Taylor Sisk
Staff Writer
CHAPEL HILL — Like society at large, faith communities often struggle with the complexities of mental illness – how to know, how to help, what to say.
Recognizing the need for better insight, a multi-congregational organization called Faith Connections on Mental Illness convened a forum at Binkley Baptist Church this past Sunday titled “Faith, Hope and Love: When One Suffers from a Mental Illness.†This was the second year the forum was held. Approximately a hundred people attended.
A panel of clergy members and advocates, including recipients of mental health care services, stressed the importance of accepting that a person can appear “normal†while experiencing deep-seated pain, and that the best therapy a minister or fellow churchgoer can provide is acceptance and inclusion.
“I’m struggling every moment of the day,†said Christine Jernigan, a member of Binkley Baptist. She said that what she most wants to hear when returning to church after an absence due to her illness is, “So glad you’re back.â€
Jernigan said she doesn’t understand why she used to cut her arms, and she can’t expect anyone else to either. But, “Let me know that you’re taking me seriously,†she said.
Just as it does in society at large, the stigma of mental illness persists within the church. “It’s not talked about,†said David Girod, a Methodist minister who is bi-polar. Girod said that admitting he lived with a mental illness meant “coming out,†uncertain of how he would be received, and finding support from fellow clergy.
Dale Osborne, an associate minister at Binkley, said members of his congregation came to him to suggest that Binkley become a “beacon of light†for those with mental illness. The church now provides education on mental illness, including a class called Faith and Mental Health, and sometimes addresses the disease from the pulpit.
Osborne said the church must strive to embrace the “reconciling†spirit that Jesus advocated.
Emmanuel Katongole, a Catholic priest on the faculty of Duke Divinity School, spoke of a friend with mental illness who sometimes chose not to attend church services because she didn’t want to feel obliged to smile and pretend to be happy. Katongole suggested that too often the church aims for a “Marine spirituality†– clean-shaven and efficient – but that perhaps it should be more open to a “messier†theology that acknowledges, “This is who we are. We have come to worship.â€
He said the search for spirituality is a journey of lament and rage and, still, hope. The underlying message conveyed Sunday was that it is the church community’s calling to nourish that hope.