Heartbeat # 55
Heartfelt Counseling Ministries 1345 Monroe N.W. Suite 241 Grand Rapids, MI 49505
bloemsteve@yahoo.com 616-447-9064
© All rights reserved, 2010 Steve and Robyn Bloem
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February 22, 2010. Please note that if you wish to link to a web site from this e-letter, you put the mouse on the link. Hold down the control key and click on the link with the mouse. For example http://www.heartfeltcounselingministries.com/
Mental Illness Highlight
D. Martyn Lloyd Jones referring to Thomas Szasz says,”..... (Szasz) goes too far in saying that there is no such thing as mental illness. Unfortunately, he now has a number of followers who are writing up his views in popular books. One of the best known is Jay Adams with his widely selling Competent to Counsel. But he is just a popularizer of Thomas Szasz and he is simply affirming, with Szasz, that there is no such entity as mental illness; that the patients are really suffering from sin and need to be dealt with purely in a scriptural manner. These writers reprimand those sufferers and counsel them with great severity. “(Body, Mind and Spirit" and is found in the book Healing and the Scriptures, published by Oliver Nelson).
D. Martyn Lloyd Jones on mental illness being “pathological”
“It is necessary for us to work with those in this field (medical doctors) who have to establish the reality of mental illness; otherwise we are going to be guilty of great cruelty to some of those who come to consult us. Why would I affirm the reality of such illness? I suggest that the familiar (heredity) element in case histories alone is sufficient to establish it. Another factor is the periodicity so characteristic of many cases - clear, lucid intervals, and then recurrence. Not only that, but there are many cases of mental illness which do not respond to all spiritual, scriptural treatment and, indeed, are even made worse by this.” Ibid
Bereavement
Hurricanes, Tsunamis and Earthquakes
Robyn Bloem
In recent years, we have heard reports of many, so–called “natural disasters.”
These events tend to bring the kindness out in people. Many who would not have otherwise had an interest in Haiti, for example, are suddenly digging deep into their own pockets to help in any way possible. The same reaction was true in the aftermath of Katrina and the 2004 tsunami in Asia. We would be thought something less than human if we didn’t respond this way. The death toll in a matter of minutes is astounding!
The newest statistics in Haiti are said to be close to 300,000 deaths; this is now more than the number of fatalities associated with the Asian tsunami. But --and here comes our passion again-- clinical depression, according to the National Alliance for the mentally ill affects 15 million Americans in any given year. As we have said in our book, Broken Minds, of violent deaths worldwide, and this is important, worldwide, not just in America, homicide accounts for 31.3%; war related deaths are 18.6% and suicides (violent deaths worldwide) number 49.1%.
If all the mentally ill were placed on a remote island and the death tolls were more obvious, perhaps our attention would be more riveted on this population in extreme duress and torture.
If we could have camera crews chronicling the suffering of depressed people, crying in anguish, schizophrenics wandering the streets as homeless people, mumbling and responding to internal stimuli or doing jail time because of a violent outburst or because they lacked the necessary judgment to refrain from public urination; if we could see people with OCD who cannot find rest for their brains as they redo the already done and find no completion to their tasks; if we could see the anguish of a person in an all-out panic attack and then see the hearts and spirits of those who cannot get a moment’s rest from the psychic pain of the pressing and oppressing feelings of doubt and self-loathing, what would the world do to help? What would we do?
Well, our mentally ill fellow human beings are all around us; they are in anguish and they are suffering. I guess it is a good thing we are not all on one remote island, because we need others who have healthy brains (not minds, but brains) to help, support and give to see cures come about. But, if you sit by and ignore the facts, the figures and the pain, why give to the Haitians? Why support other victims of disaster; because it would be inhumane to ignore the hurting victims of circumstance. Please remember the mentally ill around you. We are everywhere, hidden, smiling, trying to cope. Millions are suffering and many take their own lives; the only difference is; they die just one at a time.
Pastors, Practitioners and Pundits
We do not wish to be critical but we continue see some vehement resistance to the biological model of mental illness from some of our most conservative brethren. They truly are ‘sanctified obstructionists.’ Many seminary professors still cling to J. Adams view which was introduced about forty years ago. I am mostly speaking about the USA but we can be sure that obstructionists of this kind are in Britain and Australia.
It is interesting that many of these pastors, teachers, and seminary professors who admire D. Martyn Lloyd Jones and love his book Spiritual Depression, Its Causes and Cures, fail to understand that Lloyd Jones has in print stated that classical mental illness is biological in its origins. We have persons all the time who approach their pastors about having a support group for mental illness (and so they should), only to be turned away. This is a very practical problem.
Heartfelt Ministries has a sound doctrinal statement and I invite Seminary professors, Pastors, etc. to visit us on line. http://heartfeltcounselingministries.com/doctrine.aspx
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What is CAMI? (Christians Afflicted with Mental Illness) CAMI is an organization of Heartfelt Counseling Ministries which conducts seminars, provides counseling and training for its members and advocates for evangelical biblical and clinical treatment of persons suffering from mental illness
Mental Illness is a disease that begs for community and it is often more subtle & much more prevalent than we imagine. We offer a safe environment, a listening ear, practical help for treatment and the hope of Christ. There should be no shame or embarrassment; these illnesses are the result of faulty brain chemistry & you are not weak or unspiritual. Please contact us and be encouraged and helped because we care about you.
Persecuted Church
The Voice of the Martyrs www.persecution.com
Hebrews 3:3-- Remember them that are in bonds, as bound with them; and them which suffer adversity, as being yourselves also in the body.
Burma not in my back yard.
The world needs to know about the genocide that is happening today in Burma.”
— Patrick Klein, Vision Beyond Borders
For the complete article please go to:
http://www.persecution.com/public/newsroom.aspx?story_ID=MjIy&featuredstory_ID=MTEy&clickfrom=ZmVhdHVyZWRzdG9yaWVz