How have we bought into the original sin paradigm so deeply? Why has much of the church focused on SIN? Why is there a need to confess daily? I’m not looking for a goodie-two-shoe mentality, nor some sort of greasy grace or sloppy agape. However, psychology has some things to say to the church and we should listen.
We need to rewrite our limiting belief script!
The NOCEBO effect is working all too well within the confines of most religious institutions. Surely you have heard of the PLACEBO effect. Science journals attribute nearly one third of the HEALINGS to the PLACEBO effect. Tell someone something GOOD is happening and they respond as though it were so.
The problem is that psychologists estimate that 70% of our thoughts are negative (and redundant).
In a double blind experiment with Japanese children who were allergic to poison ivy, those who were rubbed with poison ivy but told it was a healing leaf, no poison ivy developed. How does that work? It’s simple, positive perceptions enhance health. The church in America today is not very healthy because the Sunday diet consists mainly of SIN, the need to REPENT, and other WARNINGS about what God will do if one does not obey!
Enough of the NOCEBO effect!
And we really don’t need any PLACEBO, pie-in-the-sky stuff where we’re told every Sunday how GREAT we are. It’s the TRUTH that sets us FREE and the truth is that we’re created in the IMAGE of God. God, Jesus, and ALL humanity are LIGHT- the same substance. I am created and will forever be that image. So, why not try embracing such here and now? 
Ernie I there was many times when I was in the church I would say the the pastor why don’t we just tell people what Jesus Christ has done for them and rejoice in that and they would always that word but.
I would so love to have a place to go where people would come to gether and rejoice and encouage one another in what God has done for us all,
Love Dan
Dan- Unfortunately the church has made it a meritocracy concept, obsessed with who is IN and who is OUT: who is RIGHT and who is WRONG.
Gotta use your quote: “The church in America today is not very healthy because the Sunday diet consists mainly of SIN, the need to REPENT, and other WARNINGS about what God will do if one does not obey!” Great post Ernie!