Physical and Mental Illness and Spiritual Healing

Not long ago, I had someone who has known me my entire life tell me that if I just get back to Jesus, my mental illnesses would ease. Not long after, the suicide of Robin Williams brought the conversation of mental illness to the forefront and not surprisingly, some Christians represented in an very non-Christian manner.

Sigh...here we go again. "Sin" is the cause of mental illness. Robin Williams just decided one day it would be great to just hang himself. All he had to do was ask God to take it away. SMH. Can we please keep the Bible in context?  To the early Jews, sickness, sin, and demons were interconnected. Sin was brought by the devil which created illness. Only a priest was allowed to act in any way that was remotely medicinal. (Lev 12-15) Jesus typically treated most illnesses the same way...with an exorcism. Mark 1:21-25, Jesus heals a man with a mental illness by telling the demon to come out of him. In Mark 1:40-42 he healed a man with leprosy my simply saying "Be clean!". In John 9, the disciples, upon meeting a man blind since birth asked Jesus "who sinned? the parents or the man that he would be blind since birth? Jewish tradition taught that human spit healed healing properties and was specifically effective on the eyes. So Jesus spit on the ground and applied mud to the man's eyes healing him.  Sin was believed the cause of all illness in the days of Jesus. So now 2000 years later...we know that germs,viruses, genetics, screwed up hormones, and all kinds of things cause illness. Your child with a cold has a cold, not a demon. Children with cancer have not sinned, they have cancer. And a person with depression, is not possessed by an evil spirit, he has bad brain chemistry that works differently, causing the depression.  If you really believe that sin causes mental illness, you have to believe sin causes ALL illnesses because Jesus certainly did. So show your faith, and never go to the doctor again. Pray away the colds, cancer, flu, heart disease, depression, anxiety, and so on. And while you are praying, pray for God to give you empathy to feel what it is like to be so depressed that you can't live anymore. Because, frankly, you look like a jackass.  Calling those who commit suicide "cowards" and "sinners" are in fact cowards and sinners themselves. They don't have enough faith to stay at home and pray for healing, but go to the doctor for every little illness. They commit the sin of judging when they have not walked in the shoes of those who took their own life. Most who commit suicide have spent years fighting their illness in silence. Or, like Robin Williams, they hide behind laughter.  According to studies, more anti depressants are prescribed in states considered the most religious. In Utah, Louisiana and Arkansas–the 2nd, 4th and 5th most religious states in the Union– nearly 20 percent of the population is on some form of anti-depressants, according to a 2006 study by one of the largest prescription companies. Mississippi (most religious), Alabama (third most religious), South Carolina (6th), Tennessee (7th), North Carolina (8th) and Oklahoma (10th) have above average rates of anti-depressant use, with 15 to 17 percent of the citizens medicated. Of the top-ten most religious states, only one–Georgia–isn’t disproportionately addicted to anti-depressants. Nationally, the prescription rate was about 14 percent. There is ZERO evidence that being a Christian makes you a happier person. Instead, the facts show the opposite.  When I was a Christian and a very strong believer, I begged for God to take away my mental illness. He didn't. I assumed that I either didn't have enough faith, or God wanted me to feel this way for a reason. Having lived with mental illness for 40 years, I can tell you, if God wants me to feel this way, then he's an ass. Years later, I know that mental illness is genetically passed down and hormones and chemistry play a big part in it. God didn't give me mental illness. It was just the cards I was dealt.  So before you declare that your faith will make you healthy, consider the facts. And before you announce that God heals and condemn those who are now in the arms of peace, put your money where your mouth is an pray away your own illness. And while you are at it, admit you have antidepressants in your own damn medicine cabinet.