We just can't deal with the mental health issues!
Outside the 'unforgivable sin' and grieving the Holy Spirit, I have always been taught that regardless of the sin, there was always healing, forgiveness and renewal available to the sinner, should they repent. The problem is that in the United Kingdom, one in every six people is affected by a mental health issue, one in every four has been (or will be, mentally ill at some time - varying degrees, but identifiably mentally ill) (ONS 2007 UK Census - 23%).
Following the 2007 census, the then Health Secretary, Alan Johnson, spoke about the situation:
"At any one time, one in six people will be living with a mental health problem. One in four will experience an episode of mental illness at some point in their lifetime. If this statistic were applied to some of this country’s most venerable institutions, it would mean that at least one presenter of the Today programme, one of the Strictly Come Dancing judges and around six players in the current England football squad, have experienced or will experience a mental illness at some point in their lives"
I am concerned at a number of levels and for a number of reasons. The first being that I find Christians who are so excited by an issue like homosexuality, which affects four to five percent of the population (globally or locally, take your pick) . They rant and rave about something that affects one in twenty people tops. These same people studiously avoid an issue which affects one in four (or perhaps one in six, depends upon the definitions used).
Now I know I'm treading on dodgy ground here because some will accuse me of comparing apples and pears rather than 'like-for-like' (worse still that I am lumping both together as a 'illness' - which I am not). What I am trying to do as I open this discussion is to show the scale of the issue before us and the inordinately skewed focus regarding it (so it's not a discussion about homosexuality - O.K.!).
So hopefully I have put in some context and a datum from which to work regarding the man spoken of yesterday.
One of the more compassionate people regarded the issue as one that the man's pastor needed to address 'decisively'. Another spoke of the man needing to be 'locked up' and another was angry and upset because the bloke had (basically) 'spoilt his Good Friday religious bit!' (my words, his attitude!).
The problem with mentally ill people is that they aren't rational. They are disruptive and often controversial, noisy, aggressive, frightening, weird, and more beside. they just don't make sense and cannot see sense when it paraded before them. Rational conversation aimed at them produces fluffy bunnies, a world that is out to get them, half a dozen other personalities popping out to say 'hello' (sorry - 'sound of music' gene problem) and totally ridiculous responses (ever tried talking to me?).
The problem is, that 'they' (for it seems that the mentally ill lose identities and become that wonderful, anonymous, 'they') just don't do anything towards making church comfortable and 'they' can be disruptive and do need to be managed such that our services run with a degree of decency and decorum. BUT, there has to be latitude (not lassitude) shown, a degree of accommodation and acceptance along with the managing (AKA 'lock them up somewhere away from us')
Another issue is that having these 'nutters' (a word used to describe the mentally ill 'they'recently) going around telling people they're Christians isn't good marketing. Even if we let them come to our services, it would be good if they didn't support the idea that to be Christian, or even religious, is the province of the mentally ill, after all, we claim to hear voices and have a God fixation (two of the signs when I was training).
And then we have the 'demon' brigade. The wonderfully weird and often certifiable Christians who see mental illness as merely 'demonic' and, because "Demons are their ministry and calling!" (which is actually tosh!) look for a gunfight with the demonic causes of the illness. Now here's a bit of gained wisdom that I have built up over the years, your for free. Demons might not cause mental illness, but things demonic can use mental illness, the lowering of mental and emotional barriers caused by the illness and amazingly the medication and can sign up to make issue worse.
I have learned that what is presenting before me is more often than not (I've seen and dealt with less than twenty truly demonic mentally ill people in a quarter of a century of ministry)) a medical issue. At one stage I was the man who was called out to support a fair number of people under a section 4 admission and these were generally people who had felt better and stopped taking their pills. Some of them were 'demonised' (but the term is demon oppression, not possession) and although I have had my share of the funny voices, weird contorted faces, odd smells and even a levitation (I kid you not!) - we speak too often of demons as a cause and not enough as a parasitic entity (now I bet I sound mad myself!) and an effect.
That mentally ill people can be manipulated is often seen by the timing of their appearance. Often, just when stuff is trying and testing along comes someone presenting and I don't think this is coincidence. But it doesn't just interfere or distract, it also causes us to reject, deal with in a summary fashion or even condemned as 'knowing what they are doing and being disruptive or damaging' to the proceedings. Of course, what is often at stake is the comfort zone of the observer (cruel, but it has been true of me and I assume I'm normal).
We move on to the issue of 'WWJD'and this always raises in me the question, "Well, what would Jesus do?"
I think He'd take the person and their situation seriously. He'd afford them the chance to talk and would find the point where He could bring them to a place of awareness, stillness, realisation and peace. He would address the person rather than be drawn in by the illness and He'd bring healing. healing which would deal with the spiritual as well as the physical (after all, I was taught that mental illness is often a physical cause manifesting in the behaviour of the ill person).
Jesus would bring about a physical healing and would mop up any attached demonic followers as well. And so, the question nearly always comes, often in a statement. "Well, we don't have the power jesus did. Or perhaps we don't have the faith or it's not a gift I have, perhaps one day!"
But as we focus on Jesus, as we rejoice in the empty tomb, didn't he appear yesterday and give his Shalom? Didn't he breathe on those present and pour upon them, and us later at Pentecost, His Holy Spirit? Isn't the same Spirit that raised Christ from the dead, that is Christ (homousios) within us and therefore what stops us from healing (another issue for another day) as He healed?
Is it faith? Or belief? Or our sins? I don't know - but I do know that I have prayed and seen blind eyes open (six of them) and have prayed and seen healing that defied my logic or experience and yet my faith was low, but my obedience was high.
Perhaps the first step is to start regarding the 'mentally ill' and merely regard them as being 'ill'. No different from any other physical illness, other than the fact that they enter into our comfort zones, that they are often embarrassing, difficult to deal with, obvious and apparent to all who see them. The manifestations are more obvious than a rash under clothing, for rashes don't shout out or wave their arms. the manifestations are more pressing and so therefore is the need to love and accept them as Christ would - not second class, not an embarrassment but as fellow humans with a more obvious affliction that our own, physical or spiritual.
Would would jesus do? Got an idea, then share it and do it!
Pax
ps. as an aside, please pray that as the mental health units and support centres close under the current financial cuts, that more churches would open their doors to provide support groups with spaces to continue their essential support work. That's one of the things jesus would do, I am sure.
