The Tribune

EDITOR, The Tribune.

The print media published some months ago a tragic incident involving a mentally ill individual who was put down by law enforcement officers in New Providence. I believe that it was in December that the Senate rubber stamped the Progressive Liberal Party’s Mental Health Bill (2022), which repealed the Mental Health Act of 1969.

The state is cognisant of the alarming number of Bahamians battling health illness, and has decided to put in place legislative safeguards to protect them from abuse. The PLP had made the moral decision in seeking to protect those who are not mentally fit to protect themselves. However, I believe that in many instances in The Bahamas, persons who are exhibiting signs of mental disorder are possessed by malevolent spirits (or demons). This is not to suggest that mental illness is not a legitimate ailment. Many Bible seminaries in the US and Great Britain offer courses in psychology. For years, however, Christian fundamentalists have been very distrustful of psychology and psychiatry. For example, the late Dave Hunt in his The Seduction of Christianity argued that the modern field of psychology is rooted in the anti-Christian ideology of Carl Jung and Sigmund Freud. Hunt alleged in his volume that psychoanalysis is a religion hidden beneath a scientific verbiage. According to Hunt, science can deal with such things as nutritional deficiencies or chemical imbalances in the brain, but it has nothing to say about the mind.

Another prominent evangelical opponent of psychology was the late Dr Jay Adams, who employed an entirely biblical approach to counselling dubbed Nouthetic counselling. Psychology is often linked with Christian counselling. Two examples of this would be Dr James Dobson of Focus on the Family and Dr Gary R Collins, whose Christian Counselling volume is widely distributed throughout the church. While both have come under fire by critics of psychology, the Christian Research Institute in the US published a four part article, titled Psychology and the Church by Bob and Gretchen Passatino. The Passatinos sought to present a middle ground synopsis of this controversial subject. In any case, Bahamian psychologists are adept at diagnosing mentally ill individuals as suffering solely from a mental illness, often without any considerations to demonic involvement. This brings to mind famed Christian apologist C S Lewis’s The Screwtape Letters, which is a fictional correspondence between two demons, Wormwood and Screwtape. Screwtape offers his inexperienced nephew, Wormwood, practical advice on destroying human beings without being detected. Modern psychology’s major shortcoming is its unwillingness to recognise the reality of the spiritual realm and its massive influence in the physical realm.

Many of the “mentally ill” persons I have personally encountered seemed to have been demon possessed. I know that this is an awkward topic in our increasingly human secular nation. The topic of demon possession is mentioned (indirectly) in the Old Testament in 1 Samuel 16 regarding the apostate King Saul. Throughout the synoptic Gospels and Acts in the New Testament, the activity of demon possession increases exponentially. The proliferation of demons in the New Testament is due to the arrival of Jesus Christ, Who in Matthew 12:29 overpowers the strong man, Satan. In a sense, they were flushed out of hiding like cockroaches fleeing from Baygon spray. Two thousand years removed from the First Advent, we remain in the New Testament epoch. Hence, the continued proliferation of demons, even in The Bahamas.

Concerning the “mentally ill” Bahamians I have encountered, their symptoms were eerily similar to the Gadarene demoniac in Mark 5 and the soothsayer demoniac in Acts 16. I’ve seen many of them wandering the streets and talking to themselves. Many of them resort to using alcohol and illicit drugs as coping mechanisms. When inebriated, the signs of demonic possession becomes more pronounced. Many of them are homeless and lack gainful employment. And many of them are suffering from some form of post dramatic disorder due to some tragic event in the past, like being molested as a child; a family member being murdered or catching a spouse in a compromising position. These individuals are in dire need of spiritual deliverance and counselling - something that humanist psychology is woefully unable to offer. I’m afraid that the PLP’s Mental Health Bill does not fully address the issues involving mental illness and the possibility of demon possession.

KEVIN EVANS

Freeport, Grand Bahama

January 26, 2023.