Rome and The Purpose Driven Politics of Pain

The Gathering on Mental Health and the Church

"How did a Catholic bishop and an evangelical pastor get together and figure this thing out?" - Rick Warren

"Over the years I've been blessed…to be in a network of interfaith ecumenical relationships…and that includes you...I believe the Holy Spirit has led us to this day" - Roman Catholic Bishop Kevin Vann

One year ago, the Warren family announced the tragic loss of their son Matthew to suicide. The Warren's later shared details regarding Matthew's life long struggle with depression.

Now, An interfaith campaign is underway to highlight mental illness, and the need for "the church" to face the issue.

No doubt both men on this stage are sincere. No doubt there will be pain for a long time to come.  

However, using this tragedy and similar events to inject the notion that the faiths represented here are "the church", is disingenuous.

Furthermore, these two men, noble as their efforts may be, seem sadly misinformed as to the root causes of depression and other emotional conditions.  

Education Consultant Elizabeth Powers picked up on this in her article...

"There are two major schools of thought about the cause of mental illness – nature and nurture, or in this case brain chemistry versus a person’s history and environment. Of course, the brain chemistry culprit is the baby of Big Pharma, which is devoted to manufacturing drugs that are sometimes worse than the symptoms they seek to quell. NAMI also has an extensive history of promoting the “brain-based disorder” cause of mental illness. It’s easy to see how Rick Warren could find himself swept along at this conference to the point of removing mental illness completely from a person’s character: if mental illness is about chemistry in the brain, it’s not about the broken world we live in. And it’s easy to see how NAMI could do the same: if mental illness is a disorder of brain chemistry, there’s no blame on parents and families.

But no matter how comfortable it is, no matter how much Warren, Venn, NAMI or Big Pharma, or anyone wants it to be THE cause, it’s not.

The facts are clear: the majority of people in treatment for substance use have histories of childhood trauma.  And as many as 90% of the people receiving care in the public system have histories of childhood trauma, most notably abuse and neglect.   An even bigger truth is that there are lots of things in addition to abuse and neglect that overwhelm children—and parents – leading to what is frequently diagnosed as mental illness.

...There’s a whole body of Christians out here, and many people of other faiths, who are or have been diagnosed with mental illness and are disenfranchised because of their religion’s primary erroneous belief that brain chemistry alone shapes illness. It’s easy and it’s safe: when we settle for “chemistry in the brain” we can overlook so many things that Pastor Rick Warren and Bishop Kevin Venn would call sinful whether they are sins of omission or commission.

This perspective allows us to turn away from what is uncomfortable. And yet it continues to disregard the truths that a pill isn’t always the answer, that the easy culprit of chemical imbalance isn’t always at the root of illness, and that the messy lives we lead or the messy experiences into which we are thrown are so often at the root of a mental health diagnosis.  In any organization, the way in which we continue to turn towards health through prescription and practice reshapes our lives.

As laymen, will these two highly influential personalities warn their constituents of the unproven and unsuccessful but dangerous psychiatric drugs used to treat what is called an illness, when in reality it is a condition?

Will they allow experts in the field testify to the fact that the chemical imbalance theory is just that, a theory?

Rick Warren has a track record of providing unbiblical solutions to very real health issues...

Rick Warren's Daniel Plan leans heavily on eastern mysticism.  His Celebrate Recovery is simply repackaged AA - rooted Jungian psychology and "neo-pagan humanism" .

It is unfortunate that this well meaning endeavor will only succeed in stronger interfaith relations with Rome, while the captives remain imprisoned.

In the end, The Church of Common Causes fails to address the fallen nature of man, the works of the devil, and the regenerative and restorative power of the Son of Man.

2 Timothy 3:5-7

"...having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power."

Hear this from Shatter The Darkness:

DEPRESSION OPPRESSION LIFE, SPIRITUAL WARFARE PART 1 INTRO

DEPRESSION OPPRESSION PART 2 DEFINING IT....VICTORY OVER IT

DEPRESSION OPPRESSION PART 3 ANSWERS AND NEW LIFE

DEPRESSION OPPRESSION PART 4 CATEGORIES OF WARFARE

SPIRITUAL WARFARE BASICS

THE PERSON, POWER AND WORK OF THE HOLY SPIRIT


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