Please stop for a moment and think what it would feel like:

·        to be looked down on,
·        not understood,
·        not believed to have credibility,
·        shunned, rejected, excluded,
·        made to feel ashamed,
·        to have your abilities underrated,
·        to have your opinions ignored,
·        not to be taken seriously.

In human terms, what does this mean?

As a person with lived experience, I have experienced all of these and I can tell you that it makes me feel like I’m not considered as human as others. It hurts terribly. There have been times when I wondered if I should go on living.

The emotional pain this causes does not come from my mental illness. There is no medication for it. It comes from what the world makes me feel about myself. Such pain should not be ignored in the same way pain from other health conditions should not be ignored.

I have been practising a spiritual approach to mental health support for twenty years that I believe has reduced the painful effects of that stigma for many. Although its foundation is the unconditional love of Jesus, I believe that this approach could be adopted by all faiths.

There should be a way for all faiths to see him as the man he was without necessarily having to accept him as the son of God. It would simply mean to recognize him as the amazing person he was during the three years of ministry while he was on earth and having an awareness of the great love he had for people, especially those who were being rejected by the world.

He was a radical in the way he treated social outcasts like prostitutes, the poor, the sick, lepers and others. The way he treated them brought them the sense of dignity and value they had been lacking. Before Jesus came such acceptance was a rare thing. He changed the status quo. The world has not been the same since.

Jesus would not have to change the faith tradition you have or take away from it. Including devotionals about him in your Open Door meetings would only be adding something. Through devotionals like the ones made available for this purpose members of your group would be touched by this love—the kind of love for which so many of us hunger.

I’ve been talking much about Open Door although it’s still a work in progress. At this moment I’m working on a book that describes the concept in full. Please stay tuned as I continue writing. And if you’d like to try running a trial group in the meantime, I can provide you with a facilitator’s manual and a collection of devotionals to use at meetings. Contact me at marja@marjabergen.com