Mental Health Awareness Month is upon us. However, it has long been a taboo within the church. Many evangelists believe that the driving force of mental illness is one’s own sin or lack of faith, and they just need to pray more. This can be shown by analogy in John 9 when even the disciples believe the blind man’s troubles are his or his parents’ fault. As any psychologist will tell you, mental health is much more complex than that. The real treatment for mental illness is one’s faith, professional help, and fellowship.
Depression is overwhelming and has often been described as feeling like one is drowning. These extreme feelings are heightened when people don’t get the help they need from loved ones and professionals. Photo courtesy of Stormseeker
As this year’s theme focuses on, “Mental Health and the Wholeness of Creation,” the docket of presenters for this year’s Faith and Research Conference has more than doubled in size and scope, with twice as many speakers from MBU, across the nation and around the world presenting their research over the course of two days this week, Thursday, April 7, and Friday, April 8, in the Learning Center.
Dr. Keith Beutler, pictured here presenting the keynote address during last year’s Faith and Research Conference, will again be speaking this year during the Published Authors Roundtable Discussion. While this year’s conference will have live sessions throughout two days in the Pitch Room of the Jung-Kellogg Learning Center as well as the Performance Hall in the Dale Williams Fine Arts Center, technology will again be the order of the day as presenters and attendees will be able to connect via Zoom to any and all presentations throughout the two days of the conference. Photo by C. Allin Means
With suicide being the 10th leading cause of death in the U.S., a significant change is needed to increase the overall attention and care of mental health. Awareness is the first step toward healing, and implementing mental health education in schools, in all 50 states, could initiate a vital change for the mental health community. With the mid-term elections behind us and new faces in office, hopefully this will be a top priority.
In a society expecting us to hide our demons, we ought to find the courage to own our stories and start viewing vulnerability as a sign of strength, not weakness.
Photo by Maggie McDaniel
Missouri Baptist University is hosting “Your Mental Health Matters” Monday, Oct. 22, 1:30-3:30 p.m. in the SRC, in recognition of National Mental Health Awareness Day.
Here are some interesting facts about MBU Timeline, the student newsmagazine of Missouri Baptist University, in St. Louis:
*Our mission statement is: MBU Timeline is the student news network of Missouri Baptist University, a private Christian university that embraces the essential core value of “social change through service and leadership.”
*The Bible verse that drives our mission is 2 Timothy 2:15 (Worldwide English Version): “Tell the true message in the right way.”
*The WordPress website has been up since late-fall 2013. We average about 3,000 sessions and about 5,000 pageviews per month.
*Our stories and galleries get as few as 40 or 50 hits, or as many as 8,000 hits.
*We have readers in every state and more than 90 countries around the world. We have several readers in South America, the United Kingdom, India and Australia.
*Most of our readers are in Missouri, followed by Illinois, California and Texas.
*We do not accept advertising as we are a not-for-profit online newsmagazine.
*We welcome contributors from all walks of MBU life, regardless of your major. Reach out to us on Twitter at: @mbutimeline.
