{"id":402,"date":"2007-08-09T10:15:11","date_gmt":"2007-08-09T10:15:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/beyondblue\/2007\/08\/optimism-is-depressing.html"},"modified":"2007-08-09T10:15:11","modified_gmt":"2007-08-09T10:15:11","slug":"optimism-is-depressing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/2007\/08\/optimism-is-depressing.html","title":{"rendered":"Optimism and Depression"},"content":{"rendered":"

In his comment, Larry highlighted some points made by Patton Dodd, who wrote Beliefnet\u2019s “Optimism Is Depression,” (click here) about the distinction between optimism and hope.<\/a> The article begins . . .<\/p>\n

Long before “The Secret” had readers talking about how we attract good or bad things to ourselves according to how we think, I was a young convert to Christianity who believed that the message of Jesus was, well, that we attract good or bad things to ourselves according to how we think.
\nIt was 1994, I was a new Christian, I was tender of heart, and I was impressionable. At the Pentecostal university I attended, not everyone embraced what is known as “the prosperity gospel,” but somehow I was drawn to people for whom prosperity teaching\u2014the idea that God wants us healthy and wealthy\u2014was part and parcel of the life of faith.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In his comment, Larry highlighted some points made by Patton Dodd, who wrote Beliefnet\u2019s “Optimism Is Depression,” (click here) about the distinction between optimism and hope. The article begins . . . Long before “The Secret” had readers talking about how we attract good or bad things to ourselves according to how we think, I…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-402","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-depression"],"yoast_head":"\nOptimism and Depression - Beyond Blue<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/2007\/08\/optimism-is-depressing.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Optimism and Depression - Beyond Blue\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In his comment, Larry highlighted some points made by Patton Dodd, who wrote Beliefnet\u2019s “Optimism Is Depression,” (click here) about the distinction between optimism and hope. The article begins . . . Long before “The Secret” had readers talking about how we attract good or bad things to ourselves according to how we think, I…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/2007\/08\/optimism-is-depressing.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Beyond Blue\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2007-08-09T10:15:11+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Beyond Blue\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Optimism and Depression - Beyond Blue","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/2007\/08\/optimism-is-depressing.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Optimism and Depression - Beyond Blue","og_description":"In his comment, Larry highlighted some points made by Patton Dodd, who wrote Beliefnet\u2019s “Optimism Is Depression,” (click here) about the distinction between optimism and hope. 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