“Can the Christian Take Medication for Mental Illness?” Part 1 (Under the Juniper Tree S10E1)

August 6, 2019

Under the Juniper Tree Season 10, Episode 1 for Tuesday, August 6, 2019

This is somewhat of hot button within Christianity. · There are many who are opposed to the idea of taking medication for a few reasons: o Claims that anti-depressants create chemical imbalances while the brain works to fix them. § My issue with this argument is that these same people claim there are no known tests to test whether your brain is running low on neurotransmitters. § How would these same people know the effects of medication? o These same would claim the Bible teaches that sin is the only cause of mental illness. § The Bible does teach that sin can lead to mental problems. § In the very first season of UtJt, we briefly covered this idea. § There are many instances of depression and such that are not caused by individual sin. o We will likely cover many arguments against in the very near future. · Looks talk about what I refer to as the hypocrisy of this belief system. o This line of thought leads to the idea that the mental anguish caused by sin can get so bad that it leads to other problems like cancer, heart disease/attack, and other health problems. o Now, none of these teachers would say, “Repent of your sins and the cancer would go away.” The same would be true for heart disease. o These same would teach the need for repentance for the mental illness to go away.