Does Christian discipleship exclude the necessity of therapy and deliverance ministries?
In this episode, we lean on George’s passion and calling to Christian counseling in order to understand better how to approach mental health issues in a Hmong-American context. How do you know when someone is dealing with a mental illness versus spiritual oppression? And are things like deliverance ministries a distraction from discipleship?
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This was a hot topic within the hmong community when I was at bible college. There was cleary a division between the ministry majors and non-ministry majors about mental health vs demon possession. The ministry majors wanted to do the whole deliverance, exocism thing. The non-ministry majors where like , I think we should get a 2nd opinion. It’s a cultural thing were everything is demonic related, its comes with the spiritual baggage of being Hmong. I honestly believe that poor lady was suffering from a form of depression and really just needed clinical help.
The argument was basically about discernment, how do you know. I personally think that pastoral majors should be also require to take additional psychology courses. I truly believe it would be beneficial to their ministries. As pastors its important to know the difference so you can diagnose and find proper treatments rather if it’s a spiritual or mental issue. Because no matter how hard u pray sometimes depression, PTSD, postpartum, addiction and social anxiety just dont disappear.
This is where I agree that deliverance ministries has to have some type of discipleship and accountability afterwards. Or old habits will just invite the demons back. However, we as a Hmong church community need to be more educated on mental health and how to discern between demon possession and mental illness. We need to create a community of grace, where we can openly talk about mental health issues and not be burned at the stakes.
I wish mental health was talked more openly among the Hmong community in general.