The evangelical war against mental health

Proceed At Your Own Risk, recent Verve blog award winner for Best Writing, has an interesting take (below the level of rant) on Conservative/Evangelical Christianity and the complete failure of the United States to address mental health issues in a, shall we say, sane way. It's worth a read.

It starts like this:

Among Western nations, the United States is noted for its lagging mental health care system. In no other industrialized nation is mental illness and the recognition and treatment of mental illness so badly neglected by society, the government and the health care system. Hundreds of thousands of Americans live in darkness and pain because of our indifference. Homelessness is one manifestation of this failure. The Closet is another. In both cases, our society is responsible for causing the disease, exacerbating the disease and then ignoring the disease.

Now consider that recent surveys tell us that the United States is second only to Turkey among industrialized nations when it come to the prevalence and influence of religious fundamentalism. We rank at the bottom of almost every list that ranks industrialized country's according to education and knowledge--primarily due to the fact that a solid majority of Americans take Biblical word over established science. While this amuses some and seems insignificant to others, the fact is that it has serious repercussions in terms of mental health.

The connection between the mental health travesty in the United States and Evangelical Christianity is clear.

Too many Americans believe that the cure for pathologic self-destructive behavior is to be found in Jesus rather than professional health care. Scientifically grounded understanding of various illnesses is cast aside with arrogance and cruelty. We mostly have stopped calling in exorcists to cure schizophrenics, and yet we still debate the merits of Christian reparative therapy for homosexuals.