Mark Licitra

Back from Holiday Hiatus with Myth #9

March 1, 2009

Posted in: Uncategorized

I confess that my blog hiatus was not just from the holidays, but I titled this post when I started writing it… in January. This speaks to both my current busyness and my chronic tendency to get things started and let them flounder for awhile. While I am committed to not allowing this blog to become another stalled project, I can’t guarantee that my next post will be next week or even in two weeks. I appreciate all the patience and hope people are still reading this. Anyway, on with Myth #9.

People with mental illness did something to deserve it.

One of the worst ways the Church has historically responded to mental illness is to blame the afflicted for their affliction. To be fair, most Evangelical Christians have been taught that the ultimate cause of suffering in the world is the sin of humanity. But we make a tragic mistake in applying the cause and effect relationship between the global sin and brokenness of the world to the individual. I argue that it not at all helpful (and often not accurate) to attempt to identify a direct causal relationship between an individual’s illness and their specific sins.

I don’t think I actually know anyone who would articulate this out loud, having sincerely thought it through, but I find this myth often comes out in the things people say- and sometimes the things they try to “say without saying”. Many times these statements are immediately preceded by the person lowering their voice and stepping in closer to say something like “well its pretty clear that he didn’t have a chance. You know, given his background and everything.”

Another way I see this myth played out is when the illness itself is minimized and the condition of the individual’s life is thought to be a product of some character deficiency. “If she would just stop acting lazy and get a job…” To me, it gets much more serious when we spiritualize this and say things like “he’s not walking with the Lord right now. That’s why his life is a mess.” I think you’ll sense my frustration when I write, in all caps (my version of “see what large letters I use”), WHAT DOES THAT EVEN MEAN? I fear too often (not always, but especially for us evangelicals) it means that we actually believe that a person is suffering deeply because of not adhering to an arbitrary religious code placed on them by a toxic, shaming church culture.

The truth is that the causes of mental illness are complicated- so complicated that people are still learning, scientists are still researching, and families are still struggling to know if they or their loved one had any role in producing this monster in their lives. Let’s not let the Church, the Healing Body of Christ, be yet another contributor to the confusion that people dealing with this have to face everyday, but let us be instead a refuge.

In the near future I will post about a tried and true model for understanding mental illness called the biopsychosocial-spiritual perspective.