Religion

There are many different religions. According to Britannica, religion is defined as a “human beings’ relation to that which they regard as holy, sacred, absolute, spiritual, divine, or worthy of especial reverence”. It is commonly regarded as consisting of the way people deal with ultimate concerns such as their fate after death. The three most common religions in the world are Christianity, Judaism, and Islam. Christianity is based on the teachings of Jesus, the Son of God, who was sent to Earth to take away worldly sins from man, so Christians can be united with God in the afterlife. However, each one of these branches has many different sects within it. There is a stigma surrounding mental health in most of the Christian community, negligent of which sect of Christianity. For many in the church, mental health is a sign of weakness or rather that one will become better if they surrender their problems to God. To others, it’s a trial. God is testing them and their faith because “God never gives you more than you can handle”. 

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This stigma is present in many countries. For example, 72% of the Ghanian population practices Christianity and the 28.3% of that are Pentecostal Protestants. In Ghana, people tend to go to spiritual centers (i.e., prayer camps) or traditional healers when suffering from undiagnosed mental health episodes. Patients in these centers typically believe that their mental illness had a spiritual cause such as being possessed by a demon. Common (inhumane) practices in healing include shackling, flogging, and forced fasting. These prayer camps are privately owned institutions with roots in the evangelical or Pentecostal sects. In the Black American community, 79% identify as Christians. They experience the same stigma in mental health but through different avenues. Black American Churches view mental health as a “vice of the devil''. It’s viewed as a sign of weakness. They practice the laying of hands where their community tries to pray something out of you. It is used in many contexts where it can be a blessing, healing, or praying for the overcoming of a trial. Nevertheless, the shame of mental illness is still present, there’s just not a physical place such as prayer camps that family members could send you to. 

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Mental health issues are present through the characters in Transcendent Kingdom written by Yaa Gyasi. Readers get to see Gifty’s, the daughter of Ghanian immigrants, relationship with God and her church in America. As a child, Gifty wrote letters to God using code names for her family wanting God to punish them because they were mean to her or her letter to God begging for Nana to stay sober and for things to stay the way they were. These actions reflect her feelings of helplessness, and how religion is a common outlet for many out of desperation. When things are beyond our human control, there is comfort in believing in an omnipotent power that can control the situation. Gifty also discusses her relationship with the church. She talked about how they were so proud of Nana when he was a star, but avoided helping him and rather shamed him, when he was dealing with addiction. Ultimately, Gifty falls away from the church after Nana’s overdose and tries to find answers in her work as a researcher in optogenetics. Ultimately, religion is powerful force, but ignores the importance of mental health.