In what at least one critic has dismissed as the Dunning Krueger Effect in action, Pastor John MacArthur of Grace Community Church in Sun Valley, California, claims there is no such thing as mental illness.
More than one in five U.S. adults live with a mental illness, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Over one in five youth (ages 13-18) either currently or at some point during their life have had a seriously debilitating mental illness. About one in 25 U.S. adults also lives with a serious mental illness, such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, or major depression.
Days before the beginning of Mental Health Awareness Month, however, MacArthur, who is also the president of The Master’s College and Seminary, called mental illnesses “noble lies” while speaking during a panel discussion at Grace Church of the Valley last Thursday.
Citing the arguments presented by clinical psychologist Bruce E. Levine in his book A Profession Without Reason and The Myth of Mental Illness by the now-deceased Hungarian-American psychiatrist Thomas Szasz, MacArthur urged parents not to believe in “noble lies” he alleges are being supported by the pharmaceutical industry so they can sell medication to the public.
MacArthur’s comments about mental illness came in response to a question about helping parents navigate America’s “cultural disaster.”
“Just to lay it out simply, kids are sinful. I have great-grandchildren, and by the time they’re 3 or 4, their sin nature is starting to be manifest. Then you add to that the sins of the fathers are visited under the generations, the third and fourth generation,” MacArthur said.
In addition to their sinful nature, the California megachurch pastor explained that the current culture is now targeting children to trap them in sin.
“The homosexuals say we are coming after your kids. They’re not trying to protect them, they’re targeting them in the schools. They’re targeting them through the media. Disney and companies like that, that develop child entertainment are targeting children for really what amounts to moral and spiritual destruction. So this is a war on the children,” said MacArthur, who on Monday released his new book The War on Children: Providing Refuge for Your Children in a Hostile World.
MacArthur asserted that the increased diagnosis of children with mental illnesses today is not teaching them personal responsibility and medicating them for these illnesses only turns them into drug addicts and potentially criminals.
