spirit, soul and body

[OBW]

Originally Posted by Paul Miletus

I believe the local church has not overlooked the spiritual causes of mental problems. If you can just give some time to read Brother Watchman Nee's "The Spiritual Man" you would know exactly where the local church stands on this matter.

Paul,

The problem is not that the LC overlooks the spiritual problems that might cause mental illness. It is that when they are confronted with a mental problem that calling on the Lord, pray-reading, and going to more meetings does not fix, they wash their hands and essentially send them packing.

I observed this in the case of two sisters. I am very familiar with one and somewhat conversant in the other. In one case, the sister (who had a mental breakdown) was sent home and ultimately spent some time in a mental facility (now fully recovered and a leader among women in her church). The other was less clear, although I do know that she was essentially sent off to relatives because the problem resulted in outward behavior that could be potentially embarrassing. In effect, she was hidden away.

So the LC did observe mental problems beyond merely “spiritual” issues, but they had no answer but to send them away. They didn’t really believe that it was just spiritual and that their simplistic methods would fix them. They surely did not understand what was going on and how to help them. Since it had to be turned over to someone else, it would appear that they needed to hide their failure.

If at first you don’t succeed, destroy all evidence that you ever tried.