PASTOR DAVE’S MUSINGS FROM THE HEARTLAND

July 2, 2022

LIFE, LIBERTY AND THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS (Part III)

Gerasene Demoniac

When I was the pastor of the Westville United Methodist church from June of 1970 until September of 1975 because of compatible schedules I would fill in for the Protestant chaplain at Norman Beatty Mental Hospital which was located just outside of town.  On Sunday mornings I was responsible for an open service followed by a closed service.  Several summers our conference had a Youth In Mission site at the hospital.  Youth in Mission would gather at a central location for orientation and then disburse to their mission sites.  For several days the youth who came to Beatty would interact with some of the youth at the hospital.

The hospital closed in 1979 and the facility was reopened as the Westville Correctional Center.  The closing of the hospital was a part of a movement that began in 1963 with the passing of Community Mental Health Centers Acts.  Mental hospitals were replaced with Comprehensive Mental Health centers.  Living on their own one might think that the former patients of the hospital might more fully exercise their rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.  In most cases the exact opposite was the case.  When the patients were institutionalize the staff made sure that they took their meds which allowed the patients to function.  When there was no one to make sure they took their meds, in many cases they failed to do so and they became dysfunctional.

Ironically a number of those who had been institutionalized at a mental hospital ended up incarcerated.  These new facilities of restraint lacked the mental health resources of the former mental hospitals.  A number of those who would formerly have been in a mental hospital joined the ranks of the homeless.  Some estimate that at least 70% of the homeless suffer from chronic mental health issues.

One of the leading components of many mass killings is metal health issues.  In many cases the perpetrator has been on community institutions’ radar.  Unfortunately, in most cases nothing can be done until the person commits a criminal act.  In trying to protect a mentally ill’s right to life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness we create a situation in which they are unable to experience these rights.  We live in a society that is against making anybody do anything!

The problem of how to care for the mentally ill is nothing new.  In Mathew, Mark, and Luke there is the story of Jesus healing the Gerasene demoniac.  The Gospel of Mark says that “He lived among the tombs; and no one could restrain him any more, even with a chain; for he had often been restrained with shackles and chains, but the chains he wrenched apart, and the shackles he broke in pieces; and no one had the strength to subdue him. Night and day among the tombs and on the mountains he was always howling and bruising himself with stones.” (Mark 5:3-5)

In Jesus’s day the approach to the mentally ill would seem to have been to isolate them from society so that they could not do others harm.  What is our approach today?  How much different is it today than the first century A.D.?  How can society help a person who suffers from chronic mental illness to maximize one’s ability to exercise one’s right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness?