Tag Archives: mental health

Beyond Mental Health: The Role of Spiritual Deficiency in Society’s Violence

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It seems that whenever there is a mass shooting, the subject always gravitates to mental health. And lately, I have heard similar rhetoric even in regard to personal one-on-one conflicts. In order for someone to commit an act of violence, the prevailing rationale is that there must be an abnormality with their mental state of being. Now, while I do not disagree that there are indeed mental health issues, I would like to also suggest that in most cases, the issue is even extensive than that! I would like to suggest that not only is there a mental health crisis, but there is a spiritual health crisis as well!

In Romans 1:21, the Apostle Paul wrote: “For though they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God or show gratitude. Instead, their thinking became nonsense, and their senseless minds were darkened.” (CSB) When people disregard their Maker, their minds are disoriented, and their thinking is corrupt. I believe this is a major contributing cause to much of the senseless violence that plagues our society today. Yes, there are mental health issues, but I believe many of the mental health issues are caused by a spiritual deficiency known in the Bible as sin.

In many of the discussions today about the epidemic of gun violence, people only talk about the mental health aspect. But humans are not just mental and physical, humans are spiritual, mental, and physical. In order to fully address the issue, one must not only address the physical and mental needs, but the spiritual needs must also be addressed as well. This is where the church, in my humble opinion, has failed! Instead of doing what only the church can do, many churches today focus mainly on social and political issues, while minimizing the main business of the church.

When the church returns to its core mission of working to redeem the human soul, I believe change will begin. It will not be a massive and pervasive change, but rather a slow and deliberate change of one person at a time. While this might not seem like a viable solution, we must remember that much of the violence in our culture today is not committed by groups of people, but rather by individuals. Therefore, even when one individual is changed by the power of God, that is one individual less likely to commit a violent act to harm others, or themselves.

Another Love TKO

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Having a spirit of unforgiveness is detrimental to our spiritual, mental, and physical health. When we don’t forgive and insist on holding grudges, we don’t hurt the person we don’t forgive or the one we’re holding a grudge against; we’re hurting our own selves.

Unforgiveness is detrimental to us spiritually because Jesus said, if we don’t forgive others; the Father will not forgive us! Think about it! There is no wrong anyone can do to us that is greater than the wrong we have already done to God! But those who are in right relationship with God have been forgiven of their sins and are forgiven by God on a daily basis! Therefore, when we refuse to forgive others, we are, in a sense, making ourselves to be greater than God!

Being unforgiving hinders our faith and prevents God from hearing our prayers! In Mark 11:22-26, Jesus makes the connection between moving mountains, receiving the things we desire when we pray and forgiveness.

Being unforgiving is detrimental to us mentally because strife, resentment, and other negative emotions that come with being unforgiving actually weaken and disempower us! They make us restless and angry, thereby inhibiting our ability to think positively and productively. When we refuse to forgive, we re-live the hurt over and over again in our minds; not allowing ourselves to emotionally heal.

Being unforgiving is detrimental to us physically because the doctors have discovered that our physical well-being is directly connected to our spiritual and mental health! When we are unforgiving for long periods of time, the resentment can manifest physically in the form of chronic high blood pressure, heart problems, cancers, and other health issues.

The bottom line is this; refusing to forgive is spiritual, emotional, and physical suicide! We don’t hurt the person we don’t forgive; but we are killing ourselves.

When someone has done us wrong, we’ve got to learn to forgive easily and quickly. Doing so doesn’t mean the person has taken advantage of us or walked over us; it means we are spiritually and emotionally mature and not spiritually and emotionally stupid! We would do well with a slight adaptation of the words of the late “Rev” Teddy Pendergrass: “We just need to let it go; it’s just another love T. K. O!”