I tell that one, and an old joke about evangelicals thinking they're the only people in heaven
I love that one. I think there's a version of it for every single sect in existence, except the Unitarians and Episcopalians.
WRT attitude and illness, there's a great (and distressing) scene addressing that in Todd Haynes's Safe, where a warm and fuzzy group support/mutual affirmation group at a New Agey convalescent facility is interrupted by a woman in an utter rage that her husband's positive attitude hasn't helped him one goddamn bit, she's sick of hearing that his illness is his fault, and isn't this all deflecting talk away from industrial and environmental toxins and all the big scary monsters that involve more serious battles than merely turning that frown upside down?
I've heard variants of her tearful rant a few times since from critics of the Pink Ribbon industry.
And, in other news, I am now groaning with proof that God exists and wants me (and possibly my entire division) to be happy -- division holiday lunch with sushi, egg rolls the size of burritos, honey walnut prawns, and Princess cake from Schubert's. If there had been a pitcher of martinis, we might all have been bodily assumed into heaven.