Interesting Conversation, part 2

Ben,
This will be long and somewhat “dicey”, but I’m going to have to strongly disagree with you on this one. While I’d be totally fine with the argument that disease and mental illness are consequences of the fall of man, I’m not okay with the belief that these illnesses arise from day-to-day sinful living. I think attributing mental illnesses to a sin problem rather than actual biological issues is a sign of an uneducated church looking for a quick fix. To me it sounds like the “If I can’t figure it out, I’ll blame it on sin” complex, which certainly isn’t biblical or right.
While I’m sure it’s possible for someone’s issues to originate or be exacerbated by sin, I think you’ve got it flipped when you say that this is the more common occurrence. About 2 years ago, I was clinically diagnosed with bipolar disorder. Physical lab testing showed that my disease was caused by chemical imbalances and malfunctioning brain circuitry. It is also well established internationally that bipolar is a genetically influenced disease and often shows itself to be hereditary. That said, like myself, my mother severely struggles with clinical depression and fibromyalgia. She has battled 40 years with this crippling disease, and often is left bedridden for days on end. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve carried my mother up and down the stairs because she couldn’t do it on her own. While I am not currently on medication , my mother’s pain became so great that medicine was the only thing that got her going every day and to sleep every night.
If you tried to tell my mother that her disease was the result of sinful responses to life, she would most likely break down weeping, and I would probably get pretty angry. My mother and I share a daily battle that I can assure you has nothing to do with sinful responses to life. We pray expectantly for healing from God every day, and whether we’re on medications or not, our hope and strength is placed in God alone. Maybe it’s easy for those who don’t struggle with things like this to try and point out sin as the cause, but for a moment put yourself in my mother’s shoes as best as you can. For 40 years she has been following Christ faithfully with all of her heart, building up a network of God-honoring relationships, including women who meet together to pray weekly. For 40 years she has been praying for deliverance, praying just as Jesus did, “Father, if it be Your will, take this cup of suffering from me”.
40 years of seemingly unanswered prayer would leave anyone with questions. But for someone who for 40 years has faithfully walked with Christ and earnestly asked God to reveal sin in her life, sin being the cause of her disease is out of the question. What is the chief end of man? Westminster Catechism would say “to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.” Have you ever considered that maybe people are handed circumstances by God so that through their trials God would be glorified? Or maybe just like Job or Paul, we would develop a love and devotion to God that does not waiver according to our circumstance? Maybe these illnesses are God’s way of reminding us of our weakness and our need to rely fully on Him? Maybe it has nothing to do with daily sinful responses to life at all?
I believe that often times the church is quick to try and label sin as the cause of all problems simply because we are too uneducated about how to appropriately deal with an issue. Are there issues and problems caused by unrepentant sin and bad choices? Of course. But why treat someone with clinical depression any differently than you would someone with diabetes or cancer or Parkinson’s? We understand these diseases better, and people are more open about their battles with them, thus you don’t see the “it’s a sin problem” diagnosis. My grandfather has Alzheimer’s disease. Would you say my grandfather made sinful choices that resulted in this development? Maybe he sang out of key too many weeks in the church choir? Just kidding. I feel like you’re saying that people don’t struggle with mental diseases and depression because it’s in their genetic makeup, but rather because it’s “their fault”. There are clear genetic links for many of these diseases, and God-willing, we will discover more answers. My point is that mental illnesses are a great mystery to those who don’t experience them or are not thoroughly educated about them. BUT this does not mean they should be treated any differently from any other illness or disease. Instead of using “it’s a sin problem” as a cop-out answer to these things, let’s educate ourselves and our churches so that we can minister to these people the best we can.
For people like my mother and I, we know how to live life in a God-honoring way, and are running the race, my mother especially, with heroic perseverance. No Bible study or pastoral counseling is going to take away our suffering. Sin is not the problem, and I don’t think it is for most sufferers of depression and mental illness. The only thing we can do is pray and hope, fully believing that if it be the Father’s will, He has the power to take the cup from us. I have learned not to live a God-honoring life to try and end my suffering, but rather through my suffering live a God-honoring life to the end.
Much love,
P

Ben,
If you read my response again, you’ll see that I agreed with you that illnesses/depression CAN be brought on by sin. I just felt that you put way too much water in that bucket. Sure, the relationship between body and soul goes hand in hand, but I think this can be viewed on a spectral level. Some people’s depression could be completely circumstantially induced, other’s could be completely biological, and still other’s somewhere in between. It is unfair to the person on the purely biological end of that spectrum for you to say that their sin or lack of faith is contributing to their condition.
So there’s no CONCLUSIVE evidence as to what causes bipolar disorder, but the same can be said for most forms of cancer as well. Cancer actually is VERY complex, and much of the treatment is trial and error just like with mental illnesses. I know this firsthand as my roommate continues searching for clinical trials nationwide for something that might heal his father’s brain cancer. Just because we might know more about cancer doesn’t mean that doctors still aren’t guessing at what will be an effective treatment. In that respect, I don’t think it oversimplifies things at all to group depression and cancer together. The fact is these things are largely mysterious to our feeble minds.
I feel like your focus is shifting from the question of “what role does sin have in mental illness?” to an attack on these people who may or may not be “blaming their brain” for their sin. I for one never use my disorder as an excuse for my actions, and I think most mature Christians understand that. We are always responsible for our sin. No exceptions.
Regarding medicine, again I feel like you’re taking a small percentage of cases and generalizing it to a majority. While medicine can certainly become addicting and an idol for many people, for many others it is simply what allows them to function. My mother’s pain has never subsided because of any medication she’s been on, and she knows that no medicine will take her pain away. She doesn’t strive to live a pain-free life, and she doesn’t expect medication to give her that. What medication does do for my mother, and millions of other people, is allows her to get up each morning, go to work, and provide for her family. I would argue that medication actually does help my mother honor God. Could God miraculously heal her, rid her of her chronic fatigue, eliminating her need for medication? Absolutely. But is it wrong to believe that God has provided her with medicine so that she can get up and serve Him and show His love to the community every day? God says He that He knows our every need. How can you exclude medicine from the good Lord’s provision?
As Hebrews 13:20-21 says, “May the God of peace, who through the blood of the eternal covenant brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep, equip you with everything good for doing his will, and may he work in us what is pleasing to him, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.”
In love,
P