Faith Matters: We need to talk about mental health: The call to serve the poor also means serving people who feel lost

I have met people from all walks of life: wealthy, homeless, famous, not-so-famous, and most everything in between. I have had people tell me their life story while sitting at my son’s Tae Kwon Do practice and I still feel the pain of losing someone who didn’t share the more difficult parts of their life with me. The common denominator in my experiencing of people is that we all long for connection. The people who have shared their stories with me did so not because I could do anything about anything, but because they sensed that I was willing to listen, and the truth is that I was and am willing to listen.

I have spent the better part of 15 years trying to convince many people, especially people of faith, that mental health and suicide prevention are important. I have done the walks, I have taken the trainings, I have even led trainings; yet the level of engagement I have encountered has, quite frankly, been disappointing. There is a clear cultural resistance to talking about mental health, as if we will somehow catch something if we talk about it.

I have never met resistance when I ask for donations for Suicide Prevention Walks, nor have I ever met resistance when I propose hosting a speaker or leading a class, but few people are willing to engage beyond handing me $20 or applauding my efforts, and I have been struggling to figure out why, especially since my experience of people is that we all long for connection and our lack of connection is often at the root of our feelings of melancholy and depression. Why do we resist learning and talking about the very thing that impedes the thing we all want most?

One of the purposes of being a person of faith is the connection we experience both with each other and the divine. In my faith tradition, the Episcopal Church, we value the sense of community that is created by worshipping together. We specifically believe that we are shaped by how we pray, and as we emphasize the importance of corporate worship (or worshipping together) we recognize that we are transformed as people when we come together as a community due to our common belief in God. And yet, there is resistance to talking or praying about the things that, in fact, interfere with that connection.

A few years ago, I came across “The Sanctuary Course,” which is an eight-part series designed to help people learn about the interconnectedness of mental health and faith. It is about helping every faith community become sanctuaries for people who live with mental health issues, and the best part of the entire thing is that it is 100% free. I immediately fell in love with the fact that there are other like-minded people out there who see the value of using their faith as a vehicle for truly changing the lives of people in very meaningful ways. The call to serve the poor does not just apply to the economically poor, it applies to the poor in spirit, it applies to any and all people who are feeling lost, lonely, and/or depressed, and I encourage us all to put aside the discomfort and talk about the many ways a spirit-centered life can and does support good mental health.

The Rev. Jason Burns is a deacon in the Episcopal Church. He lives in Greenfield and serves at St. John's Episcopal Church in Northampton.