Mental Health and Religious Nationalism

 Friends, 

May is Mental Health Awareness month, a designation that we will try to address and honor throughout the month in our worship services. If you ever get ahold of a Presbyterian Planning Calendar, it seems that every month, even every weekend, tries to recognize something or another. I don’t always find the recognitions helpful, but I am all on board when it comes to recognizing Mental Health Awareness Month. Here’s why.

For too long, matters related to mental health have been stigmatized in our language and our imaginations. Nobody disqualifies someone for seeing a doctor over a matter of physical health, but mental health has been treated differently. Think back to the Nixon Administration’s reaction to the release of “The Pentagon Papers.” They tried to discredit the information that Daniel Elsberg released by burgling the office of Elberg’s psychiatrist, hoping to uncover embarrassing information about his state of mind. They presumed the stigma of Elsberg’s mental health challenges would call his reliability into question and overshadow the administration’s own illegalities. The plan backfired, but the presumption behind it reveals the kind of stigma that has often been attached to mental health.

Throughout this month, our Health Commission, and especially our Parish Counselor Gretchen Carrillo, will offer us encouraging and instructive ways to learn more about how we can be a more faithful community with regard to mental health. If nothing else, honoring Mental Health Awareness month can help us understand how easily many of us have internalized stigmas into our language and presumptions. You may recall a moment in Jesus’ life, when his mother and brothers came to fetch him, in response to concerns that he was beside himself or perhaps even driven by evil spirits. Human communities have always found ways to presume a norm and marginalize those who don’t live into it, even coopting loving families into that circle of stigmatization. 

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There was an excellent and troubling Opinion piece in Thursday’s New York Times about by David French (with whom I do not always agree) about what I am now going to call “Religious Nationalism.” You can read it here. I think he summarized it well when he said, "The Christian right is dead, but the religious right is stronger than it’s ever been. Another way of putting it is that the religious right has divorced itself from historical Christian theology, but still holds its partisan beliefs with religious intensity. The religious fervor is there. Christian virtues are not." That’s powerful and insightful. 

For those who were with us on Easter weekend, remember, “"We have the resurrection!” 

Mark of St. Mark