Don’t assign “sickness” to acts of sin …

This month (May) is national Mental Health Awareness Month, a time which a great many people across the country work very hard toward removing the stigma so many place on people who suffer from mental illness.

Most people think they don’t contribute to stigmatizing the mentally ill, but their own words may tell a different story (check out my blog post, “You may not think you’re using mental health slurs, but check your language …” here). Not only do we often use words that are actually slurs referring to mental illness, we also make a big “spiritual” mistake: assigning “sickness” to acts of sin.

“That’s the sign of a sick mind …”

“You really have to be sick to do something like that …”

“You would have to be deeply disturbed to even think about something like that …”

“That’s sick!”

These and other similar phrases are language we assign to some of what most of us would consider the most horrific types of behaviors, such as murder. But in so many of those cases, the horrendous behavior is not the result of mental illness (sometimes mental illness can be a contributing factor), but chiefly the product of sin.

As sinful human beings, we are capable of the most vile acts imaginable because of sin.

It was the child of the first two human beings ever created who committed the first murder of a human being — not because he suffered from a “sickness” but because of his sin of envy.

And so goes human history.

It doesn’t take mental illness, or even direct influence from Satan himself for any of us to commit any kind of sin, it only takes our entertaining ourselves with sinful desires:

“And remember, when you are being tempted, do not say, ‘God is tempting me.’ God is never tempted to do wrong, and he never tempts anyone else. Temptation comes from our own desires, which entice us and drag us away. These desires give birth to sinful actions. And when sin is allowed to grow, it gives birth to death,” James 1:13-15.

The more we respond to gross acts of sin with exclamations of, “That’s sick!” the more we stigmatize people with mental illness as being more violent and unpredictable than the rest of us. MentalHealth.gov identifies that claim as a myth and states the following as fact:

“The vast majority of people with mental health problems are no more likely to be violent than anyone else. Most people with mental illness are not violent and only 3%–5% of violent acts can be attributed to individuals living with a serious mental illness. In fact, people with severe mental illnesses are over 10 times more likely to be victims of violent crime than the general population. You probably know someone with a mental health problem and don’t even realize it, because many people with mental health problems are highly active and productive members of our communities.”

So the next time you hear or read about a terrible crime, event, or tragedy, perpetrated by one or more human beings by other human beings, don’t automatically assign the cause to mental illness, especially when the greater likelihood is that you’re seeing the result of someone’s sin. This automatic blame only adds to the existing burden of stigma millions bear who really do suffer from an illness.

A final note: the church already runs from the word and concept of “sin,” instead choosing to use terms like “mistakes,” “failures,” and “errors.” But the church needs to look clearly at what sin is, the utter devastation it causes, and not be let off the hook by assigning the work of sin to mental illness (or anything else). In trying to address many problems, the church needs to face the fact that much of what is needed is a spiritual answer, demanding a greater faithfulness from the church in its mission to make disciples of Jesus Christ so lives can be transformed.

Scotty