Bible Verses Will Cure Your Depression & 4 More Lies I Believed
Introduction
I have been told some pretty weird things by the church over the years of being Southern Baptist, Non-Denominational, and mentally ill. Some of these statements are things I’ve heard pastors say and others have specifically been said me. These lies I believed followed me for years and I’m, also, still recovering from some of them. However, this is something that has been put on my heart to talk about openly and to do so without severing the cold, hard truth from my words for the sake of making this post more palatable for people to read.
Trigger Warning: Mentions of mental illness, suicide, self harm, alcoholism, abuse, and exorcisms. If any of those will trigger you, you can catch up on last week’s post, here, with my favorite books for the intersectional Christian feminist. If you just want to be careful, look at the beginning of each section for more specific warnings. If you are in a life-threatening or emergency situation, reach out for help.
Bible Verses Will Cure Your Depression
Trigger Warning: Mentions of mental illness and religious abuse
I have had people say this and other iterations of it directly to my face after discovering my mental illnesses for the first time. I have also listened to pastors preach sermons to hundreds and thousands of people about how bible verses have the ability to cure mental illness. While this might be true in theory, this is not how most mental illness works in reality. Perhaps, reading bible verses can be encouraging or helpful to some people with mental illness. I will not deny that, but also keep in mind that some people, who have experienced religious abuse, may be triggered by certain verses. Bible verses most definitely won’t be healing them anytime soon. What’s strangest to me is that most people suggesting you use the bible to cure your mental illnesses are forgetting about the most important thing: context! The bible wasn’t written with the intention of curing mental illness. So why are we prescribing bible verses more often than the medication God has inspired scientists and researchers to discover?
The bible wasn't written with the intention of curing mental illness. So, why are we prescribing its verses more often than the medication God has inspired scientists and researchers to discover? Share on XThe church™ has always had a hard time addressing mental illness. But, what better time to change than now? I’m just saying. Plus, I’ve already done some of the work for you, here! I compiled a list of faith-based resources for people with mental illness, suggestions for the church™ to try out in their own congregations, and some theological dirty work to better address mental illness within religious settings. If you’re not sure where to start, this post will be perfect for you.
God Doesn’t Want You to go Through Hard Things
Trigger Warning: Light mentions of mental illness
The first thing I think of when I hear this phrase is the Prosperity Gospel. While there may be some good things to learn from it, one of the biggest issues with the prosperity gospel is the root belief that bad things won’t happen to you, like illness or poverty, when you’ve atoned for your sins. This means I’m basically the demonic jackpot (my mental illness, chronic illness, sexuality, and money boxes checked off) according to prosperity theology. When I look back on my life, I was taught to reject the Prosperity Gospel with passion, but, occasionally, I still received an underlying message that God didn’t want me to suffer, or at least He didn’t want me to suffer past a certain point. But, guys, the book of Job is literally a whole entire story of a man suffering every painful thing imaginable for no other reason than Satan wanting to see if he would remain faithful to God. Jesus, who we all know lived a happy and pain-free life, even said that suffering and persecution are going to be a part of the “true” Christians life for we are being sent as “sheep among wolves” (Matthew 10:16). God literally created us to survive and thrive after living through hard things for the purpose of telling the story of His strength.
It’s important to note that when I’m talking about hard things, suffering, and persecution, I am not talking about what might first come to mind for many American Christians–being told to say, “Happy holidays!” or being ridiculed for posting a bible verse on social media. Nope, that’s just something we are taught to believe to be the persecution Jesus is talking about (and also maybe people are just being entitled, thinking that not being allowed to go to church in person during a pandemic is a form of oppression). If you want to know the kind of persecution I’m talking about, try reading The Insanity of God by Nik Ripken or even reading your bible. Okay, I know that’s a harsh burn, but it’s true if this is you. Some of the hard things I’m talking about include surviving cancer, fighting with the church™ to be treated like a human being (whether it’s because of women’s rights, racial, LGBT+, or non-Christian religious reasons), or even being killed for our beliefs. Whether it’s in the story of Paul going to jail a million times in the bible or of your relative converting from Islam to Christianity in Iran, we can see a pattern that people in power usually try to suppress radical love (because it threatens the status quo). This means that us, Christians in America, could even be the ones oppressing radical love–as some of us often forget that it comes in many shapes and sizes. So, yeah, God does want us to go through hard, scary things, but it’s only because there’s authentic beauty and love on the other side.
You Don’t Have Ownership of Your Body
The Basics of Embodiment
Trigger Warning: Mentions of body image
This is one of the lies I believed until more recently. It was never something I actively chose to believe but realized I did, nonetheless. It wasn’t until I, first, heard about the concept of embodiment and disagreed with it that I decided something needed to change. Jen Hatmaker describes embodiment saying, it “means you don’t just hate or love your body as it looks, but you enjoy being in it.” In Mothers, Daughters, and Our Body Image, Hilary McBride takes it a [necessary] step further. McBride thinks we should all call our bodies, “she” or ” her” instead of “it” because “We often forget that mind and body are actually both equally us.” As soon as I heard this, something clicked. While a part of me was disgusted by the very thought of doing this, I realized that was only because I had been trained to think of my body as a kind of separate self. Instead of treating it with the love and respect I give my mind, I forget about it or put it off since my mind is the “real” me.
However, that couldn’t be more wrong. My body has carried me when my mind stopped working. She picked me up when I was too weak to do so myself. She warns me when I’m allergic to something by breaking out in hives (all the time). Even though she is sick, it is only because of all that we’ve been through together (and also faulty DNA which she can’t control). I had never acknowledged her as a valuable part of myself before discovering embodiment. Even though it sounds like some new-age thing, it actually isn’t. Well, the word may be, but we can also see it in the bible, too. One of the clearest examples of this happens in the Old Testament law. There are chapters upon chapters describing different things that make our bodies unclean. One example of this is periods. Whenever a woman is on her period, she was ceremonially unclean. This doesn’t just mean that she was bleeding and was, therefore kind of gross. It meant that she couldn’t go to the temple and along with being physically unclean, was also spiritually unclean. Through the transitive property of equality we can see that these two entities, mind and body, are both equally us.
Who owns me?
Trigger Warning: Mentions of mental illness (specifically eating disorders) and abuse
I don’t want to ignore the impact of thinking our bodies are less ‘us’ has on our ability to say we love ourselves and complain about not having a thigh gap in the same sentence. The idea that we don’t own our own bodies is also detrimental for people who struggle with eating disorders and usually that isn’t even mentioned in the church™. For some, it may provide them with a sort of gateway excuse to treat their bodies poorly and escalate from there. But today, I want to talk about the much more common and much less talked about (until recently) problem.
The discovery of the ownership part of this lie came later for me when I eventually connected the dots that if my mind is my own, then so is my body. Growing up in the church™ we, as women, are taught that our bodies aren’t important because our souls will be going up to heaven anyway. Women are also expected to dress modestly as to not tempt men (AKA you are responsible for their downfall) because of the way you did or didn’t dress. There’s a lot I want to dissect in there, but for the time being I’ll just talk about ownership. Once we have that foundation, it’s easy for someone to discreetly slip in a couple of patriarchal notions that submission to men is biblical, whether husband or stranger. Eventually, this gives women the unspoken belief that as women, we don’t own our bodies. You know what this is perfect for? Getting abused and staying in a marriage 20 years too long. Because if we don’t own our bodies we are willing to put up with a lot more sh*t.
The Lies Jane Believed
Trigger Warning: Mentions of alcoholism, emotional and implied physical abuse in a religious setting
Let me explain with a story. Meet Jane and Adam. Both of them have been raised in the evangelical church their whole life. Jane loves Adam, but sometimes he drinks a little too much while they’re at home alone. He’s definitely not an alcoholic, though, because he only drinks at night (this is a false statement about alcoholism; please get help if you need it. I’m just saying it like that because it’s probably what would be said in this situation). Whenever he’s drunk, he becomes more irritable than usual. Jane makes him dinner and tries not to pick a fight. One time, he throws the plate so hard it breaks. He doesn’t apologize or try to clean it up. When Jane starts to clean up the glass, he yells at her for being too loud. She apologizes. Do you see where this is going? Obviously, since he is a man of God, he would never mistreat her. This is just a $10 plate, nothing more. A couple of months later, he’s drinking every night and it seems like there’s always something else wrong with Jane for him to talk about. During the day, Adam is fun and loving. Jane loves that Adam and thinks he must know best because he is the head of the house/listening to God/paying the bills. Jane has grown so used to hearing Adam’s complaints that, while she doesn’t realize it, she believes that Adam is right and she deserves to be treated like this–less than human.
One day, she shows up at church with five small bruises on her arm. When a friend asks what happened, Jane quote-unquote not knowing any better, tells the truth. This could go many different ways depending on the church. Maybe her friends laughs it off as she shows her own bruises. Maybe her friend calls the cops. Maybe her friend asks Jane what she did wrong. Maybe her friend hold Jane while she cries. Hopefully, Jane will eventually realize that she has become the $10 plate and needs to leave because she believes that she is worth more than a $10 plate. She believes that she isn’t an object, but a human with rights, desires, and needs. Because these ideas that submission is required and that our bodies are not our own are so ingrained in us from a young age, Jane may never realize that her marriage isn’t healthy and that she is allowed to live her own life free of being treated like property. No one should be treated like property (that’s a bonus sentence I just want to throw out there).
God Created You to Live from the Sidelines
Trigger Warning: Light mentions of mental illness
This one goes hand in hand with the last lie. Most of the time, this lie is referred to when talking about how a lot of churches still don’t allow women to be pastors or even serve as a deacon. Today, I want to talk about it as it relates to disabled and mentally ill people. Apparently there’s something about an older straight white man preaching that really brings a church to life (said no one ever) or else we’d be seeing young women raising the roof and a black man in a wheelchair getting an, “amen” more than the white men (do the math, statistically speaking there are way less white men than women, disabled people, and people of color combined). I’ve also noticed that people with mental illness are often ignored or shoved out of the way for the sake of the whole. For example, most non-denominational churches are quite famous for their youth groups. There’s loud music, flashing lights, energetic kids, free food, and more. While that’s all great in theory, Jesus isn’t a product to be sold and, more on topic, you’ll be able to find the mentally ill people hiding in the bathroom having a panic attack. Eventually, I stopped going to youth group because that became every week. It doesn’t have to be like this, though. If they just turned down the music, stopped flashing neon lights, and didn’t cram too many people in the building, I would’ve been fine. Okay, maybe the last one is out of their control, but the first two are an easy fix. Being mentally ill doesn’t mean that you want to live from the sidelines. It just means you have to fight a little harder than everyone else to get on the field.
Being mentally ill doesn't mean that you want to live from the sidelines. It just means you have to fight a little harder than everyone else to get on the field. Share on XYour Mental Illness Makes You Weak & Pathetic
Trigger Warning: Mentions of mental illness, stigma in religious settings, and suicide
A couple of weeks ago, I watched a sermon from a very prominent non-denominational church that made me really upset. In it, the pastor discussed mental illness without ever calling it mental illness or mentioning that, sometimes, therapy is important. Additionally, he talked about the power of bible verses and how feeling gloomy, sad, dark, etc. (all words that aren’t explicitly ‘depressed’ bur are being used to express the same thing) is an attack from the devil. Therefore, you must be strong in God and read your bible and force yourself to get out of bed and pretend like everything is okay. Alright, it’s been a while since I’ve watched this sermon and because of my own panic attack-exorcism experience some of this may be me feeling triggered. However, the point I’m making is valid. After saying bible verses will cure your depression, he talked about how suicide and succumbing to these dark thoughts makes you weak and pathetic. I am quoting pathetic. It’s one of those things that will always stick with me because of how awful it was. For the sake of people staying alive, I hope that no one who saw this had a mental illness, but, unfortunately, I know that’s not the case because I did.
Conclusion
Trigger Warning: Mentions of mental illness, self-harm, suicide, exorcisms, stigma in religious settings, and religious abuse
Your words matter and those of us with mental illness will remember them, no matter how hard we try to forget. Sometimes, I think we bear the weight of the stigma of mental illness within the church like Lady Macbeth carrying her guilt yelling and ferociously cleaning, “Out damned spot!” when there was no more blood for her to clean. We’re always trying to get rid of the stain of these lies that we believed from our minds. And, you know what the worst part is? Outside of those of us who live with mental illness, no one else can see it. We show the church™ our bloody arms and they don’t even give us a bandaid. Instead, they look us in the eyes as they cast out the demons from within us and watch us plead for them to stop. They call us names, but refuse to say the ones that actually matter, “depression,” “anxiety,” and “PTSD” to name a few, now. Then, they leave us to stumble away in a daze, bleeding like Jesus, and still carrying our cross. We may be beaten down, today, but just you wait. In three days time, we will be resurrected, raised to life, and ready to show you our scars once more. This time, will you see them?
