Why criticizing "positive thinking" in Trump is not simply "negativity."

I answer this question a zillion times a week so here goes.

"Positive thinking" is a shorthand for a movement that took shape in late 1940s as a response to WWII and the economic optimism that shaped the new American middle class.

Its popularizer was a man named Norman Vincent Peale in his 1952 classic "The Power of Positive Thinking"

Positive thinking is a metaphysical tradition, meaning that it rests on deep RELIGIOUS beliefs that the mind is more powerful than the body.

It doesn't just mean "having happy thoughts" or "expressing confidence."

Donald Trump and what little faith tradition he has has been DIRECTLY shaped by Norman Vincent Peale.

When Trump was married for the first time, it was Rev. Norman Peale who performed the wedding ceremony in the church that was the hallowed birthplace of positive thinking.

Positive Thinking has lots of spiritual cousins, so to speak. The closest cousin is the American prosperity gospel.

So when you see that Trump's religious board of advisors is stacked with prosperity preachers, you will understand why.

Gloria and Kenneth Copeland. Paula White. These are pentecostal versions of a similar belief.

The core belief is that the mind can harness spiritual powers that change REALITY. Can alter illness. Can create miracles.

Positive words spoken out loud with the right beliefs become the spiritual vehicle that allows God to act.

That's the core belief. This is why it is metaphysical, and not simply a therapeutic technique for emotional management.

There is a long tradition of this priority on the power of the mind that really takes off in the late 19th century.

But it is one of the most common cultural stories that Americans tell: that positive words change reality.

And if anyone has any questions, I'll be happy to answer them.

But dear sweet mother of the Lord, just please don't make me respond to the rhetorical sinkhole: "Isn't that just being negative?"