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Southern Baptist Convention Promotes Freudianism

The Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention has been a hive of liberalism driving the direction of the convention. A latest article published by this Southern Baptist institution undermines the role of pastos while ceding ground and potentially souls to the spirit of this age or more specifically Freudianism.

Kristen Kansiewicz is an academic who wrote an article titled, “A Place of Refuge or Shame? Reducing the stigma of mental illness in the Church.” This article is directed towards pastors and encourages them to offload their responsibilities.

What type of response will she get from this new church and its pastor? Will the pastor encourage her to keep her appointment with the psychiatrist? Will he offer counseling within the church or suggest a licensed professional counselor who has a Christian private practice in the community? Will the pastor account for the complex cultural, biological, psychological, and social factors at play? Will any key leaders in the church have knowledge about or experience with depression or anxiety?

The goal of this article is to encourage pastors to outsource spitual counsel to “mental health professionals” which are either doctors who prescribe hard drugs or therapist who are institutionally corrupted by a Freudian worldview. The example that Kansiewicz uses is postpardom depression for which the Bible has a solution of older women teaching younger women if pastors are not enough.

In a sermon, when mentioning words like “depression” or “anxiety,” add a caveat that acknowledges that some people experience clinical disorders that go beyond the everyday worries that we all experience. Describe major depression, clinical anxiety, psychosis, or PTSD just as you would any illness, such as cancer.

It is unlikely that most pastors would suggest prayer alone as treatment for a cancer diagnosis, yet a Lifeway research study reported that a third of evangelical Christians believe that prayer alone heals mental illness.4 Talking openly about mental illness as a disorder of the brain. This helps to reduce both public and self-stigma.

Kansiewicz charges pastors to bring up mental illness in a sermon and treat it the same as cancer. The analogy falls apart because because things like cancer are psychical conditions. The mental stuff is largely spiritual. Kansiewicz derides pastors who believe that prayer is sufficient for curing mental illness. The idea that depression is caused by a chemical imbalance has been debunked, a fact at best omitted by Kansiewicz.

If someone in your congregation has depression, anxiety, trauma symptoms, or other signs of a mental illness, you should encourage them to seek counseling from a licensed mental health professional as well as their primary care doctor. Doing so does not mean that you no longer meet with them for spiritual guidance, prayer, or Bible study. As a rule of thumb, if a person needs more than three sessions of pastoral counseling, it is wise to refer them to a mental health professional for assessment and treatment. This professional help can serve you and your congregant as you continue to walk alongside them.

The problem is that Kansiewicz believes that the mental health industry offers solutions and not indefinite treatment. Therapy persists until one side grows tired of it, and pills are prescribed for years on end. Antidepressants don’t actually work since depression is not a chemical imbalance. The mental health industry continues to grow alongside the so-called mental heath crisis because the industry exists to sell a problem and not a solution.

In contrast, pastors are not paid by the hour so they have no incentive to prolong dealing with what is actually a spiritual problem. The Bible is easily accessible, and prayer is free.

As Pastor Jared Moore points out in his response to the ERLC: 

My simple rebuttal is that therapy teaches you to focus on yourself. It’s incessant talking about yourself. We have more “licensed Professional Counselors” than ever, and yet, more “mental illness” than ever. The biblical model is Love God, Love Your neighbor, and that heals you (Matt 22:37-39). Stop talking about self. Talk about God and others. Go worship. Go serve someone else.

The ERLC is pushing Freudianism onto Southern Baptists and their emphasis on mental health will only result in mental weakness for the congregations who follow their advice.

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2 Responses

  1. The best way to “reducing the stigma of mental illness in the church” is to stop accusing people of “mental illness” and stop allowing them to belittle themselves by accusing themselves of “mental illness.” The push for “mental health” is nothing but female medfling and manshaming. Put these harpies out of the church.

  2. “The idea that depression is caused by a chemical imbalance has been debunked, a fact at best omitted by Kansiewicz.”

    Perhaps. But depression can still be caused by dietary imbalance. Especially for men since emissions cause a massive loss of zinc, so zinc supplements might help a lot with depression (not to mention covid).

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