Apologetics

The School of Whatsamatta U

by Jeff Drinnan
01/28/21
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“The reality is that mental illness isn’t different [from] other illnesses, and we for some reason have stigmatized this illness,” said Treatment Advocacy Center director John Snook in a report adressing what to do with the "mentally ill" who are in jail for criminal behavior. The report was a link on Levittownnow.com from a recent article about officials expecting to open a future mental health court in Bucks County, PA.

Mental illness is a misnomer. Although people make themselves sick, the root of the problem is not medical. All you can do is relieve symptoms. Of course, people, including myself, can get cranky when they are not feeling well, but that is not the heart of the matter. It really is a matter of the heart. When my daughter was in preschool, the teachers taught the children about having a "dirty heart" when we do wrong , when we sin.

Reading Jay E Adams' "Problems Solving Them God's Way" brochure I was reminded of the war for people's hearts and minds between the worldly mental health industry and the church. Dr. Adams is the father of the Biblical Counseling movement. He expressed in his seminal book "Comptent to Counsel" that the church should stop palming off people with problems to modern secular psychology.

Doing right or wrong is a choice. We all have to make decisions, some of them moral. In Adams' brochure the pastor argues for equipping Christians to solve problems, with God's intervention, themselves. He wrote that it's impossible to let others make your decision for you and adds "Were you to make the utimate decision to avoid all problems, you might find youself confined to a mental hospital. There, others decide what you will do. Maybe problems are 'solved' for you. But even then, when one attempts to turn over his responsibility for solving problems to others, he still isn't able to avoid them. Those 'others' will restrict him, overmedicate him, destroy his brain cells through shock therapy, or inflict dozens of other insults on his body that cause him all sorts of trouble. By attempting to give up his responsibility to solve problems, not only does he fail to achieve his goal, he sets himself up for innumerable problems. He may even have to face the problem of extricating himself from such an environment."

There is a difference between the brain and the mind. The brain thinks, reacts, and takes action. The mind is more equated with the spirit, the soul. It's where your heart is. It's what determines reality, and, if not right with God, is basically a character flaw. Indeed, if the brain has a perception problem and someone walks into a wall, that is not a character flaw. But bizarre behavior, where an innmate destroys a toilet, acts up, it's mainly a matter of someone acting like a spoiled brat, on steroids! Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung related a story where he visited an insane aslyum with an "intelligent layman", who remarked that the inmates were just like the rest of us, only their problems are greatly magnified.

King David was "going nuts" as a result of sin. After committing adultery and compounding this sin with other sins, David wasn't right, but after confessing his sins to God, he was forgiven and found joy.

"Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven,
Whose sin is covered.
Blessed is the man to whom the Lord does not impute iniquity,
And in whose spirit there is no deceit.
When I kept silent, my bones grew old
Through my groaning all the day long.
For day and night Your hand was heavy upon me;
My vitality was turned into the drought of summer.

Selah

I acknowledged my sin to You,
And my iniquity I have not hidden.
I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the Lord,”

And You forgave the iniquity of my sin." -Psalm 32: 1-5

When you can't reconcile with God sin that results in bizarre, criminal behavior, then you end up acting up, or completely isolating yourself from society and may end up in the criminal system. Some officals, who must have graduated from Whatsamatta U, want to send criminals whom they claim are not responsible for their behavior to mental health centers. Exibiting bizarre, criminal behavior is not the same as having a fever, even if the symptoms may be similar.

To address people in the criminal system with so-called mental health issues, we need prison ministries, follow up ministries, and church outreach to help people not get to the place where they get into trouble.

"All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives. It corrects us when we are wrong and teaches us to do what is right." -2 Timothy 3:16