David Murray has a wonderful series about mental illness. This was sparked by the suicide of Rick Warren's son. How do we deal with mental illness and suicide in the church?
Murray correctly highlights two extremes that have truth but are both not completely correct in describing this. There is the "mental illness" crowd who find a situation or biological cause to everything a person does. This group undermines the reality of sin and salvation.
The other group is the "sin" group. They dismiss all imperfections as a result of sin and do not look at the situation. They don't look at the person's childhood, family, neighborhood, or even diet and nutrition and tragedies that have shaped their mental function. They don't know about depression in the family history.
The church should seek a balance between the two extremes. Yes, death, disease, and suffering are a result of sin and our personal sins cause many problems, but there are also diseases beyond control such as cancer or diabetes, and then there is mental illness which is sometimes a crutch but is often a very real explanation to why people are a certain way.
But my heart goes out to the Warrens, the people who ran in Boston, and I hope that God brings much glory to himself in this.
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