Is Rejecting God Fueling a Crisis in America?

Is part of America's massive mental health malaise actually rooted in a spiritual crisis? That's what Dr. George Barna, co-founder and director of research at the Cultural Research Center at Arizona Christian University, is arguing, noting that some people seeking medication and counseling are actually "treating the wrong problem." "We're in a situation where the best estimates [are] that we have are that about one out of every four adults [with] some kind of diagnosable mental illness," Barna told CBN News. "There's a wide range. But when we look at it more deeply, we find that those numbers are higher the younger a person is." He continued, "So, as you dig into it to try to figure out things like anxiety, depression, fears, suicidal thoughts, OCD tendencies, addictions, when we look at all of those, what we find is that, often, what may be happening is that it's not that they have some kind of chemical imbalance or physical issue that's causing that what appears to be a mental illness; what's causing it may be their belief structure, their worldview." Barna, who has frequently researched and spoken about the importance of developing a biblical worldview, said addressing this deficiency and fixing core beliefs would help to potentially alleviate some of the anxiety, stress, and depression that is raging. While some people need prescribed pills, counseling, or even hospitalization, he said there are some who are merely misdiagnosing the core problems. "I think often what happens is, because counselors across the country — a majority of them don't really consider spirituality and faith as part of a person's mental health — what they do is they just go to what they know, which is, 'We can't figure it out, so let's prescribe pills,' or 'Let's just keep talking about it,' or 'Let's send you to a hospital' — whatever it may be," Barna said. "And a lot of times that's really not the best solution." Exploring data from his American Worldview Inventory report, the researcher explained some of the correlations he found between lack of faith, age, and increased mental struggles. The majority of people (56%) in Generation Z, which includes individuals in their teens and early 20s, struggle with mental health issues, with Barna noting just 1% of these people have a biblical worldview. Hear him explain.