Quote of the Day
I too suffer from depression from time to time and I find that talking about it really helps, it helps but it breaks the conspiracy of silence, the great taboo that surrounds depression and says we must not talk about it. In some Christian circles it is seen not only as a weakness but as a sign of sin, and we must confess and confess until we are free of the thing that is holding us down and making us depressed. I am amazed at the number of people I have spoken to and ministered to who have been subjected to that type of rubbish and it makes me really angry. It is usually accompanied by some form of deliverance ministry and the depressed person ends up in a worse state than ever! Don’t get me wrong I believe there is spiritual evil in the world, and I don’t discount the possibility of oppression or even possession, but I think this is very rare, and a case for the experts, AND I do not believe that most depression comes anywhere close to that category, it is a medical condition that needs medical treatment and rest.
Tags: Christian Life
March 24th, 2011 at 1:28 pm
I too dip in and out of depression but these days prefer to ‘lie low’ when the “black dog” emerges from its lair. Though offered cognitive therapy and ‘chemical’ medication I chose to use hefty doses of St. John’s Wort and talking to a few close friends as the way out of the labyrinth.
It would be untrue to say this has worked, does work all the time, but with the additional new-found blog exposition as a way of ‘seeing’ my feelings I am at least 80% of the time OK. The rest I can live with.
Thanks for airing this difficult theme.
March 26th, 2011 at 5:02 pm
Stuart
Thanks for this, it is very helpful. What I find particularly dangerous in Christian circles is the hybridising of Christian ideas with counselling or psychological ideas with the intention of creating some ‘fix-all’ worldview that can be very dangerous indeed. I spent a good part of the 1980s in an Evangelical church where there was a ‘turf-war’ taking place between Conservative Evangelicalism and John Wimber’s psycho-babble theology. On more than one occasion I heard it suggested that someone’s depression was the result of a ‘blood-line’ curse, because a great grandfather had been a Mason; very dangerous stuff that leaves Christian theology behind and resorts to magic. This negates the purpose of the Incarnation and the revelation that our purpose, fulfilment and salvation are to be found in returning to our true nature, being part of the communion of Love that is our God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Bonkers ideas about ‘blood guilt’ do little either help or explain depression.
Moreover, I don’t know if you found this to be the case, but some of those purporting to be the oracles of these heresies, also sought to gain (either overtly or more often covertly) power over vulnerable people.
P.