you will look at the poor and say, “Well, ‘the poor we have with us always.’” You’ll look at the injustices of the world and say, “Oh Lord, how long?” You’ll look at species eradication and islands of garbage the size of whole countries and say, “When, Lord, will you return and make it right?!” You’ll get so angry, sitting on your hands, that God hasn’t swept in and worked a miracle.
You’ll be trapped, like most Evangelical Christians, in a holy helplessness, forced to choose faith instead of action, angry at God, unable to care for your body, your community, or your environment. Suffering and waiting.
Waiting.
Waiting.
For instantaneous change.
