Faith and Depression

It has always seemed like such a contradiction: how could someone who firmly believes in Jesus as the Christ also be depressed and suicidal? They do not go together in the normal schema of faith.If you believe in the saving grace of Jesus then there ought to be no room for despair, hopelessness, depression and suicidal thoughts, right? Nope. It turns out that the same person who believes the former also suffers with the rest. It may seem like a contradiction but the reality is that they co-exist.

The problem lies with the failure to understand depression as the organic illness it really is. Many Christians see depression as a spiritual failure, somehow the fault  of the depressed person for not having enough faith. The truth is, depression is an organic, definable illness in the same way heart disease is. Not many of us would classify heart attacks as a failure of faith. Neither should we define depression that way. Depression is caused by real imbalances in brain chemicals and complicated by life events.One may or may not question the role of faith in the life events but to call an imbalance of seratonin, dopamine and other chemicals in the brain a lack of faith is a serious failure to even try to understand the true nature of depression.

The Church, as a whole, needs to do a better job educating parishioners about mental illness in general and depression in particular. Though MILLIONS of us suffer from depression every year in this country only 3 in 100 sufferers seek help. That has to change. There should be no more shame in seeking help for depression than in going to the doctor for cancer. Indeed there should be no shame in being depressed at all. It is not  a matter of fault or blame. It JUST IS.

I have a Masters Degree in Theology and my home church was quite proud when I was ordained Deacon in the United Methodist Church. They were less thrilled when I left the ministry but they were still my home church. They managed to get their investment back by using my gifts and graces as much as they possibly could. At some points, I felt like an unpaid pastor. But then I suffered a breakdown and was hospitalized several times. I will NEVER forget that first Sunday back to church. Not ONE person either looked at me or talked to me! I never went back. These were the people who raised me in the faith. And yet, they could not deal with someone who had been suicidal and depressed. It was extremely painful but I understood the stigma that still attaches to mental illness and depression.

My message to the Church is this: What would Jesus do? First of all, he would heal me. But he would NEVER judge me or anyone else suffering from depression. Blame the disease not the patient. Jesus loves us all unconditionally. We ALL have our weaknesses and we are ALL sinners. But mental illness, in and of itself, is not a sin. It is a disease. It is no more sinful than having cancer. If and when the Church and broader society GETS that fact, the stigma may begin to disappear and the mentally ill may be included in society in a fuller and broader way. I hope and pray not too many more of us are ostracized before that happens.

The Least of These

 

Much of the problem I have with the Republicans these days has to do with their insistence upon cutting much needed services for the elderly, the disabled and the poor all so they can help pay for tax cuts for the wealthy. Many, if not most of these same Republicans call themselves Christians. Yet, anyone who reads the Bible knows that Jesus preached this: Love God, Love your neighbor as yourself. Who is your neighbor? Jesus responded with the parable of the Good Samaritan. The answer then is: your neighbor is EVERYONE.  The Republicans, the Tea Party and their rich sponsors do not get this. They ignore the Prophet Isaiah: "Shame on you! who make unjust laws and publish burdensome decrees, depriving the poor of justice, robbing the weakest of my people of their rights, despoiling the widow and plundering the orphan. What will  you do when called to account.." Isaiah 10:1-3a)  The Bible is quite clear, yet those who call themselves Christians and pander to the evangelical right seem not to get what it means to follow Jesus. Jesus was NOT about hatred, racism or injustice. That is totally antithetical to Christian teachings. Jesus would not ask to see your insurance card before healing you. Don't you get it? Wake up. 

But it is not just Christians who have this problem because the Prophets preached not to Christians but to Jews. So anyone in the Abrahamic tradition gets hit with the teaching by Isaiah. How do we treat the poor, the oppressed, the weakest? And for politicians it is not just in the abstract...not just all the poor, all the unemployed, but it also means, this ONE unemployed person who stands in front of me. It is most especially about the particular, not the general. How do you treat the ONE who has been unemployed so long the stresses have caused great and deep depression and desperation? The answer is not just in passing laws to make things better but also in helping the ONE. It is much easier to see  and deal with the general because it doesn't become personal. But the ONE who stands before you calls for an immediate and personal response. That is much harder, isn't it?

Faith in the One G-d calls us all to step up and love our neighbor and not just in the abstract. It means understanding the stresses on the One and to not make them worse by treating them like dirt when they are in front of you. It means not acting like they are the OTHER, the scary, when they are just the Neighbor in need, the weakest among us who have been decimated by the ones in power.

So, who is YOUR Neighbor?


*ALL content herein is the opinion of the author.