About
a year ago, the woman teaching the Sunday School class in my church suggested
in conclusion to her lesson that we should "throw away" our
depression medication, our therapy appointment cards, and our books about
mental illness. "Just come to Jesus," she said, "He will heal
all." I think I've heard this dozens of times in my life, but it hurt me
badly at the time. I was only recently recovering from a long, five-year
episode of suicidal depression, and also in the midst of mothering a teen who
was suffering suicidal depression. This advice felt like a slap in the face to
all my struggles. But since then, I have spent some time trying to figure out
what to say to those religious people who do not understand that not all
problems are solved by simply "bringing them to Jesus." Part of the
problem is, I think, a lack of empathy. It can be easy to look at other people
and only see where they are now, rather than where they have been. . . Another problem is confusing cause
and effect. It can be very easy to assume that when other people suffer
problems, it is because they aren't making the right choices. Read the complete article at -- http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mette-ivie-harrison/just-come-to-jesus_b_7927634.html
The witnesses, laying their coats at the feet of Saul, were the men that would cast the first stones at Stephen in Acts 7. Why did they all lay their coats at Saul’s feet? The Talmud contains a very interesting account of the act of stoning that may provide the answer. “When the trial was over, they take him [the condemned person] out to be stoned. The place of stoning was at a distance from the court, as it is said, ‘Take out the one who has cursed.’ [i] A man stands at the entrance of the court; in his hand is a signaling flag [Hebrew sudarin = sudar , ‘scarf, sweater’]. A horseman was stationed far away but within sight of him. If one [of the judges] says, ‘I have something [more] to say in his favor,’ he [the signaler] waves the sudarin , and the horseman runs and stops them [from stoning him]. Even if [the condemned person] himself says, ‘I have something to say in my favor,’ they bring him back, even four of five times, only provided that there is some substance to...
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