Mental health issues are getting more of religion's attention

In a time of seemingly relentless bad news, it can be easy to move toward despair. So how about a little good news today?

The news is that in various ways people of faith are taking mental illness more seriously and are working toward helping people find solutions.

For instance, as this article from Crux reports, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops has launched a USCCB “National Catholic Mental Health Campaign.”

The campaign has three goals: “To raise awareness, to remove the stigma and advocate that everyone who needs help should get help.”

Simple, right? Well, over the centuries various religious traditions have at times blamed mental illness on the person experiencing it or on Satan. It's taken a long time for different branches of religion to face the reality that mental illness should be treated carefully and professionally the way physical illness -- broken arms, cancer, asthma -- is treated.

Why this campaign now? The Crux story put it this way: "The impetus for the campaign, the bishops said, is the 'alarming' shortage of mental and behavioral health resources and providers nationwide, and an equally 'alarming' increase in depression and suicidal tendencies, especially among young people over the last decade."

So that's a national response to this problem. I previously reported on local responses to it in this 2021 Flatland column and in this 2022 Flatland column. The former column described the effort to create what then was being called the Kansas Missouri Mental Health Collaborative that would work through congregations and other organizations. That organization recently had a grand opening celebration, but under a different name, the Prairie Sky Counseling Center.

Prairie Sky now has three locations and is looking to expand. All good news. Why?

Well, as the Crux story reported, "According to the latest statistics from the National Institute for Mental Health, in 2021 22.8 percent of American adults – meaning some 57.8 million people – were classified as having a mental illness, and for 5.5 percent of American adults, or 14.1 million people, that illness was considered severe."

Healthy religion seeks to respond to the needs of the whole person, and that includes one's mental health. If you need immediate help with a mental crisis, of course, you now can call 988, a suicide and crisis hotline. But non-crisis care now also is more available thanks to efforts by people of faith.

So cheers for them.

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A DESERVED SLAP IN THE FACE TO A CHURCH

With two major wars going on -- Hamas/Israel and Russia/Ukraine -- it can be hard (and self-punishing) to stay up to date. And I'm not even counting the Republican war with itself inside the U.S. House of Representatives. But for this weekend's blog post, I'm going to connect you with this Ukraine-related story, which shows that Ukraine's government may be about to "ban the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, which has close ties to the Russian Orthodox Church, from operating within Ukraine’s borders." What's this about? Well, it's enough to know, as I've reported before, that the Russian Orthodox Church now is under the complete control of Putin's Kremlin. Any religious body that cedes control of its thoughts and actions to a political figure can't be trusted and needs to be condemned. I hope Ukraine completes this action.

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P.S.: For those of you who weren't able to attend (or watch on YouTube) a service on Wednesday evening at which I and others spoke about the need for peace in light of the Hamas-Israeli war, the link to the service is here. I found it a fascinating -- and surprising -- evening. Hope you'll give it a look and listen.

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ANOTHER P.S.: Here's news that, as far as I can tell, has zero connection to faith matters but it does show how wrong more than 90 percent of a state's population can be about some things. A new poll via St. Louis University shows that a huge number of Missouri residents don't know the proper way to pronounce the name of our state -- it's Missour-uh, not Missour-ee. My "Starbeams" column predecessor at The Kansas City Star, Bill Vaughan, who argued long and hard for Missour-uh, must be looking down on us and wondering what the devil is wrong with people. I feel your pain, Bill.