Holy Smoke: does the Church know how to deal with mental illness?

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🗓️ 15 November 2019

⏱️ 37 minutes

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Summary

We're all sick of celebrities making a meal of their mental health problems – but that doesn't mean that we aren't facing a potential crisis. The unique strains of living in the technology-driven 21st century are taking their toll on people who, in an earlier era, would have been psychologically robust. Many of us are affected by anxiety, depression, addiction and eating disorders; all sorts of compulsive behaviour are flourishing as never before.

And the mainstream churches have got nothing useful to say about it. Many bishops seem content to blame it on Brexit.

Damian Thompson talks to Professor Stephen Bullivant, Britain's foremost expert on patterns of religious belief. Both talk frankly – 'bravely', as they say of celebrities – about their struggles with mental illness.

Holy Smoke is a series of podcasts where Damian Thompson dissects the most important and controversial topics in world religion, with a range of high profile guests. Click here to find previous episodes.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Just before you start listening to this podcast, a reminder that we have a special subscription offer.
0:05.0	You can get 12 issues of the Spectator for £12 as well as a £20,000 Amazon voucher.
0:10.0	Go to spectator.com.uk forward slash voucher if you'd like to get this offer.
0:19.0	Welcome to Holy Smoke, the Spectator's Religion podcast, in which we say things you won't hear on the BBC.
0:26.6	I'm Damien Thompson.
0:29.6	An unusual episode today in which we talk about mental health.
0:36.6	Specifically, the mainstream church is lamentable failure to say anything interesting
0:43.3	about the mental stresses and strains that people in the modern world increasingly experience.
0:50.3	My guest is Professor Stephen Bullivant, who is the country's leading expert on British
0:57.0	patterns of religious affiliation. He knows about mental health, not least because three
1:04.6	years ago he had a devastating attack of clinical depression, just as his career was taking off.
1:12.6	It's taken off again, but he talks very frankly about what happened to him.
1:18.6	But we also discuss why leading clergy, rather than addressing the things that really worry us,
1:26.6	choose to bore the pants off us instead.
1:29.9	They've got very little to say about mental health, except perhaps, to blame it on Brexit.
1:35.8	It's probably the most wide-ranging discussion we've ever had in, what, 55 episodes of Holy Smoke.
1:44.0	Professor Stephen Bullivant, we're going to talk about problems of mental health,
1:49.0	which may be increasing in society.
1:51.3	I think they are.
1:52.5	And the church's failure to address them.
1:56.1	That's all the mainstream churches.
1:58.0	Anglican, Catholic, Methodist, Presbyterian, whatever.
	...

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