BOUNDARIES OR STIGMA? In 2017, during a difficult time of my life, I wrote the following: For a long time the concept of boundaries didn’t make sense to me. It hurt when I was shut out of various peoples lives. Oh, Lord, it hurt! How could I tell all I want to tell? How can I […]
Read More...EQUALITY IN MENTAL HEALTH SUPPORT I write this from a personal experience of receiving support from one or two kind people in particular—people who became dear to me. And I wonder if there might be other good Christian individuals like them who mean well when caring for a person with mental health issues, only to […]
Read More...FAITH-BASED PEER SUPPORT AND HUMILITY When he had finished washing their feet, he put on his clothes and returned to his place. “Do you understand what I have done for you?” he asked them. “You call me ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord,’ and rightly so, for that is what I am. Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you […]
Read More...MENTAL HEALTH AND BUILDING UNDERSTANDING As a person with mental health issues who has helped many like herself, I worry when I see people like us portrayed as victims—a class of people set apart from others, needing special care and consideration. We are as human as anyone else and every one of us will need […]
Read More...MENTAL HEALTH AND EQUALITY Those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. Romans 8:29 Just before he passed away, Narayan Vaman Tilak (1861-1919). a famous convert to Christianity in India, wrote the following to a […]
Read More...WHEN BOUNDARIES NEED TO BE APPLIED I’m sensitive to being treated with disrespect. Isn’t everyone? I’m as human as the next person and believe I deserve to be treated that way. And yet, so often, even amongst people who I had thought to be kind, this sense of equality seems not to be understood. I […]
Read More...As a person with mental health challenges, I claim the right to be considered equal. I may be different, but I am equal. Equal under God, the same as everyone else. Many have accepted people with problems like mine, making us part of their church and community. But this doesn’t mean we’re necessarily counted as […]
Read More...The blacks of South Africa were considered inferior. Nelson Mandela brought in a more equal social order. He made a difference. Women were—and still are—considered inferior to men. Ruth Bader Ginsburg and others made a difference. Rosa Parks, considered an inferior black, refused to let a white passenger take her seat on the bus. She […]
Read More...On May 17, 1954, the Supreme Court outlawed segregation in public schools. The Court affirmed that “separate but equal” facilities are inherently unequal. To segregate a child on the basis of his race is to deny that child equal protection of the law. It furthered the black person’s sense of dignity. King commented on how […]
Read More...The justice this book will talk about is the entitlement for everyone to have the same fundamental human rights—the right to equality and dignity, the freedom from all forms of discrimination. There are many human rights movements active today. All people in our world deserve to be treated justly—regardless of race, colour, gender, disability, and […]
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