As it was they were written of by most of their contemporaries. When you read their stories however you have to ask - who were the mentally unhealthy? I mean if you look round the world and see vast amounts of injustice and oppression and don't get horribly miserable can you really claim to be mentally healthy.
With all this precedent in our holy scripture, with God so clearly using people who think differently how come the church gets it so wrong on mental health all the time?
My experience is that Christians while quiet happy to go to a secular doctor and get prescribed antibiotics often break into cold sweats at suggestions of seeking medical advice and support in relation to mental well-being. Only Christian counselors will do all of a sudden. And because we are Christian's with a direct line to heaven we are also convinced that we are better able to diagnosis a fellow believers problems and suggest appropriate remedies than most trained professionals.
In all our discussions about the prophets my friend and I never got on to Haman. MD did:
"When his idol is fed he is so happy, when his idol is threatened he is so violent, someone in our culture would be diagnosed bipolar - sometimes they're idolatrous"
This is not OK on so many levels. Equating being bipolar with violence feeds an inaccurate and damaging prejudice. Equating being bipolar with idolatry essentially blames individuals for their own suffering.
Let's rather speak up about the violence and prejudice those with mental health concerns face, show Christ like compassion and empathy in our speaking and praying and lets give space to learn from them how to change our practice.
Useful resource: http://www.time-to-change.org.uk/churches
