Mental illness is one of those subjects that the evangelical church has struggled to address. During my time in the pastorate, I came to know several people (probably more) who struggled with mental illness. The culmination of my sense of inadequacy on the subject came when a friend who suffered with schizophrenia committed suicide. It left me with so many questions. The subject of mental illness typically does that… even to Christians. Being a child of God does not make one immune to mental illness. Nor do formulaic or simplistic solutions adequately address the issue. It’s a huge, complicated subject. How does the Bible address mental illness? How do we reconcile having faith in God for healing while seeking medical assistance? To discuss this difficult subject, I’ve invited Chris Morris, editor of the Whispers in the Pews: Voices on Mental Illness in the Church,to field a few questions.
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MIKE: Chris, thanks for joining us! What led to your interest in the subject of mental illness and the Church?
CHRIS: In large part, my own struggles with mental illnesses led me to become interested in this topic. I also began having conversations with friends and acquaintances about their own stories, and I realized a trend – the Church doesn’t know what to do with mental illnesses. They don’t fit into the neat box most of Christianity has tried to put God into. So those of us in the mental illness community… well, we get shoved to the side. We get put into our own box, and ignored almost entirely.
I had heard one too many stories of friends being ignored or given terrible theological advice, and I had to do something about it. So I began gathering essays from people – some friends and others strangers – who had their own experience with mental illness and the church, and Whispers in the Pews was born.
MIKE: Why do you think the issue of mental illness is so ignored, misunderstood, or even rejected, by Christian ministers and laypeople?
CHRIS: I think there are several reasons. First and foremost, there is not a strong sense of everything being connected in the human existence. In other words, the body impacts the soul impacts the mind impacts the spirit. Nobody questions the legitimacy of butterflies in the stomach as evidence of a nervous mind before a public speaking engagement. But it gets a lot harder for people to swallow when you suggest that a depressed mind might have spiritual consequences. We must learn to have a stronger biblical view of man, which is that we are holistic beings and everything — body, soul, spirit, and mind — is connected.
Beyond the holistic model of man, I think mental illness is ignored because many in the church believe everything has a spiritual answer. In other words, a depressed person would be fine if they just siphoned more joy from the Lord into their life. Similarly, an anxious person should learn to lay their fears down and trust God more, and a person with PTSD from sexual abuse needs to allow forgiveness to flood their soul.
Lastly, and most importantly, mental illness is avoided because it’s hard. Most people don’t want to deal with difficult, particularly if it’s long-term difficult. Those of us in the mental illness community don’t have broken bones, which take six to eight weeks to heal. We have a mental illness that likely won’t go away any time soon. It’s complex to know how to support those whose needs seem to be unending.
MIKE: Many see the Bible as limited in its address of mental illness. In other words, the Bible is concerned with spiritual things; it is not a medical book. As a result, they suggest, we should look to doctors and psychologists for treatment of mental illness, not so much to Scripture. In what way, if any, does the Bible address mental health?
CHRIS: The Bible is not a medical book at its core, and to treat it the same way you might treat a textbook from nursing school is a mistake. Scripture is also more than a book of spiritual guidelines – there are truths about good diets, military strategy, and how to develop good friendships and strong communities. None of these are distinctly spiritual in nature, so it’s important to treat the Bible as the unique book it is.
Mental health conditions are demonstrated in Scripture, and we must recognize that. One could make a strong argument that Elijah the Old Testament prophet was bi-polar. How else does one explain the extreme high of the confrontation with the Baal prophets, immediately followed by him hiding in a cave crying out to God for some proof of His existence? (I Kings 18 – 19)
Jesus Himself was deeply emotional – He cleansed the temple in a fit of rage, He cried at the death of Lazarus, and He sweated blood in the Garden of Gethsemane. Taken as individual moments, these could be considered instances of mental instability. Yet instead we hold Jesus up as the model of perfect humanity (and rightly so). This leaves us with the very legitimate question of where to draw the line between deeply felt emotional moments and mental instability.
MIKE: So do you think that bifurcating the Bible and Medicine is the proper approach to such a complex subject?
CHRIS: No. Let’s change the specifics of the illness. Is it wise for the diabetic to ignore his insulin and instead place his faith in Jesus? Of course not. It would be obnoxious to ascribe to such a view. And yet, we are all too quick to apply this very same methodology to mental illnesses.
MIKE: So how do we integrate Scripture and Psychology without denying one or the other?
CHRIS: Entire books have been written on this very topic, and some of these books disagree with each other in their approaches!
Just as the Bible is not fundamentally a medical textbook, it’s also not a psychology textbook. To view the Bible as the only source of valuable information on psychology will end up with a woefully inadequate view of the human psyche. This is what leads to common but unhelpful myths about mental illness and spirituality.
One of the essays in Whispers in the Pews addresses this, titled “Am I a Whole Person?” The author’s pastor states unequivocally that anyone on medication for mental illness should reevaluate their choice and their faith. Here is her response: “But Jesus has not been excluded and shoved out of my anxiety. He’s not waiting to engage with my mental health struggles like an old friend waiting for a wedding invitation. No, I’ve never even needed to invite Jesus into my battles. He’s always been there. Before I knew anxiety, I knew Jesus. I’ve followed Him since I was a very young child. To speak with complete candor, if Jesus had not firmly planted Himself right in the middle of my battle with anxiety, I would not be here to talk about my battles at all.”
MIKE: While it’s sad that pastors react that way, the New Testament DOES describe some problems that we would label as mental illness as spiritual in nature. For example, what we would call schizophrenia often looks like demon possession in the Bible. Is it possible to incorrectly diagnose a problem as medical when it, in fact, is spiritual?
CHRIS: My experience has been that more people associate epilepsy with demon possession than schizophrenia, but that might be a function of my family’s particular illnesses as well.
As mentioned above, I believe wholeheartedly in a holistic model of man, so this means I believe that there are often multiple sources or roots to a problem. To this end, I have a high value for praying for wisdom over complex medical situations such as mental illnesses. Instead of coming at a person with depression with an assumption they lack faith or have a demon, it is much more valuable to ask the Lord to provide some practical insight into the source of the illness. It’s been my experience that God loves answering these prayers. When we pray with an open mind, there are many positive things that can come out of these circumstances; much more so than entering with preconceived ideas about what causes a particular ailment.
MIKE: So is there a point where reliance upon medication or psychology IS a sign of unbelief? If so, how does one know when they’ve crossed the threshold from trusting God to trusting Science?
CHRIS: I struggle with the idea of unbelief in this context. I don’t tend to think of seeking health in terms of belief or unbelief. Here’s some of my own story as support for this. I’ve been to about a dozen specialists of various types who have all tried to provide me help with my non-neurological seizures. Some have been Christian, some have been atheists, others have been definitively New Age, and a few have been agnostic.
To me, it doesn’t matter what their belief system is, because I am not seeking biblical counseling from them. I am looking for medical guidance based on their years and sometimes decades of experience in their field. While pursuing these experts, I continue to pray for healing, and I continue to have open dialogue with my pastor about the steps I’m taking.
So, it may appear that I don’t have any reliance upon God at all in this pursuit, but the whole enterprise is undergirded in prayer, by me and by many others in my life. There is an understanding that God could choose to heal me in a moment’s notice, but if he doesn’t then I should be looking for other ways to find health. There’s no unbelief, just an approach that allows for multiple answers.
MIKE: That’s very helpful. In conclusion, what advice would you give to church-goers who believer they are struggling with or know someone afflicted by mental illness?
CHRIS: The first thing I would say is to not go it alone. Not only is it unhealthy to try to survive a mental illness alone, it’s not the way God intended us to live. We were built for community, through and through. No single person can ever reach full potential in life or in service if they live it in isolation. There are of course specific risks when dealing with a mental illness, but it’s important to start at the baseline of who God created us to be – not alone.
The next step is to find the person you want to trust with your mental illness. This is an important question, and one that requires a lot of thought. In a perfect world, this would be your pastor, but that’s not always the best choice. As you’ll find if you read Whispers in the Pews, there are many pastors who are ill-equipped to be part of a support system for a person with a mental illness. Use your discernment carefully to choose who you share your story with in the church, and how you ask for help.
Beyond spirituality, there are practical steps to take as well. Talk to your immediate family and tell them what’s happening, as best you can. Commit to getting whatever help you can to rediscover health. In most cases, your family will support you. Once you’ve talked to your family, it’s time to consider professional help. This can be everything from the TalkSpace phone app to a counselor or even a stay in mental health facility. The key is to find the support you need.
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Chris, thank you SO MUCH for sharing your thoughts and experiences. If you’re reading this and are struggling with mental illness or know others who might be, please consider purchasing a copy of Whispers in the Pews: Voices on Mental Illness in the Church. Once again, thanks for visiting, Chris!
Great article.
As a Christ-follower with anxiety and depression, this topic cannot be emphasized strongly enough.
So many excellent points. My son was diagnosed with numerous mental illnesses last summer, and we’ve discovered there are no easy answers or solutions to anything involving the mentally ill. Churches don’t have answers, but neither do medical professionals. There is a huge stigma associated with all types of mental illness – from the “minor” bouts of depression to the most severe diagnoses of psychosis and schizophrenia.
I do believe there’s a spiritual connection, but I also think we’re missing one other element that no one seems to touch. Nutritional deficiencies. In all my son’s doc and counselor and in-patient visits, not once has anyone suggested taking his blood work to see if he’s missing any vital nutrients in his system. We’ve always been told that mental illnesses could be a chemical imbalance – if that’s so, then why aren’t tests being done to see what’s out of balance, and begin treatment there.
Mike, thanks for this interview and bringing this subject to the forefront. Chris, I look forward to reading and sharing your book.
Tracy, that’s a very good point. My experience has been that medical professionals are far more likely to treat possible mental illness with medication rather than testing for allergies, nutritional deficiencies, or chemical imbalances. That could be changing. But the default position appears to be “medicate first.”
Very good, balanced views! I had a neighbor who was bipolar, and it was heartbreaking to watch her swing into a manic phase. She had a friend who basically had to sit on her to make her sleep, and once she slept for a few days, she’d swing the other way. The doctors had her on piles of meds, and meds for the side effects of the meds, and each new med made the bipolar worse. So yeah, this is definitely a part of society that needs to be addressed, both inside and outside the church. In Luke, Jesus healed people who had mental illness, and people who had demons. There was a difference between them. I think in our super-materialistic culture, we’ve lost the ability to discern between the two.