Beware the Mental Health Pharisees! They love to come crawling out from time to time to tell you that depression, anxiety, and mental illness do not exist! They will tell you that all you need to do is repent, pray, and go to Pastoral counseling. In the fundamentalist world, they will tell you that you are weak and your faith is weak. They will tell you that if you read your Bible more, you will not have any issues.
Granted, reading your Bible, repenting of sin, praying, and seeking Pastoral counseling for biblical matters is a good thing! As a Pastor, I endorse this fully! However, I am also aware that those things are not a substitute for medical treatment for legitimate illnesses, whether physical or mental.
Usually, when encountering one of the Mental Health Pharisees, they will couch their words in soft-sounding language. Or, some are bold enough to come out and attack openly. Either way, it is not helpful. It is hurtful. Typically, the ones mocking or questioning the faith of those who are burdened with some sort of mental illness have never experienced one themselves.
We do not have to look far into the internet to find examples of this sort of thing. Greg Locke has famously said that any child with autism has a demon that needs to be cast out.1 There are others (I will not link to out of respect) that have said things like “You just need Jesus and a Bible to overcome depression.” Or, “You don’t need self-esteem or therapy, you just need to repent.” There are many variations of this found out there in social media.
While there is a kind of anxiety and depression that can be sinful in a particular context, this does not mean that one who has a legitimate mental illness is sinning. Those who have been diagnosed with mental illnesses (myself included) sometimes have a far stronger faith as a result. We have had to live with, struggle with, and trust God with our illness and have had to lean on His power to endure.
This is no different than anyone with a physical illness. These Mental Health Pharisees would not go to a cancer ward and tell those receiving treatment to just go home and pray some more. (Well, those who falsely believe God wants to heal everybody probably would; but I digress)
For some reason, we still live in a world that wants to treat those with mental illness as second-class citizens, especially in the church. Are there examples of medical treatment, including therapy, out there that are not something a Christian should engage in? Sure! However, to say that all medical treatment and all therapy is somehow sinful or not something a Christian should engage in to treat their illness is ignorant at best, Pharisaical garbage as a middle ground, and outright medically dangerous at worst.
If you have or think you may have a legitimate mental illness, you need to consult with your trusted doctor and let them guide you. There are examples where situational or periodic depression is not a fully diagnosable illness. Also, many who suffer from an undiagnosed illness for years (that’s me!) need to seek treatment.
Truly, only a trained medical professional can help you understand what you are dealing with and what treatment may or may not be needed. Not all depression is an illness, but for those who have a legitimate mental illness, it can feel like trying to come up for air out of the water some days. It can feel much like a fog that drifts in slowly, hovers for a long time, and then slowly drifts away.
Are there those who make up mental health struggles to escape some sin or take attention away from something else in their life in a sinful manner? Yes! Does this mean all who express need in their mental health are doing this? No! One will find extreme examples in every category. Shame on anyone who had someone in front of them legitimately struggling with a deep depression that told them just to go home and pray some more without seeking medical treatment. This leads to deeper depression and, sadly, suicide rates climbing.
Those of us who have a diagnosed mental health illness did not ask for it, we did not sign up for it, and we would gladly give it away if we could. Those who say that one does not need mental health, that they just need the atonement of Christ, are sinfully questioning their salvation, and the one needing repentance in that moment is the Mental Health Pharisee.
You know yourself better than anyone. You know if you are just struggling with situational, seasonal, or circumstantial depression. You also know if something feels off, and you keep dealing with depression over and over. Or, the depression won’t go away, and you are worried. It does not hurt to go for advice from your doctor.
What is worse, and this would be an article for another day, are those who struggle with severe mental health illnesses that include hallucinations and delusions truly need treatment to feel better and the Mental Health Pharisees will claim they are “faking it” or “it couldn’t actually be that bad” or “they just need repentance and prayer.” Or, the worst one we hear is “They just need some Pastoral counseling.” Your Pastor is almost certainly not qualified to handle mental illness, and this is not a knock on him at all. It is the self-aware Pastor who is humble enough to recognize that he should not be giving medical advice out of his league.
If you are struggling with depression, anxiety, or some other mental illness, please seek medical treatment. I promise you, as one who has been diagnosed with major depressive disorder, there is help for you! There are better days ahead! I still have periods of depression, and I can have them triggered depending on certain circumstances. However, having had years of medication and therapy, I have learned many techniques and tools to help mitigate those periods, and I endure far better now. Further, it has put me in a position to help others struggling in the same areas.
If you are facing a mental health emergency, please have the courage to dial 911 and ask for help, or go check yourself into a local hospital to receive care. You can also call the mental health hotline.
Dial 988.
Don’t listen to the Mental Health Pharisees that are lying to you and telling you that your illness doesn’t matter, or that your depression is “not that bad.”
You matter! Your illness matters! You can have better days! Trust me! I know! I have lived it! I am still living it!
God’s power works through all sorts of means, and he uses doctors and medical treatment to help us! It is not a weak faith that seeks help! It is a strong and courageous faith that seeks the help that God has provided!
- https://www.wjhl.com/dont-miss/abingdon-theater-pulls-film-from-pastor-who-compares-autism-to-demonic-possession/ (Accessed 4/10/2025) ↩︎
