THE GUY ANSWERS<\/a>:<\/strong> There may be trivial exceptions but The Guy sees hardly any difference on this among Christianity\u2019s various branches.<\/p>\nThe Catholic Church\u2019s approach was well defined in a 1996 speech by Pope John Paul II that encouraged professionals who treat mental illnesses. His major theme was that \u201cwhoever suffers from mental illness always bears God\u2019s image and likeness in himself, as does every human being,\u201d with a dignity \u201cunique among all creatures,\u201d and is always \u201cto be treated as such.\u201d He said this belief applies not only to Christian attitudes and to care for the afflicted but to the duty of government to ensure necessary treatment. <\/p>\n
The pope also taught that \u201cChrist took all human suffering on himself, even mental illness,\u201d which \u201cperhaps seems the most absurd and incomprehensible\u201d of maladies. Pope Benedict XVI made similar points in a 2005 address and noted that mental disturbance \u201cnow afflicts one-fifth of humanity and is a real social-healthcare emergency.\u201d<\/p>\n
A very typical Protestant viewpoint is expressed by the United Methodist Church policy as amended in 2012. It states that throughout history till today the field has been \u201champered by lack of knowledge, fear, and misunderstanding.\u201d Patients who are so challenged, as well as their families, caregivers, and communities, \u201care to be embraced by the church in its ministry of compassion and love.\u201d <\/p>\n
Healing is \u201cone of the spiritual gifts received from God\u201d and it encompasses \u201cthe whole person: physical, spiritual, emotional, and mental,\u201d aspects that were all \u201cof equal concern to Jesus Christ.\u201d The Methodists also advocate \u201cuniversal global access to health care\u201d through public and private funding and cooperation.<\/p>\n
The Methodists add the important caution that \u201csometimes Christian concepts of sin and forgiveness are inappropriately applied in ways that heighten paranoia or clinical depression,\u201d so that \u201cgreat care must be exercised in ministering to those whose mental illness results in exaggerated self-negation.\u201d Occasionally a person who is by nature deeply religious and with serious mental problems will express the pathology in a religious fashion, which does not mean the faith itself caused the problems.<\/p>\n
Unfortunately, there\u2019s been needless difficulty in treating these puzzling problems, caused not by church wariness toward mental illness or therapists but rather due to some therapists\u2019 hostility toward religious faith. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
As a result, an important source of spiritual strength for afflicted patients can be undercut and a rivalry fostered that helps neither side. There seems to be some progress toward cooperation in recent times. For instance, California\u2019s Fuller Theological Seminary, one of the nation\u2019s largest, operates the oldest seminary-based program in clinical psychology at the doctoral level and was the first clinical program outside a university setting to receive accreditation from the American Psychological Association (in 1972).<\/p>\n
One radical exception to such an outlook comes to mind. <\/p>\n
Scientology famously and uniquely opposes all of conventional psychology and psychiatry, charging that these professionals \u201cmerely confuse a person, \u2026 have no helpful effect,\u201d and can turn brutal with \u201cno thought of improvement or help\u201d but merely making patients more manageable. Instead the organization operates a rival process known as \u201cauditing.\u201d Although Scientology calls itself a \u201cchurch\u201d it makes no pretense of worshipping the God of Christianity and, thus, has no bearing on a summary of Christian attitudes on this subject.<\/p>\n
QUESTIONS for Richard Ostling?<\/strong> Leave them in the comments pages!<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ERIN ASKS: What are the attitudes toward mental illnesses in different Christian congregations? THE GUY ANSWERS: There may be trivial exceptions but The Guy sees hardly any difference on this among Christianity\u2019s various branches. The Catholic Church\u2019s approach was well defined in a 1996 speech by Pope John Paul II that encouraged professionals who treat […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1275,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,12,29,4,19],"tags":[2516,608,256],"class_list":["post-112866","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-people","category-religion","category-science","category-social-issues","category-world-religions","tag-mental-illness","tag-richard-ostling","tag-scientology"],"yoast_head":"\n
What do different churches teach about mental illness?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"ERIN ASKS: What are the attitudes toward mental illnesses in different Christian congregations? THE GUY ANSWERS: There may be trivial exceptions but The\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/2013\/10\/what-do-different-churches-teach-about-mental-illness\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"What do different churches teach about mental illness?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"ERIN ASKS: What are the attitudes toward mental illnesses in different Christian congregations? THE GUY ANSWERS: There may be trivial exceptions but The\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/2013\/10\/what-do-different-churches-teach-about-mental-illness\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"GetReligion\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2013-10-28T23:31:26+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2013-10-29T13:26:35+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/wp.patheos.com.s3.amazonaws.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/files\/2013\/10\/ptsd-aa034249-gettys.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Richard Ostling\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Richard Ostling\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/2013\/10\/what-do-different-churches-teach-about-mental-illness\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/2013\/10\/what-do-different-churches-teach-about-mental-illness\/\",\"name\":\"What do different churches teach about mental illness?\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2013-10-28T23:31:26+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2013-10-29T13:26:35+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/#\/schema\/person\/3185166e28ea37f37d990cca42029af7\"},\"description\":\"ERIN ASKS: What are the attitudes toward mental illnesses in different Christian congregations? THE GUY ANSWERS: There may be trivial exceptions but The\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/2013\/10\/what-do-different-churches-teach-about-mental-illness\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/2013\/10\/what-do-different-churches-teach-about-mental-illness\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/2013\/10\/what-do-different-churches-teach-about-mental-illness\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"What do different churches teach about mental illness?\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/\",\"name\":\"GetReligion\",\"description\":\""The press . . . just doesn't get religion." - William Schneider\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/#\/schema\/person\/3185166e28ea37f37d990cca42029af7\",\"name\":\"Richard Ostling\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/07dee17eaf5d4d7bd229ace9c6cf1c74?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/07dee17eaf5d4d7bd229ace9c6cf1c74?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Richard Ostling\"},\"description\":\"Richard N. Ostling, a religion writer for the Associated Press, was formerly senior correspondent for Time magazine, where he wrote twenty-three cover stories and was the religion writer for many years. He has also covered religion for the CBS Radio Network and the NewsHour with Jim Lehrer on PBS-TV.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/author\/religionqanda\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"What do different churches teach about mental illness?","description":"ERIN ASKS: What are the attitudes toward mental illnesses in different Christian congregations? THE GUY ANSWERS: There may be trivial exceptions but The","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/2013\/10\/what-do-different-churches-teach-about-mental-illness\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"What do different churches teach about mental illness?","og_description":"ERIN ASKS: What are the attitudes toward mental illnesses in different Christian congregations? THE GUY ANSWERS: There may be trivial exceptions but The","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/2013\/10\/what-do-different-churches-teach-about-mental-illness\/","og_site_name":"GetReligion","article_published_time":"2013-10-28T23:31:26+00:00","article_modified_time":"2013-10-29T13:26:35+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/wp.patheos.com.s3.amazonaws.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/files\/2013\/10\/ptsd-aa034249-gettys.jpg"}],"author":"Richard Ostling","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Richard Ostling","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/2013\/10\/what-do-different-churches-teach-about-mental-illness\/","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/2013\/10\/what-do-different-churches-teach-about-mental-illness\/","name":"What do different churches teach about mental illness?","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/#website"},"datePublished":"2013-10-28T23:31:26+00:00","dateModified":"2013-10-29T13:26:35+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/#\/schema\/person\/3185166e28ea37f37d990cca42029af7"},"description":"ERIN ASKS: What are the attitudes toward mental illnesses in different Christian congregations? THE GUY ANSWERS: There may be trivial exceptions but The","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/2013\/10\/what-do-different-churches-teach-about-mental-illness\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/2013\/10\/what-do-different-churches-teach-about-mental-illness\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/2013\/10\/what-do-different-churches-teach-about-mental-illness\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"What do different churches teach about mental illness?"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/","name":"GetReligion","description":""The press . . . just doesn't get religion." - William Schneider","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/#\/schema\/person\/3185166e28ea37f37d990cca42029af7","name":"Richard Ostling","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/07dee17eaf5d4d7bd229ace9c6cf1c74?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/07dee17eaf5d4d7bd229ace9c6cf1c74?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Richard Ostling"},"description":"Richard N. Ostling, a religion writer for the Associated Press, was formerly senior correspondent for Time magazine, where he wrote twenty-three cover stories and was the religion writer for many years. He has also covered religion for the CBS Radio Network and the NewsHour with Jim Lehrer on PBS-TV.","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/author\/religionqanda\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112866","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1275"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=112866"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112866\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=112866"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=112866"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=112866"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}