Old-Testament scholar Soong-Chan Rah addresses the American church and her inability to mourn. This is reflected in even our song selections in both traditional and contemporary worship services. He notes that “In an evangelical triumphalistic Christianity we have buried the practice of lament. We have buried an important biblical value-the value of suffering, the value of lament; and we need to recover that.”

Do you find Rah’s complaint legitimate? Could it be that our evangelical DNA is so so tainted with triumphalism that we remain unwilling and queasy at the idea of bringing lament into our corporate and public worship?