It’s time to overcome junk theology about mental illness …

One of the places where significant ignorance about mental illness and mental health issues is still pervasive is within the church.

Jay Kesler wrote in his book, Raising Responsible Kids,” this story …

“Shortly after I got my driver’s license I was driving too close to the middle of a narrow road and I side-swiped another car. The crash tore the front fender, two doors, and the rear fender from my dad’s car. After I found out everyone was okay, I stood in the ditch and prayed, ‘Dear God, I pray this didn’t happen.’ I opened my eyes and saw that the car was still wrecked, so I closed my eyes, squinted real hard, and prayed again, ‘Dear God, it didn’t happen.’ Then I opened my eyes, but it happened anyway.”

It almost seems as if some within the church just insist on not facing the reality that mental illness is, in fact, a reality. We certainly don’t respond well to the truth of the matter.

In her book, “Troubled Minds,” Amy Simpson reveals the following highlights from her survey about dealing with mental illness in the church:

• • Nearly half (44.5 percent) of church leaders are approached two to five times per year for help in dealing with mental illness.
  • When church people are on medication or diagnosed with a mental illness, over a third of church people keep the matter very private.
  • About three out of ten (29.1 percent) said that, on average, mental illness is never mentioned in sermons at their church.
  • More than 40 percent of church leaders have never reached out to and ministered to a family within their congregation with someone who has mental illness.
  • Although 80 percent of church leaders said they believe mental illness is “a real, treatable, and manageable illness caused by genetic, biological or environmental factors,” only one out of eight (or 12.5 percent) of them said mental illness is discussed in a healthy way in their church.

Such data from research tends to be fairly polite in conveying the poor response of the church, and some of its leadership, to the issue of mental illness; in reality, it is often less polite and sometimes even mean-spirited or lacking in Christlike compassion or any effort of understanding. Too many Christians insist on listening to the terrible teachings of a few church leaders who are thoroughly ignorant and uneducated about mental illness and who also entertain and promote a warped theology about mental illness. There is such a thing as mental illness, although that is often perverted and twisted by the mental health industry. Nevertheless, there are millions of people who suffer from mental illness, many of those people being faithful, obedient Christians. Sometimes God delivers people miraculously from mental illness like He heals physically, and sometimes He heals through competent and professional treatment as He may through a physician. And sometimes we are not healed of whatever maladay we suffer, and God gives us the grace to endure. But in our time, there really is no excuse for draconian thinking in the church about mental illness.

Please, get informed!

Chances are very great you know people who suffer some form of mental illness, and your understanding of their challenge will help you love and serve them better.

Scotty