Comments on: Some Clergy Dismiss Mental Illness

By: I Trust When Dark My Road » Mental Illness all in your soul, says pastors

I Trust When Dark My Road » Mental Illness all in your soul, says pastors — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 14:30:48 +0000

[...] is why I so want to get my book published. Thanks for pointing this article [...]

By: SjB

SjB — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 02:51:37 +0000

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

SjBs last blog post..Praying the Psalms at [site].

By: Mike Larson

Mike Larson — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 02:25:14 +0000

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.