Liberation theologies call for us to acknowledge this. They call for us all to walk with those for whom equality, freedom, and justice is more of an ideal than a reality.
I bring my understanding of liberation theology to my faithful struggle with depression.
People who live with depressive conditions experience a level of marginalization in today's society. We're called crazy. We're hard pressed to get health insurance that actually meets our needs. We're subject to sermons that suggest that greater faith would cure our depression (something I've never heard anyone say about diabetes or heart disease). We're negatively judged in most workplaces. We're told that a more positive outlook on life should make us happy inside out and out.
Okay. It's not war. It's not torture. There are far worse things to be experienced -- especially in developing and war-torn countries. But it's part of the daily experience of people who live with depressive conditions. And far too infrequently are we reminded that God loves us just as we are. And until we can feel that, someone else will stand with us and walk with us.
I'd like to think that it's ignorance, not true disdain, which leads to the many misunderstandings about depressive conditions that exist both within and outside of religious circles. I'd like to think that many people rarely think about the lives of those who live with depression from the inside. Or that perhaps, that when they do, they do so out of pity, rather than with solidarity. That is, people with depressive conditions may be "one of the least of these." But they are also the people we all love. After all, everyone is just one's life tragedy (such as the death of one loved one) away from a bout of situational depression. We are not such different people. Standing with us is standing for yourself.
This is a political act. It's a political act to stand with people who are suffering. It's a political act to hold the hand of someone you may not understand -- while they are irritable, morose, negative, and weeping for no apparent reason. It's a political act to advocate for the things that would actually improve the lives of people with depressive conditions: universal health care, sufficient paid leaves from work, health coverage for preventative and non-pharmaceutical care. It's a political act to speak out against one's leaders and employers when they make prejudiced comments. It's a political act to question the parts of oneself that say and do things that that trivialize the realities of people who live with mental health challenges.
Liberation theology says that these are political acts, but they are also deeply religious ones.
Lately, I've been feeling rather isolated in this struggle. So I hum the African American spiritual to myself over and over:
I want Jesus to walk with me
I want Jesus to walk with me
While I'm on this tedious journey
I want Jesus to walk with me
Walk with me Lord, walk with me
Written by enslaved Africans in the United States and passed on orally to generations of both black Christians and freedom workers, this song has comforted and encouraged the broken-hearted and those harnessing their faith in search for justice. It reminds me that God is walking with me -- even when my journey feels difficult and . . . tedious.
It also reminds me that, like freedom workers, there are people who care about the lives of people who live with mental health challenges. Here are some ways that people can walk with those of us who live with mental health challenges:
- Participate in your local NAMI Walks.
- Give the resources of Mental Health Ministries to your local faith leader.
- Preach about mental health during Mental Health Awareness Week: October 3-9, 2010.
- Financially support NAMI, DBSA, or NMHA.
- Challenge your religious leaders when they suggest that depression results from a lack of faith.
- Stand by your friends who live with depression even when they don't call back, haven't smiled in awhile, and can only think of what's wrong in the world.
- Make phone calls to health insurance agencies and doctors on behalf of a friend caught in an unhelpful medical system.
There's no checklist for the right thing to do. I listed things I know about and could often use in my life. Traveling with others is not about turning into a major activist -- if that is not what God has called you to do. Walking with me and others who live with depressive conditions is also to walk with yourself. Some say, it's also a walk with God.
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