Oct 16, 2008
Some Clergy Dismiss Mental Illness
Categories: Pastoral Ministry
Written By: Stiegemeyer
In a study of Christian church members who approached their church for help with a personal or family member’s diagnosed mental illness, researchers found that more than 32 percent were told by their pastor that they or their loved one did not really have a mental illness.
Read the article here.
October 27th, 2008 at 10:25 pm
This article is not dealing with specifically how the Pastors are suggesting to the parishioners to deal with mental health issues. This country is drowning in wealth, resources, and prosperity and an increasingly large segment of the population is turning to a whole variety of seratonin-reuptake inhibitor drugs or psychotrophic drugs to meet their anxieties. Due to the fall, we are promised for the time being that ‘by the sweat of our brow we eat our bread’ and that in pain life is brought forth. Life is supposed to be miserable, filled with anxiety and depression. This is all the more reason to run to the cross and find life in the church. The psalter makes clear to Christians the kind of lives we live in a dying world where the only thing that matters is salvation in Christ.
Sending those who suffer to drugs numbs one to the acute reality of sin and its consequences in our lives. Sin and the law strike and terrify to keep us in Christ’s Holy Absolution and Sacraments.
November 15th, 2008 at 10:51 pm
Mike wrote: ” Life is supposed to be miserable, filled with anxiety and depression.”
I’m wondering if you read the article? 100% of these people were diagnosed by professionals with serious conditions that can only be mediated by medications. Did you miss that part? Or do you counsel people to shun medical care for cancer, diabetes, and etc since life is ’supposed’ to be filled with disease and death?
Quote from article:
All of the participants in both studies were previously diagnosed by a licensed mental health provider as having a serious mental illness, such as bipolar disorder and schizophrenia, prior to approaching their local church for assistance
More from the Baylor Study:
Those whose mental illness is dismissed by clergy are not only being told they don’t have a mental illness, they are also being told they need to stop taking their medication. That can be a very dangerous thing.
In addition, Baylor researchers found study participants who were told by their pastors they did not have a mental illness were more likely to attend church more than once a week and described their church as conservative or charismatic.
However, the Baylor study also found those whose mental illness was dismissed or denied were less likely to attend church after the fact and their faith in God was weakened.
http://psychcentral.com/news/2008/10/16/clergy-often-downplay-mental-illness/3147.html
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November 16th, 2008 at 10:30 am
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