Every time I think the culture is giving us a bad rap (a reverse judgmental spirit), I hear another horror story about our very un-salty behavior. After Harvard Professor Kay Redfield Jamison courageously described her struggle with mental illness, she received thousands of letters. Most of the disturbing letters came from “fundamentalist Christians” berating her for turning her back on God. According to Jamison, “Others thought my illness just deserts for not having truly accepted Jesus Christ into my heart, or for not having prayed sincerely enough. I had left my heart open to Satan, and he had entered in. Madness and despair were precisely what I deserved and would have in this world and the next … One woman, who included a prayer card with excerpts from the Bible, wrote that it was a good thing I hadn’t had children as I had at lead ‘spared the world of one more crazy manic-depressive. (See Kay Redfield Jamison, Nothing Was the Same, pages 43-44).
If we get persecuted for this kind of behavior, we deserve it. This is just plain stupid, and so unlike Jesus. Jesus was without sin and yet sinners flocked to him. He even called sinners to repent – not exactly a church growth strategy – but broken people felt his compassion, not terror. As my friend and author Denis Haack notes, “Our message is the Gospel of Christ, and since he is attractive, shouldn’t our proclamation (and our lives!) be attractive as well?” (See ransomfellowship.org).
Thank you for your kind words about those of us that suffer from bipolar disorder. I very much agree that God would not persecute us for having this genetic disease. It would be like stoning someone for having diabetes. However, your comment about us being “broken” still feels like you are not as open-minded about bipolar people as you think. I adore Kay Redfield Jamison. Her book, Touched with Fire, is a must read for anyone in doubt that maybe we are not “broken.” I just started writing a blog, mydualities.wordpress.com. Maybe some of what I say may enlighten you.
Thanks for your comment. I will definitely check out your blog and try to understand more about bipolar disorder. Honestly, I know very little about what it’s like to have this condition so I’m very open to becoming more enlightened. Thanks.
First of all, I love that cartoon. Secondly, while the message of Jesus is attractive, it’s different than the attractiveness of the world. When I hear “attractive,” I think shiny and new. Jesus is attractive in a distinct way: his message is impelling, but it is also gritty and difficult. We’re called to be attractive like him, not in a fake way, somehow pretending we’re perfect. But in a way that reflects his love to the world.
Thanks, Bonnie. You’re right: Jesus was attractive but not like Cocoa Puffs are attractive to a child. It’s more like the attraction of an intriguing film or a tough poem. He disrupts, challenges, disturbs and ask for our life; but most of us want that level of honesty. Of course some poeple find this too disruptive and even repugnant.
As a person who suffers from Major Depression and Anxiety Disorder and is a Christian, I understand both Matt and mydualities. You aren’t exactly communicating.
Brokenness as Matt uses it is a positive thing. It is an acknowledgement that we can’t be in denial and pretend we can do life without God. It’s the beginning of healing. As Matt uses it, all humanity is broken (some people just refuse to acknowledge it. We are broken by illness, prejudice, classism, poverty, sin in general. The answer is healing by receiving the finished work of Jesus: His dying on the cross for our sins. Anyone who has experience in the mental health field (and as a social worker and a patient, I have experienced it from both directions) has very likely seen that there are 2 types of mentally ill people: those who claim nothing is wrong and continue in their illness and those who acknowledge their need for help and actively participate in recovery. The same goes for us all as sinners: we can admit that the fallen world and our own proclivity for running from God have put us in a position that life no longer works and embrace God, or we can pretend everything is fine and live in the mess that we have made and that the world has imposed on us. I have found that it is better having God there with me as I battle suicidal thoughts and struggle to get out of bed in the morning, battle the lack of energy and the lack of enthusiasm for much of anything.
But if someone without mental illness can pray, “Jesus, protect me from your followers!”, imagine a follower with mental illness. All those prejudices and more come out. I have had people pray for me and get angry because I wasn’t healed. I’ve had people accuse me of not wanting to get well. (Who would want to struggle to keep from killing themselves?) I’ve been told I’m just lazy or lacking in faith. Some people have even implied I might not truly be a Christian.
Bibles should be published with a caution on the cover: “Caution: do not use without an operating brain.” It seem that too may people do!