One of the most disappointing statistics in Amy Simpson’s book, Troubled Minds: Mental Illness and the Church’s Mission is that 50% of pastors only mention mental illness one to three times per years in their sermons, while 20% don’t even mention it, at all.
You might think simple ignorance is behind that, but as Simpson notes herself, nearly 40% of church leaders have acknowledged suffering from some type of mood disorder such as depression or bipolar, while 23% say they’ve suffered from an anxiety disorder.
In our discussion, I asked her why a great number of pastors — who clearly struggle with this issue — won’t speak up. After all, that would be one of the most effective gestures possible to reduce stigma and open up genuine conversation in the church.
Her answer:
“When you experience a mood disorder, that disorder lies to you all the time. It tells you things that are not true about yourself, about God. And I think pastors can be as susceptible to that as anyone else. And they may actually believe, “You know it’s because my faith isn’t strong enough” or “It’s because God has walked away from me.”
At the same time, there are a lot of church leaders out there who are afraid that if they mention anything about their own struggle with mental health, they will lose their jobs. They feel a lot of pressure to live up to the expectations – whether real or perceived – of people in their congregation, so they keep quiet.
That’s one of the great tragedies – that when people are in crisis, when they most need people, when we most need to reach out to one another, is when stigma raises its head and keeps us quiet.
So I think that’s sometimes what we’re looking at with people in ministry. Their own stigma, their own fear actually keeps them silent and deepens that sense of stigma, not only for themselves, but also for their congregation.”
