My problem with faith

[serawench]

It's common knowledge on this blog that my mother is a crazy, born-again fundamentalist Christian, and has been since I was 12. As such, you're probably familiar with the stories I've told - such as her calling me at work and attempting to exorcise the demons that were making me mentally, emotionally and physically ill. There are other tales about

Comments

[arwens_dad]

*high fives*

I've been saying for ages that one of the main differences between ultra-conservative types and mainstream or more liberal, sympathetic folks, is that the conservative types do not believe that mental illness is real. They believe that mental and emotional disorders are due to not thinking correctly, and that people afflicted can somehow "suck it up", change their thinking, and be cured. Frankly, people who believe that are filled with the excrement of bulls.

Prime example is Klein, a couple Christmases ago, arriving at a men's shelter in the middle of the night, drunk, and throwing coins at some residents and telling them to go get a job. I think in his shameful drunkenness what he REALLY thought of those with mental or emotional barriers to success came flooding out: he wanted them to just cure themselves, and could not understand why they didn't.

Mental illness, and often crippling emotional illnesses are real. You can't cure them by thinking differently unless your name is Harry Potter. You can't cure them by thinking differently any more than you can cure cancer by wishing it away.

Please, though... don't forget that there are more kinds of faith than just the fanatics who cannot grasp mental illness and who believe in faith healing quacks. Faith and prayer can help, but often not in the way we want or think they should help. I believe in God and Christ, and I know they have helped me when I've been at my worst. Sometimes even just finding some spiritual hope and comfort is enough to get a person through until tomorrow. God also teaches some good lessons on how to live and treat people, which I do not claim to have fully learned, but I am trying.

[serawench]

I was hoping this book would be different, as I am in my own stumbling way attempting to find a grounding in spirituality like I had when I was six. I have just been bombarded by this same message SO much in the last year or so that I'm fed up with all of it for the moment.