G. Frink's

Your pastor is a high-risk, even life-endangering choice for mental health advice, a recent Baylor University study found.

More than 32% of 293 previously diagnosed, "seriously mentally ill" church members reported that their pastor said they did not have a mental illness.

Misleading pastoral responses came most often from "conservative" or "charismatic" ministers, according to an account published in the Texas Baptist Standard. Matt Pene of Baylor University wrote:

... church members were told the cause of their problem was solely spiritual in nature, such as a personal sin, lack of faith or demonic involvement. Baylor researchers also found women were more likely than men to have their mental disorders dismissed by the church.

According to Matthew Stanford, professor of psychology and neuroscience at Baylor, who led the study, “Those whose mental illness is dismissed by clergy are not only being told they don’t have a mental illness, they are also being told they need to stop taking their medication. That can be a very dangerous thing.”

Those dismissive pastoral views are part of the reflexive, wholly irrational American prejudice against the mentally ill which often makes recovery unduly difficult. The resulting isolation and other grinding impacts of that prejudice can in fact impose a death sentence, just as surely as following misguided pastoral advice to give up medication can be fatal.

Baylor is the world's largest Christian school in enrollment, and it is understandable that the study's conclusions were focused on the need for better ministerial training, perhaps in the associated George W. Truett Theological Seminary at the Waco, Texas, school.

Too late. Here in the South, where ministers are both more likely to be conservative and more likely to be the first consulted about mental health care, reforms in university curricula will be a generation too late in taking effect.

The damage that study implies is occurring now, every day. The Christian reaction is boots-on-the ground reform in how well we respond to those whom we have made our modern lepers. Change in how well-informed and supportive our response is in the pastor's study. Change in the choir. In the sanctuary. In the streets. Now.