youssra
Get Complete Project Material File(s) Now! »
CHAPTER 3 PENTECOSTAL PASTORS’ INVOLVEMENT IN MENTAL HEALTH SERVICES
Introduction
In this chapter, it is suggested that the Christian churches have occupied a primary role in black communities (Levin, 1986 & Pattillo-McCoy, 1998). They are recognised as pivotal figures in the communities, involved with issues such as community development, political concerns and community mental health. Further more, pastors as church leaders are significant in the black community in that they are consulted for a variety of psychological issues, some of which are consistent with their ministerial and religious training for example, comforting the bereaved and advising those with physical illness (Taylor, Ellison, Chatters, Levin, & Lincoln, 2000). However they are also expected to address personal crises including alcohol and other forms of substance abuse, depression, marital and family conflict, teenage pregnancy, unemployment, legal problems and serious mental health problems (Kloos & Moore, 1995).
Role of religion
Religion has a major influence in the lives of those who believe in it (Thomas, Quinn, Billingsley & Caldwell, 1994). Historically we can think of numerous examples where religion may have had a major impact upon the life of communities. The Pilgrims, for example are a well-known case where religious elements of their life seem to have had a definite and major impact on how and where they lived their lives. In the Medieval Ages we can also see numerous examples that appear to reflect the impact of religion on everyday life from the influence of the hierarchy of the Roman Catholic Church on everyday morality and feudal codes to the Inquisition in Spain (Shafranske, 1996). However we live in a more secular world than did the people of the earlier eras, used in the above examples. A characteristic of secular world is the division of tasks with the result that the degree to which religion is interrelated to other elements of life is less pronounced. And therefore, the impact of religion on behaviour becomes even more a critical question in a secular setting.
Religious Systems exhibit a number of basic features as alluded by Kiernan (1995;p15):
Religion is a mode of transcending everyday experience, a way of rising above the routine ways, a way of communicating with an order of being at a remove from the limitations of space and time. By transcending experience, religion explains anomalies and dilemmas out of experience, which are resistant to rational and empirical resolution. In other words, it provides a problem-solving mechanism or technique and it gives wisdom.
It hedges the transcendent with notions of right and wrong, reward and punishment, and to produce a code of conduct, which regulates an ordered existence. In other words, religion, sets guidelines for moral behaviour and personal conduct, this can include rearing of children and keeping the family together (Taylor, Thornton & Chatters 1987).
Religion exists in definite social context of organised human relations and interactions. Therefore, there is mutual influence between the social and religious spheres, the one bolsters the other and change in one will have repercussions for the other.
Religion has its roots in nature since it draws on symbols that are natural things, whether inanimate, animal or human impressed with social and mystical meanings. These meanings are then released in collective rituals to achieve effects on the religious level often of a therapeutic nature.
Christian religion
Even while other major world religions have also played an important role in shaping this country, Christianity has become the dominant world religious tradition. According to De Gruchy (1995) approximately 77% of the total population of South Africa regard themselves as members of one of the many Christian denominations, with black people comprising the vast majority of church membership.
Spirituality and religion play an important role in the lives of many South Africans. Most South Africans have been reared with the belief in God or a higher power. Christianity has been integrally related to the social and political development of South Africa from the beginning of the colonial period (De Gruchy, 1995).
According to Anderson and Pillay (1997) and Taylor et al. (1987), historically the expression of spirituality in the black church stemmed partly from the prejudiced Africans’ need to develop their own places of worship and to maintain a strong sense of community. This came about because up until 1991, South African law divided the population into four major racial categories: Blacks, Whites, Coloureds and Asians.
The black Christian spirituality is based on themes of deliverance and freedom, which differs from Western notions of freedom as the individual’s free choice or his freedom from the actions or beliefs of others (Pattillo- McCoy, 1998).
To a Black South African Christian, freedom means both spiritual deliverance into God’s kingdom and worldly deliverance from the realities of racial oppression.
At the height of apartheid rule, the church acted as an anchoring institution in the community, it served simultaneously as a place for spiritual worship, an educational centre, sometimes a locale for organizing political activities, a bank, a party hall and a benevolent society (Olson, Reis, Murphy & Gehm, 1988; Pattillo-McCoy, 1998). Since it is one of few institutions owned and operated by blacks, the churches were often and still are the centre of activity in black communities.
The Church may represent a means of coping with their adverse situations and rebelling against white domination. Many church affiliated blacks perceive that fellow church members are critical for providing informal social support. The church provides social support by meeting emergency needs, providing a network of friends for emotional and physical well being, and attending to families’ special needs (Levin, 1986 & Taylor et al., 1987). The churches provided a wide range of resources and opportunities that were inaccessible to black people from the mainstream institutions.
The church’s worldview may greatly influence the manner in which black people perceive or even address their mental health issues. According to Constantine, Lewis, Conne & Sanchz (2000), the use of prayer in many African Americans is often cited as a means of coping with various life issues in particular. African American women have been found to use prayer in response to physical health as well as interpersonal, emotional and death problems. The experience of African-Americans is in many ways similar to that of black South Africans largely because they have both gone through situations of racial segregation and political struggle.
In the South African context, culture and religious denominations or groups may provide frameworks from which to practice specific beliefs, rituals and rites. Affiliation with particular spiritual or religious ideology is viewed as an important component of the psychological health of many Africans. These spiritual and religious issues may represent integral parts of many Africans’ self-identity. Pattillo-McCoy (1998) further says that black Christianity is a part to black culture, where culture is a constitutive dimension of all human action.
According to Smith (1994) culture consists of symbolic vehicles of meaning, including beliefs, ritual practices, art forms and ceremonies, and informal cultural practices such as language, stories and rituals of daily life, it therefore motivates social support and social action. Research has also indicated that religious involvement is associated positively with life satisfaction, well-being and health (Taylor, et al., 2000). Services offered by churches and their members provide a therapeutic haven that buffers the impact of psychological distress (Taylor et al., 1987).
Economic considerations, cultural misunderstandings and perceived differences in life experiences may influence some black South Africans in their choice of support. For instance, those who are less affluent will tend to rely more on traditional mental health service providers as represented by the traditional doctors and pastors in other instances (Nefale, 2002). According to Taylor et al. (2000), treatment expense is recognized as a significant barrier in seeking aid from mainstream mental health service providers such as psychologists.
They may avoid seeking professional help because of fear and the perception that previously white dominated mental health settings are inherently oppressive or because they believe that their spiritual or religious issues will be ignored (Constantine et al. 2000). Some may avoid seeking psychotherapy because they do not define psychological distress in the same way the mental health professionals do, therefore would not seek help from their services. Furthermore, there are still black people who do not know or understand what psychologists and psychiatrists do and therefore these professionals are not only unrecognised but also at times highly mistrusted (Olson et al., 1988).
Chalfant et al. (1990) state that for many Christians, admitting a mental health problem is tantamount to admitting spiritual failure, thus people are more inclined to ask pastors to pray for them or to pursue personal reliance on God as a solution rather than seeking explicit help for a mental health problem.
All in all, given the significant historical role played by the church, it is not surprising that black people will consider the church accessible and attractive as compared to the more western mental health service delivery system.
Definition of Pentecostal
According to Anderson (1992), the term Pentecostal is taken from the Day of Pentecost experience of Acts 2:4 in the bible, when the believers in Jerusalem were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance’. Burger (1992) went on to say that the uniqueness of dynamics and power of the Pentecostal movement above all is centred in the Pentecostal experience of being filled with the Holy Spirit. The Pentecostal movement believes that glossalalia (gift of speaking in tongues) is the initial sign of being filled with the Spirit. Therefore Pentecostal in this study describes those African churches, which emphasise the centrality of Holy Spirit in faith and in practice.
Characteristics of Pentecostal churches
Black Pentecostals in South Africa, like Pentecostals throughout the world are noted for their exuberant, enthusiastic, experience-dominated Christianity.
It was found that Pentecostalism either directly or indirectly is one of the most vigorously and fastest growing religious movement in the world after the Catholic Church.
In Anderson’s research of 1991, Pentecostals accounted for more that 40% of the South African black population (Anderson & Pillay, 1997). The Pentecostal message is popular especially in South Africa because it is spiritual, it emphasizes the role of divine healing particularly exorcism, and the receiving of the power of the Holy Spirit which seem to offer help to all of the life’s problems and not just the spiritual ones.
Pentecostalism seems to adapt to traditional African ways more easily than most other types of Christianity (Anderson, 1992). It gives solutions to basic human problems, especially healing from sickness and deliverance from a malevolent and capricious spirit world.
Above all it offers baptism of God’s power, which would enable one to overcome the threatening world of unpredictable ancestors and spiteful sorcerers. The Pentecostals are very committed to their churches (as seen in Anderson’s research in 1991, where about 94% of Pentecostal respondents said they attended church at least once a week). This could mean that there is an emphasis on ‘fellowship’ and on community sharing.
The Pentecostals have clearly defined ethical codes: they are opposed to polygamy, beer drinking and smoking tobacco, use of symbolic objects such as staffs, water, ropes and papers in healing practices. According to Taylor et al. (2000), these ethical codes are behaviours affecting health, therefore it an be deduced that Pentecostal church is associated with aspects of well- being. According to Shafranske (1996), church groups establish codes of conduct that regulate individual and social behaviour.
Such external regulation within the context of an insulated sect furnishes the group support to the management of psychological difficulties concerning control.
Church recruitment is done through evangelism. According to Anderson (1992) about over half of the Pentecostal church members joined after they were evangelised, and usually this will be expressed by saying ‘I got saved’ or ‘I was born again’.
There are three different types of African Pentecostal churches in South Africa as identified by Anderson (1992). Firstly, the Pentecostal mission churches, that is those with their origins in predominantly white mission churches. They used to be dominated organisationally and financially by the ‘white’ churches in that particular denomination. These churches have until recently usually followed the Dutch reformed churches in South Africa by having separate White, Black, Indian and ‘Coloured’ churches.
Secondly, the Independent Pentecostal churches, they have exclusively black leadership and are independent of white control. These types of churches are of a more recent origin, having arisen during the eighties and some do not have church buildings, they meet in school classrooms, rented halls and cinemas, tents and temporary structures. Some of these churches have acquired church properties for services. They are mostly small however some of them are rapidly growing.
Lastly, Indigenous Pentecostal type churches are the biggest grouping of black churches in Southern Africa unlike the two categories already mentioned above. As opposed to the Mission and Independent type Pentecostal churches, indigenous Pentecostals are still rooted in traditional beliefs such as ancestral beings or spirits and they believe that ancestral spirits mediate between God and people (Anderson & Pillay, 1997; Pretorious & Jafter, 1997).
They believe that a person becomes a Christian through baptism, which is symbolised by immersion in water. The majority of these churches have both bishops and prophets as leaders and most of these churches wear uniforms. While all Pentecostals pray for the sick, the Indigenous Pentecostal type churches further make use of various symbolic objects like staffs, holy water, ropes, ashes and papers.
The researcher has chosen the two categories of Pentecostals; Pentecostal mission churches and Independent Pentecostal churches for this study and therefore Indigenous Pentecostal churches will not concern us further. This is primarily because there is minimal research done on Independent and mission Pentecostal churches as compared to Indigenous Pentecostal-type churches. There also appears to be vast differences, given the available literature, between the Indigenous Pentecostal churches and both the Independent and Mission Pentecostal churches (Anderson, 1992).
For instance, there is a strong Western influence in liturgy and leadership patterns in Independent and mission Pentecostal churches as compared to Indigenous Pentecostal churches (Anderson, 1992). As already mentioned, contrary to the Pentecostal mission churches and independent Pentecostal churches who are clearly opposed to traditional religious practices such as the practice of ritual killings for ancestors or venerating them in any way other than respect, and consulting diviners, which they see as incompatible with their understanding of Christianity. Indigenous Pentecostals are still rooted in traditional beliefs such as ancestral beings or spirits.
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY
1.1 Introduction
1.2 Aims of Study
1.3 Nature of Study
1.4 Outline of the contents
CHAPTER 2: PSYCHOLOGICAL DISTRESS: SOCIALLY PREVAILING PHENOMENA
2.1 Introduction
2.2 Phenomenon of psychological distress
2.3 Theoretical perspectives of psychological distress
2.3.1 Medical Model
2.3.2 Interpersonal Theory
2.3.3 Psychodynamic Theory
2.3.4 Cognitive Theory
2.4 Operational definition of psychological distress
2.5 Conclusion
CHAPTER 3: PENTECOSTAL PASTORS’ INVOLVEMENT IN MENTAL HEALTH SERVICES
3.1 Introduction
3.2 Role of religion
3.3 Christian religion
3.4 Definition of Pentecostal
3.5 Characteristics of Pentecostal churches
3.6 Pentecostal Liturgy and Ministry
3.7 Role of Pentecostal pastors
3.8 Conclusion
CHAPTER 4: METHOD AND PROCEDURE
4.1 Introduction
4.2 Qualitative Research Design
4.3 Exploratory Research
4.4 Method
4.4.1 Grounded theory
4.4.2 Rationale of grounded theory
4.4.3 Symbolic Interaction
4.5 Population Background
4.5.1 South African Context
4.5.2 Soshanguve Community
4.6 Recruiting of Research Participants
4.7 Interviewing Process
4.8 Interview Question
4.9 Data Analysis
4.9.1 Theoretical Sensitivity
4.9.2 Open Coding
4.9.3 Axial Coding
4.9.4 Selective Coding
4.9.5 Theoretical Sampling
4.9.6 Memo Writing
4.10 Consent for the Study
4.11 Validity and Reliability
4.12 Conclusion
CHAPTER 5: ANALYSIS AND RESULTS
5.1 Introduction
5.2 Attitude of participants towards the interview
5.3 Ps. A. Interview
5.3.1 Background Information
5.3.2 Interview Transcription
5.3.3 Initial analysis of data
5.3.3.1 Results of initial coding
5.3.4 Analysis of data continued
5.3.4.1 Findings
5.4 Ps. O. Interview
5.4.1 Background Information
5.4.2 Findings
5.5 Ps. E. Interview
5.5.1 Background Information
5.5.2 Findings
5.6 Psychological distress as understood by Pentecostal pastors
5.7 Causal conditions of psychological distress
5.8 Pentecostal world-view
5.9 Conclusion
CHAPTER 6: DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION
6.1 Introduction
6.2 Integrated discussion
6.2.1 Church as an important social institution
6.2.2 Pentecostal pastors’ strategies for addressing psychological distress
6.2.3 Pentecostal pastors referral patterns
6.2.4 Intervening variables of pastoral services
6.2.5 Psychological distress: Pentecostal worldview
6.3 Critical analysis of the study
6.4 Practical implications and Recommendations
6.4.1 Recommended guidelines for psychologists’ future collaboration with pastors
6.5 Directions for future research
6.6 Researcher’s Note
6.7 Conclusion
