EDIT: Rev. Moore has reached out to me to apologize for her tweet and she has removed it. I have accepted her apology and held/hold no ill will toward her. To be clear: My problem was never with her but with what she tweeted. There is a major difference. – Jonathan
Yesterday a prominent evangelical pastor within the United Methodist Church made a tweet that I and several others took exception to.
Most of us have figured out the big sins: lying, cheating, addiction…most of us have a handle on those. Its the less obvious ones that get us: chronic anxiety, fear, unholy ambition. Those things stifle the flow of the Holy Spirit just as well as the more obvious ones.
— Carolyn Moore (@CarolynCMoore) October 24, 2018
Yes, she has said that chronic anxiety stifles the work of the Holy Spirit and is sin.
So I responded, pointing out that by her logic I am deep in sin and I encouraged her to rethink her position. This is her response:
Jonathan, I sure understand. I have been there and anxiety as a medical disorder is hell. The anxiety to which I refer is Paul’s brand of “be anxious for nothing”–the kind of situational anxiety that erodes trust in God. I hope that helps make the distinction.
— Carolyn Moore (@CarolynCMoore) October 24, 2018
Sigh…
This conversation points out a few vital points for us – both as Christians in general as well as clergy – to remember when dealing with matters of mental health.
First, scripture does not address matters of mental health. There was no understanding that mental disorders are medical conditions beyond one’s control when the scripture writers were putting pen to parchment. Let me be clear: This is not me doubting that the scriptures are divinely inspired but we also must acknowledge that the writers were human and wrote based on their context. Because there was no knowledge of the chemical imbalances that often occur in the brain, mental health problems were thought of as a spiritual condition as opposed to a chemical one. That was then, this is now. We have the medical knowledge to confirm that mental health issues are most often caused by conditions beyond one’s control. We need to get away from this notion that one displaying anxiety is in sin or that depression is a sign of being deep in sin. To employ such a notion means that I and lots of other pastors are not fit for ministry and that many in our congregations are not truly faithful just because they struggle.
Second, we as pastors need to remember that our words have power and carry a lot of weight. The people in our congregations see what we post, share, and like and they form their opinions of us based on those posts. Is that fair? Probably not. No tweet or post tells one’s whole story but does give a glimpse into our hearts and in what we value. If a parishioner whose faith is strong in spite of struggling with mental health issues for their entire lives follows their pastor on social media, how are they going to feel when their pastor puts up a tweet saying that anxiety is a sin and quenches the Holy Spirit? As I said above, scripture was never intended to address mental health conditions and we should not use scripture as a way to explain conditions like anxiety and depression.
People once believed that people who we now realize were displaying symptoms of manic depression were possessed by demons. There was also a belief that people who we now realize were displaying symptoms of anxiety disorders had weak faith. People who we now realize were displaying symptoms of depression were said to be in sin. With the knowledge that we now have about mental health, can we please get away from having such toxic and damaging viewpoints about mental health?
I would like to think that Rev. Moore meant no harm in what she tweeted. But, this needs to be called out and rebuked because these are the notions that add to the stigma of mental health and why more people – especially Christians – don’t seek help or hide their conditions until they finally break. These statements are what cause people to harm themselves or even to commit suicide. These statements are why people are looking at Christians as cold-hearted and irrelevant.
We should do better. We must do better.