It’s Not a Mental Health Problem

Daniel-Ryan Spaulding is a gay Canadian comedian who has gone viral in recent years for his social media posts mocking leftists that call for the downfall of Israel. In the process of standing for Israel, he has looked at American society to see if he could discern the root cause as to why some people come down on the side of Islamic terror regimes. What he has concluded is that the problem is, at its root, a mental health issue. (You can read about this at https://www.foxnews.com/media/ex-liberal-comedian-americans-fight-media-driven-demoralization-mental-health-crisis.print.)

He has pointed out that many Americans are in very poor physical and mental health. At one point he commented, "There's like full-on schizophrenic people everywhere in New York. People are nuts. And then also people seem like they're on medication. Like a lot of people are weird. Like I think a lot of people are on pills."

When asked to expound on his thoughts about the nature of the country’s mental health crisis, Spaulding pointed to the fact that the agenda of the pharmaceutical industry and the media intersect in a place that helps promote this problem. The pharmaceutical industry wants to sell more drugs. It more profitable for them if there are a lot of people struggling with mental health issues. And the mainstream news media leans strong left because of their ideological foundation. Being quite wealthy, the giant pharmaceutical companies lobby government officials to promote policies that make it easier to sell their drugs, while the news media promotes the same basic agenda in the popular culture to promote their bias. One obvious result of these efforts is the massive turmoil we see in society today.

Spaulding’s solution is to promote unity in society through patriotism. He said, "So, I think that we need to move towards reclaiming patriotism, stop hating each other so much, learn from each other, take care of each other. You know? Have pride in your country, have love of country. I think if all of these things – success, patriotism – if we start to reprogram ourselves to enjoy that, ‘America! Top Gun! Yeah!’ sort of – but people really want that again."

Well, there might be a certain level where that is true. If everyone was on the same page politically, then a lot of the fighting we see in society would naturally stop. But that is not reality. There are so many factions fighting on so many fronts, that stopping one of them would not really solve any problems. There are the fights about abortion, men competing in women’s sports, gay marriage, Palestinian rights, the rights of illegal aliens, rich vs. poor, racial justice, the rights of children to change their sex, and on and on. Every one of these agendas has its own constituency, and if you stop one the others will just keep on going. The problem manifests itself in the various outward expressions listed here, but this are not where the real problem lies. The ultimate problem is spiritual, and can most easily be analyzed as a worldview problem.

The people who are fighting for the various causes associated with the political left base their beliefs primarily on the foundation of a naturalistic worldview. Naturalism is the belief that the natural universe, operating by natural laws, is all that exists. With that starting point, they recognize no God who has revealed Himself and His ways to mankind. Thus, human beings have to make up their morality for themselves.

So we have a situation where people who are supporting the various causes have simply deemed that their position is right, and those opposed to them are wrong. And in addition to determining for themselves what causes are right, they do the same thing when it comes to determining the appropriate actions to take to support their positions. There is nothing preventing them from using violence, vandalism, rioting, or whatever else they feel helps their cause. There is no such thing, for them, as moral absolutes.

The only real solution to this problem is a change in worldview beliefs to one that does accept an objective moral code – one that doesn’t support the causes and methods of those with naturalistic beliefs. In other words, conversion to different beliefs is necessary.

For Christians, this is actually a no brainer. We recognize that when people are a law unto themselves, there is no restraint to the evil beliefs they hold and the deeds they engage to carry out their desires. We also recognize that when the morality revealed by God in the Bible is accepted, evil is restrained.

Sadly, too many Christians don’t know what to do with this knowledge. They will probably agree with the principle, but have no idea how to personally share it out in society in a way that can generate change.

God has definitely revealed to us what right morality looks like, and the kind of methodology for sharing it that corresponds to His will and ways. This is not always as easy as it might seem for Christians who live in an environment dominated by relativistic morality. They need to be intentionally equipped to handle it. Churches need to refocus and specifically plan how they can more effectively equip their members to stand strong and share an effective witness for Christ in this difficult environment. It is not good enough to merely have a sense of right and wrong, yet be impotent in sharing it with people who don’t know Christ.

Freddy Davis is the president of MarketFaith Ministries. He is the author of numerous books entitled The Truth Mirage, Rules for Christians Radicals, Liberalism vs. Conservatism, and his latest book Shattering the Truth Mirage and has a background as an international missionary, pastor, radio host, worldview trainer, and entrepreneur. Freddy is a graduate of Florida State University with a BS in Communication, and holds MDiv and DMin degrees from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. He is a popular speaker, particularly on the topic of worldview and its practical implications for the Christian life. He lives in Tallahassee, FL, with his wife Deborah.

You may also contact Freddy at Leadership Speakers Bureau to schedule him for speaking or leadership engagements.

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