Survey: 35% of Americans believe Bible study and prayer alone can overcome mental illness

[Dusty Bake Activate]

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/sep/18/evangelical-christians-prayer-mental-illness

Nearly half of evangelical Christians believe mental illness can be overcome by Bible study and prayer instead of medical intervention, according to a survey.

Lifeway Research found that 35% of Americans and 48% of those who identified themselves as evangelicals believed that people with serious mental disorders can overcome their illnesses with "Bible study and prayer alone".

Ed Stetzer, president of Lifeway research, a Christian research organization connected to the chain of stores with the same name, said the results showed that churches needed to work harder to address the issue of mental illness.

"I would say that if your leg is broken, you're going to believe in prayer, you're going to believe in scripture, but you're probably also going to have some medical intervention," Stetzer said.

"You have to distinguish between character change and mental illness and I think that's sometimes hard for people to do," he added.

Stetzer said he hoped to see more Christians embrace a holistic approach to mental illness, embracing the medical intervention alongside with prayer and scripture.

Of the 1,001 people surveyed, 35% of Americans said they believe in the statement: "With just Bible study and prayer, ALONE, people with serious mental illness like depression, bipolar disorder, and schizophrenia could overcome mental illness."

Of the respondents who self-identified as either born-again, evangelical or fundamentalist Christian – 48% agreed.

When asked whether churches could be doing more to prevent suicide, 54% of Americans agreed, while 64% of the self-identified born-again, evangelical or fundamentalist Christians agreed.

"I think churches have in many ways been on the sidelines of the mental health issue," Stetzer said. "I hope this conversation really pushes people forward into really engaging and administering. I think this is a place Jesus would be, caring for those, administering to those that are hurting."

Lifeway research is set to conduct another study in the next few months to examine what churches are doing, and what they can do better, to address people's struggles with mental health.

The megachurch pastor Rick Warren addressed the issue earlier this week, the first time he has done so since his son Matthew committed suicide in April. Warren, who founded Saddleback Church with his wife in 1980, a group that now boasts 20,000 weekly worshippers, told CNN that he hoped to reduce stigma about mental illness.

Warren said that his son suffered from borderline personality disorder and depression. Matthew Warren had also been forcibly admitted to a mental institution and attempted to overdose on pills ten days before his suicide.

"If love could have kept my child alive, he'd be alive today, because he was incredibly loved," Warren said.

Warren and his wife Kay said their son had access to good healthcare but they had some issues with laws designed to protect patients. "The right to privacy and that right to autonomy, it's a dance," she said. "I don't have good answers. It's a dance. So we've got to do a better job with that."

In June, Frank Page, the former president of the Southern Baptist Convention, released a book about his daughter's suicide in an effort to bring awareness to how churches work with people who have mental health issues.

"In the Christian community, sometimes – not always – we like things to be in pretty little packages and everybody to be happy," he told the Huffington Post in June. "Sometimes we're not as honest as we ought to be, not as transparent as we should be. Sometimes there are churches that do deal honestly with these things and we need more of that."

 

[LionofJudah]

Atheists are some MISERABLE motherfukkas...

 

[Dooby]

Why is it that atheists feel the need to take jabs at theists? I don't understand it really. How many religious threads have been posted here in attempts to convert forum members to their religion? But yet, how many threads created by atheists are seen, bashing religion and encouraging believers to stop believing in their ways?

 

[Broke Wave]

Contraversial opinion here - Depends which mental illness

Depression/Anxiety etc other stuff that can be solved by just talking, why can't you talk about prayer and religion to ease the mind?

 

[Julius Skrrvin]

No doubt sometimes God can be effective for people in the shytter (see AA) but....

Pray away your problems brehs

 

[Dusty Bake Activate]

Contraversial opinion here - Depends which mental illness

Depression/Anxiety etc other stuff that can be solved by just talking, why can't you talk about prayer and religion to ease the mind?

 

[Broke Wave]

I suffered from depression and anxiety for a little while it was kinda serious. I went and did some sessions and shyt it was cool and all that but I feel like what made the difference was not the location of the discussion or the setting, but the content and in retrospect why couldn't someone get a similar experience with a loved one? It was clinical anxiety I was prescribed medicine but really after some self reflection, some religious based and some based on other things, I can say with certainty I don't feel any of the symptoms I felt in the past.

Now if you're talking schizophrenia or Bi-Polar I totally disagree. Depression and Anxiety is a cognitive condition caused by external stimuli which leads to a chemical imbalance, you can solve it a number of ways.

 

[Dusty Bake Activate]

I suffered from depression and anxiety for a little while it was kinda serious. I went and did some sessions and shyt it was cool and all that but I feel like what made the difference was not the location of the discussion or the setting, but the content and in retrospect why couldn't someone get a similar experience with a loved one? It was clinical anxiety I was prescribed medicine but really after some self reflection, some religious based and some based on other things, I can say with certainty I don't feel any of the symptoms I felt in the past.

Now if you're talking schizophrenia or Bi-Polar I totally disagree. Depression and Anxiety is a cognitive condition caused by external stimuli which leads to a chemical imbalance, you can solve it a number of ways.

Okay...I just thought in your first post it sounded like you were kinda reducing curing depression and anxiety to simply talking to people more. But you expounded more here and talked about going to sessions.

 

[Mowgli]

And theres another high percentage of people that think fakkits make good parents. Everybodies crazy.

 

[mbewane]

Well, my ex's sister who lived in Kansas went to see a therapist because of relationship issues and the guy told her to listen to her husband and pray, everything would be all right

 

[mbewane]

]@VictorVonDoom Breh I just read your sig...scary stuff lol

 

[Liquid]

A good plan is what will help more than anything else.

People just like to believe that "it is out of their hands" and in "God's hands" which is extremely annoying to me.

Nah breh chances are it IS in your hands, but you don't want to put the work in to fix whatever is bothering/hurting you.

 

[Chris.B]

I see no issue with this.

Atheist commit suicide at a huge rate....they clearly need Jesus

 

[Kritic]

i guess we have first have to look at the definition of what a mental illness is.

A mental disorder or psychiatric disorder is a psychologicalterm for a mental or behavioral pattern or a nomaly that causes distress or disability, and which is not developmentally or socially normative. Mental disorders are generally defined by a combination of how a person feels, acts, thinks or perceives. This may be associated with particular regions or functions of the brain or rest of the nervous system, often in a social context. The recognition and understanding of mental health conditions have changed over time and across cultures and there are still variations in definition, assessment and classification, although standard guideline criteria are widely used. In many cases, there appears to be a continuumbetween mental health and mental illness, making diagnosis complex.[1]According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), over a third of people in most countries report problems at some time in their life which meet criteria for diagnosis of one or more of the common types of mental disorder.

this applies to a lot of you niccas you believe in religion and political parties. if it were not for the law i'd be smacking ppl curing them of mental illnesses.

The causes of mental disorders are varied and in some cases unclear, and theories may incorporate findings from a range of fields. Services are based in psychiatric hospitals or in the community, and assessments are carried out by psychiatrists, clinical psychologists and clinical social workers, using various methods but often relying on observation and questioning. Clinical treatments are provided by various mental health professionals. Psychotherapy and psychiatric medication are two major treatment options, as are social interventions, peer support and self-help. In a minority of cases there might be involuntary detention or involuntary treatment, where legislation allows. Stigma and discrimination can add to the suffering and disability associated with mental disorders (or with being diagnosed or judged as having a mental disorder), leading to various social movements attempting to increase understanding and challenge social exclusion. Prevention is now appearing in some mental health strategies.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mental_disorder

 

[Blackking]

How many religious threads have been posted here in attempts to convert forum members to their religion?

lol, exactly....

in the world of some of them ................Atheist are the most oppressed group in history and they get rocks thrown at them just for leaving the house...

Some are just sensitive. Good thing the Muslims on this board aren't sensitive cuz i don't think they would post here..., lol.

I did drive though Ohio recently though. That state will make you wanna become an atheist... Wayyyyyyy to many Evangelical billboards and highway signs. If the signs all read God is imaginary... people would die