Is mental illness a real disease or a weakness of character? He struggled with this dichotomy constantly. It was a real illness to others, but the long line of good men from which he came precluded him from accepting this fact.

He hated his vocation and wanted a calling. He wanted a calling but he traveled to heavy to get one. He just wanted peace for once and to stop wrestling the depression dragon. Alcohol would defeat it for a few hours. He would scrounge the sofa for change just to by one more beer. Valium touched it a little but never squashed it like the booze.

He met a schizophrenic man named Kenny on the way to go fishing\drinking. Kenny became an alcoholic medicating his mental illness the best a poor man could; with beer. He was eating French fries. He sat down to talk to Kenny and asked him what he wanted. Kenny wanted beer. He told Kenny he would not buy him beer, but stopped to think “that’s what he wanted too”. He bought Kenny a beer and one for himself and sat and talked to him for about 30 minutes.

Kenny was a bus ticket away or a check away from happiness. Kenny didn’t want to stop drinking and who could blame him. He had nothing to offer Kenny except a beer and to listen to him. He gave a damn about Kenny for about 30 minutes and then left. He didn’t judge Kenny because he knew Kenny’s life would be his if he didn’t die before it happened.

He knew if he had a malignant brain tumor which can dictate all the symptoms of major depression, he would be instantly viewed in a different light. So what is the difference because untreated depression results in death 15% of the time? He knew he would get a few benign prayers but no real help.

The last sentence does not reflect my world, the rest does. I spent 10 days in a psych ward in Portland, Oregon. I got at least one visitor each day I was there. I was 5 of 20 who received any visitors at all. Before I was admitted I got at least 1 phone call each day to see how I was doing. I had someone offer me financial assistance with the stipulation of it not being paid back but it being paid forward.

In one group therapy session a man who had been living on the streets was asked what the best trait he had was. He replied “I would die for anyone, for even those I do not know.” This man is valuable. This man is marginalized. This man wants a job. This man uses yarn for a belt. This man smells very bad. This man feels safer on the streets than in a shelter because of the horrible abuse he suffered as a child.

This man has something to offer. He made me look at the man on the on the corner holding the sign in a different light. If he can work, he should, but sometimes these folks suffer from real mental illness. If you stop your car, get out and talk to them you could tell if they were faking it or not. Simple solution, never done.

Why is guilt the chemotherapy of mental illness? You would not tell someone who was dieing of cancer to quit being selfish by dieing. You would not explain to them how their family would never recover from their death. Why in the hell do we treat the mentally ill any differently? If the only thing we have to offer is guilt, then we really have nothing at all.

Because in the dark recesses of people’s minds that have not had depression, it is a moral and selfish weakness whose end result of death is a selfish act. It is a selfish act instead of an attempt to alleviate the hell of suffering of a mentally ill person.

Offer real help or shut up!

And I love to sing.

Rex,
Totally agree. I think of Acts 8:

The eunuch asked Philip, “Tell me, please, who is the prophet talking about, himself or someone else?” Then Philip began with that very passage of Scripture and told him the good news about Jesus.

As they traveled along the road, they came to some water and the eunuch said, “Look, here is water. Why shouldn’t I be baptized?”

- Rex

As far as I can tell, per Mike’s post above, missionary work is changing its paradigm. The shift is moving away from baptism reports back to the home church and more on being salt and light in the world. Social justice is playing a bigger role. Evangelism is going to look more and more like the work of someone like Larry James. That is, evangelism and missions are more about declaring the Kingdom of God breaking in and then, crucially, making that happen! Another way of phrasing it is that missions is more about who WE are than about who THEY are. The point being, I think (I think) that this view can be reconciled with a very vibrant and passionate view of missions.

But you should note that I could be completely off my rocker. I’m wondering about all this. Thinking in through.

Clint,
Again, I can’t speak for God, but many Christians mystics and some of the Church Fathers have articulated the view that the last one to be saved by God’s purifying love will be Satan himself. Julian of Norwich famously held this view (her famous articulation of this is the well-known but little understood: “…All shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of thing shall be well”).

Generally, these conclusions are partly based on a certain interpretation (that I’m sympathetic to) of 1 Corinthians 15:28: When he has done this, then the Son himself will be made subject to him who put everything under him, so that God may be all in all.

One thing I do know… what ever hell is, my goal is not simply to evade it. My goal is to live in eternal fellowship with God and God’s people. Anything less than that is to cheapen the story of God’s redemption history.