To Some Christians, Mental Illness is Caused by Sin



While many Christians will disagree with a letter to the editor in yesterday's Forum, perhaps millions will agree. The letter says that stress and anxiety are caused by sin. The solution, of course, is to believe what Christian propaganda tells you to believe.

According to the preacher who wrote the letter, we are helpless because we were born sinners. Instead of a cure for depression and such the preacher inflicts it on us. After that he offers up a solution, put money in the church offering to support him.

He doesn't say it just that way. He say it indirectly. We cannot solve this problem of being born sinners, we need help from some invisible gods. The preacher knows all about them so best we come to his church to be helped. 

Branches of the faith have seen psychiatry and psychology as competitors for many generations. I'm sure the thinking has been, "If depressed and anxious people go to medical professionals for treatment where do we fit in?" It was smart of them to see this potential loss in influence and revenue.

There are sites devoted exclusively to debunking psychiatry and promoting Christian "treatment" of mental illness. One says psychiatry is anti Christian, unBiblical, Atheistic, Humanistic and Evolutionist.

I recall years ago the Pat Robertson TV show featured a beautiful young woman who was talented in singing and in the banter chats with Pat and others. She seemed like a rising star in Christian broadcasting. Then, she disappeared.

Many months later she reappeared and a cast member interviewed her. She had severe depression, she said, and sought help from psychiatry. She alluded to the faith's condemnation of that profession but advised Christians to seek it out nevertheless if needed. I have not seen her on TV since though I don't watch those channels anymore.

That branches of Christianity are anti psychiatry and treat homosexuality as a sin to be changed by religious training are a couple of the ways it is very harmful. Whether the good it has done building hospitals and such offset this harm is hard to know for certain.

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