“Demons made my daughter an anorexic lesbian…”

Or

“The hidden danger of narrow faith based mental health provision.”

 

Faith Based Organisations (FBO’s) are a fact of life(unfortunately woven into the fabric of our society).  Many of these organizations –the salvation army, for example have a long history of working on social justice issues.

Governments seem more and more inclined to abrogate their responsibilities in regard to mental health service provision and direct responsibility for these services to the Religious Sector.

There is, I think an over stated belief that because these services are faith based (the majority being Christian) that they are by default a good choice in the provision of health care.

There seems to be unwritten, or unspoken understanding that anything Christian is both homogenous in the way it will handle social justice and mental health situations and by default have the clients best interests as a priority.

Hence this quote from the former Australian PM John Howard

“Whenever you see the marginalised, whenever you see the vulnerable, whenever you see those in our society that are in want or in need of companionship or friendship or support, you normally find an agency or some members of various denominations of the Christian church. There is almost an automatic assumption … that whenever there's a problem of that kind, there'll be somebody from the church or one of its agencies there to help.” source

This assumption leads us as a society, into some very scary territory.

Imagine this terrible scenario:

You are an intelligent young woman struggling with anorexia or bullemia, you have no private health cover, there are no government funded clinics . You search online for a service you might be able to afford. As luck would have it you find a service its free, its religiously based, but that’s okay you were raised Christian, you can stomach the platitudes and the grace before evening meals, maybe even going to church on Sunday – what you are in need of is help, help with a disorder that may well kill you. It’s on the other side of the country away from anything familiar but you are desperate. You make a decision that will hopefully change your life forever…for the better. The reality is that when you arrive you are told what to where, how to act, when to bath, when and what to read and how to think, you are not allowed to discuss with other residents why you are there, you are not allowed to maintain close relationships with other residents lest you turn into a lesbian, you are told that your mental issues are either a result of you not trying hard enough or the influence of demons – you are given a list of passages that “Demons hate” oh and its not free. You eventually begin to believe what they are saying.

Only this is not a hypothetical, this is Naomi’s Story [link] and it is repeated with many other women that have attended Mercy Ministries in Australia and the US.

Search x-mercy in the field above to find related stories.

Click below to view the

Mercy Ministries Handbook

Below - Passages Demons Hate

*Both documents are handed to clients after they have been admitted.

 

The testimony of x-mercy women suggests that mercy ministries

• are fervently Anti gay, going so far as to prevent relationships between straight women
• go beyond proselytising and into the realm of indoctrination and mind control

So while many FBO’s may not proselytise there is nothing to stop them from doing so. There are no guidelines stipulating that they must use qualified counsellors, no government monitoring to ensure that they do. We rely on them to have the clients best interest at heart.

And this is where the lines blur, evangelical Christianity assumes their way, is the best way. The client is best served by serving Jesus or rather his representatives on earth.

Why does the government offload these services? Is there evidence that they can provide a better service? One could argue that when the church has been given this brief before (ie Ireland) that it has failed miserably, resulting in abuse scandal after abuse scandal.

See Magdelene Asylums as one example.

I am sure that with little government oversight there comes a great degree of flexibility that may enable services to offer a more holistic service - just not possible under regular government operating frameworks. But we can’t just rely on the various organizations to be marching to the same tune. Southern Baptists sing a very different song to the Salvation army.

Why are non-government, secular programs relatively scarce in comparison? No money to be made? Have the religious services got the sector sewn up to the point where a non-religious service is not feasible, or counter productive, i.e. competition for government funds and funds required for organizational structure outweighing the benefits of supposed increased efficiency.

Why do the FBO’s carry out the work if there is precious little money in it (with the exception MM who seem to receive reasonable donations thanks Gloria Jeans and are able to purchase land, while still insisting that residents handover their Centrelink cheques – Mercy made of 1.365 million in 2006)?

“They are called by God”, I am sure most would answer but there is another reason, one applicable to any FBO – quite simply there are souls involved or rather people with pocketbooks. But its not just money its power and influence. The greater your number the greater your voice

Some FBO’s can keep this in check bringing people to Jesus through demonstrating good actions. While the more nefarious schemes ensure that when you are healthy, if you ever get there, your friends, your support network and you beliefs are all found in the same place – a narrow fundamentalist church community.

Mercy Ministries women are paraded at Hillsong services in Australia. They have a special section reserved from them. They are held up as an example of women healed through Jesus. That some of these women suffer social disorders doesn’t seem to factor in this. They are required to read aloud from fundamentalist texts repeatedly, to learn the passages by rote and are disciplined when they fail to do so. They are prohibited from listening to outside radio or media. If you refuse to break you are kicked out often in a mental state worse than when you went in. If you break or find Jesus you lose yourself.

So the hidden danger is that with these services you do not know what you are getting. There is no common code of conduct, no charter, no overarching body to ensure best practice.

A service like Mercy Ministries can hide under the coattails of the broader FBO’s trading, on the good name of those services that have proven themselves to be client focused rather than Jesus focused.

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