His Mansion Ministries

John Weaver spent time at His Mansion Ministries. He now blogs about heretical/fundamentalist spiritualized models of treatment such as theophositics and nouthetics. John left Hi Mansion and got appropriate treatment for his bi-polar disorder. As more Americans lose their health care, more of these groups will spring up and vulnerable people will be guilted, shamed and blamed. There are many many well trained ministers, lay personnel in churches trained to work with mental health professionals so ill parishioners can live their lives more fully. But there are not enough, and so fundamentalism has filled the vaccum.

We need blogs like John runs to help people looking for relief see why these flawed shadows are harmful for people suffering mental illness. Even if they do manage to pay for a family physician,  general practitioners is not equipped  to manage a mentally ill patient’s medication and therapy. What is sad  is churched people seeking help or seeking help for loved ones are afraid, broke and under spiritual and social pressures. And that gap is being filled. I’ve blogged about one group – Mercy Ministries. The young are targets, often sent by desperate parents wanting spiritual and mental health for their child, unaware of the harm they are sending them into.  These models blame the sufferer, the devil, moral failings. It is frightening to know these spiritualized ministries are run by people who genuinely believe they are healers.
 John on some of his concerns about His Mansion:

Farmer’s shocking insensitivity here is cause for concern. Farmer seems to think that every young person comes from a home that gives them everything. This kind of combative attitude towards youth could be particularly problematic when dealing with trauma and sexual abuse survivors, as well as the mentally ill, who do not necessarily suffer from an excess of self-esteem (although this is what His Mansion staff claimed to me during my stay there). Another person, Michael Tso, was hired to help with bipolar clients, despite the fact that he has no psychological background and is merely a family physician. Even more troubling is a May reference that seems to be supportive of a biblical counseling model. Now perhaps Mr. Farmer is talking about a Christian counseling, rather than Jay-Adams style counseling model, but my experiences, coupled with Farmer’s combative rhetoric about youth culture, inclines me to believe that he is a supporter of nouthetics and all that implies.
What I am most disturbed about, however, is that His Mansion has opened an Institute dedicated to training future counselors. This is extremely problematic, especially since Mr. Tso is the person who applications are being directed towards, which leaves open the possibility that he is playing a crucial part in that program, despite his lack of counseling experience. Some of the collegians that His Mansion is encouraging to work there come from disturbingly reactionary colleges, such as Moody Bible Institute and Liberty University. I am very concerned that His Mansion may be opening a nouthetic style based counseling program that will be later enacted at other Christian group homes. Worse, I do not see how this can be averted, considering His Mansion’s economic independence. I therefore would plead with His Mansion staff to follow a less combative, and more compassionate, program that does not reflect the kind of values that Dr. Farmer seems to currently promote.

I’ve seen first hand the damage done to Christians who believe these groups because they use the bible.
God does heal, but He also gave us mental health professionals and specialists.  If I need a bone set, I don’t go to an internist.  We the church fail when we don’t warn desperate people and when we don’t come along side because mental illness doesn’t fit  with our comfort zone and we don’t take the time to learn what we need to learn to use all the resources available to help our friends.