Few, if any, people are untouched by mental health challenges either for themselves or loved ones. As we observe Mental Health Awareness Month, we explore how our Social Principles call us as United Methodists to support and care for those living with mental health challenges, as well as how we are to care for our own body, soul and spirit.
Guest: The Rev. Camille Henderson-Edwards
- Read about the Social Principles and discover all the ways United Methodists can live out their faith in the world.
- Action alerts from the General Board of Church and Society provide opportunities for community witness and advocacy.
- Discover what the Book of Resolutions says about concerns in our society, including mental illness.
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This episode posted on May 16, 2025.
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Transcript
The content of this podcast may be triggering as it discusses mental health challenges.
Prologue
Few, if any, people are untouched by mental health challenges either for themselves or loved ones. As we observe Mental Health Awareness Month, we explore how our Social Principles call us as United Methodist to support and care for those living with mental health challenges, as well as how we are to care for our own body, soul and spirit.
Crystal Caviness, host: Hi, my name is Crystal Caviness and I'm your host on ““Get Your Spirit in Shape." Today I'm here with the Reverend Camille Henderson-Edwards, who is the Senior Executive Director for Advocacy at the General Board of Church and Society. Camille, welcome to “Get Your Spirit in Shape.”
Camille Henderson-Edwards, guest: Thank you. Thank you so much for having me.
Crystal: I thank you for being here. I feel like we're having a really important conversation. This episode is for Mental Health Awareness Month, which is the month of May. We're going to talk about that and how the church, The United Methodist Church, addresses and seeks for us to support mental wellness and mental health challenges. But before we do that, can you tell us just a little bit about yourself?
Camille: Yeah. So Camille first name. I always, because I am the director of the Economic Health and Gender Justice portfolio, so that is all in one, I lead with the practice of naming the women who have come before me. That is my personal practice. So I am Camille, but I am the daughter of Michelle. I'm the granddaughter of Florine and the great granddaughter of Mary Lane. And all three of those women inform so much of what I do in this space. I am the senior executive director for advocacy at Church and Society. So that just means that in addition to managing the economic health and gender justice portfolio, I oversee all the other legislative portfolios and work to make sure that there is cohesion, that we are talking to each other, that we are a healthy unit, and that we are equipping United Methodists to be able to advocate in the public space. And before coming to Church and Society wasn't the pastorate, I am an ordained elder, a member of the North Georgia Annual Conference. And so the life of the congregation is something that is very important to me. And I see a lot of the work that we do with Church and Society as almost extending the thread right between how we show up in the pew and the congregation to how we show up in the public space. So that's me in a nutshell.
Crystal: Thank you. And I'll tell you, as you were naming your mother and your grandmother and your great-grandmother, I just got tears in my eyes. What a respectful and important way to name your legacy. I'm just sitting here thinking I'm the daughter of Barbara and the granddaughter of Vivian and just love that so much. It just feels very grounding to name that. That is not the conversation we're having today, but I sure do appreciate that you bring that with you in your introduction. Thank you. We are going to talk about the Social Principles because the Social Principles, they do reflect the United Methodist response to the most pressing social issues that are in our world. And mental wellness, mental health is certainly a piece of that, but there could be probably are United Methodists out there who have heard the phrase Social Principles, not quite sure what that means. Could you just give us maybe a brief Social Principles 101 course?
Camille: Yeah, so the Social Principles, they first began as the Social Creed in 1908. And so that was the church's way of developing a public statement, if you will, of how the church would commit themselves to responding to. And the social creed talks a lot about labor and ensuring adequate working conditions and the like. And so over the course of our time and development as United Methodists, the social creed became the Social Principles and the Social Principles. I think it's important to note that the Social Principles are not church law. So all the things that we would find in the later portions of the Book of Discipline, but the intention behind the Social Principles is to have a body of work that states what we believe and what we are in pursuit of as the body of Christ. And I always like this metaphor of summons.
So there was a Hebrew Bible scholar that many years ago I was in her presentation where she talks about how the Hebrew text has a way of summoning you to act in a particular way by way of your conviction, your calling. You are summoned to experience the text in a particular way. And I think the Social Principles do just that as we are made aware that we have a statement on mental health that serves as, or a statement talking about mental health and healthcare conditions that serves as a summons for us, one to learn more. What is there to say about mental health? What is the current condition on mental health and what are the conversations that we are or are not having in the church? So it is an invitation to explore how we might expand our ministry. It is an invitation for both personal and social holiness to ensure we are living out our faith in real and practical ways.
Crystal: Thank you for explaining that and for making that really important distinction that these are, I mean, we call ourselves followers of Jesus in the world, and this is a really kind of a roadmap for how we might as we come across situations, how we might approach it and how we might act lovingly in the world. So thank you for that. So what do the social principal say about mental health?
Camille: Yeah, so I think it's important to know I will, and it's okay. I'll speak a little bit to the process of the Revised Social Principles here because when we look at the Social Principles from our previous general conference to the Social Principles that were adopted at the 20 20 24 general conference, we've gotten emails like what has happened? We don't see it. And so the impetus behind the revision of the Social Principles was around three different categories. One, we wanted the Social Principles to be a bit more concise. We wanted the Social Principles at large to have a full theological grounding. And then lastly, we wanted to make sure that the Social Principles were more reflective of our worldwide identity. And I think something important to note is that the Social Principles, since its conception through the social creed, parts of the Social Principles have been revised and adopted over each quadrennium.
But in this last revision process, the Social Principles as a whole were edited, looked at, revised, and that was over the course of well before my time with Church and Society, about eight years of listening sessions and people from all over the United Methodist connection contributing to what you now see in the adopted Social Principles. And so to that end, mental health has been included in the statement primarily on healthcare. So for persons who are looking on where we stand within the United Methodist Church on mental health issues, I would encourage you to use the statement on healthcare as your starting point. We know that as a church, we affirm healthcare as a basic human. And when we say healthcare, we also advocate that it is comprehensive care. So that is mental health, that is maternal reproductive health. All of the things that are pertaining to the fullness of your body are what we are understanding to be healthcare.
And so in addition, we know that with the Social Principles, we also have our book of resolutions that serve as a more contextual, more in-depth analysis of how we are approaching certain issues. And so are, there's one resolution that I will lift up for persons looking is resolution 42 0 7, which talks about ministries in mental illness. We firmly believe that we as United Methodists are called to be in ministry with individuals who are confronted with mental health challenges as well as their families. We know that we cannot heal in isolated endeavors and it will take the community to be able to address certain mental health concerns. But I really appreciate this resolution because it breaks down sort of like our task and several categories of addressing stigma, of addressing mental health and its intersection with incarceration. Looking at the process of deinstitutionalization and also the intersection of mental health and faith I think is an important one. And so I think between the Social Principles themselves and then also the accompaniment document of resolutions as found in our book of resolutions, we have both this proclamation in saying that we believe that healthcare should be available for all and in that mental health care is included. And then going deeper, this is how we want to address our collective response to mental health.
Crystal: Camille, I don't know that there are any families that aren't affected by mental illness in some way or another. So it's absolutely in our churches, but the stigma is real. We are not talking about it. So how can the Social Principles empower us to have the hard conversations and have a welcoming space for families and individuals who are dealing with the mental health challenges?
Camille: Yeah, I really resonate with that, especially in communities of color. There are certain topics that have been taboo for ages and mental health is definitely one of them. I think in relation to your question one, the Social Principles first give language. I think what is so, and I say this, one of the reasons why I do speak the names of those women that have come before me is because every aspect of the economic health and gender justice portfolio I have been personally affected by. And so mental health in particular, I have several family who are bipolar, but we did not know that for so many years and were dealing with the symptoms of bipolar, but were later diagnosed and were given additional resources to be able to respond to that. In that experience, one of the things that was so difficult for us was language of naming.
So when this person gets angry, the only language that we had was, oh, that today's a bad day for them as opposed to perhaps this person is agitated or triggered, perhaps this person needs additional assistance that would require a mental health professional. And so I think for communities who are seeking just that initial journey of reducing stigma language is so important to say and to normalize. And when we talk about mental health, it is not just those really intense situations where persons have to be hospitalized, right? We address mental health on a daily basis. I have a therapy appointment every other week to check in that is a part of the mental health, the maintenance of one's, mental health, and even talking about that, that it is okay to go to therapy to seek a clinical professional, that it is okay to discuss emotion, even emotions that we traditionally do not talk about.
What does it mean to be angry, especially in a faith that centers so much around rejoicing and joy, how do we hold space for anger? So I think language on how you're feeling, what you're observing from others, and then also where a community might start. So to say we are about the work of reducing stigma. I think it's important for communities to know what is stigma, that there are certain embedded theologies that we hold without analyzing or assessing why we believe what we believe. And part of that is that we have been stigmatized to believe that, oh, if someone is having a mental health crisis, that means they aren't praying hard enough. And so yeah, I think I'll stop there in language. And then also some initial steps of how we might be able to address the work of being whole, right? Mental, physical, spiritual as a collective.
Crystal: Let's take a break from our conversation with Camille to tell you about a new book from Cokesbury. Ever feel like faith should come easily, but somehow doubt sneaking in Abraham's story proves you're not alone. Faith over fear by Matt Rawl dives into Abraham's messy, imperfect, and totally relatable walk of faith. This isn't about having flawless trust, it's about showing up through vivid storytelling and honest reflection. Faith over fear invites you to wrestle with questions, sit with your doubts and see how faith and fear actually fit together on your spiritual path. If you're navigating uncertainty, searching for courage or wondering if anyone else struggles with trust the way you do this book is your companion. Visit cokesbury.com/faith over fear to order your copy and discover how grace calls you forward even when the way ahead isn't clear. Now, back to our conversation with Camille.
Crystal: Camille, thank you for you Were just reading my mind because I wanted to ask you, many of us are brought up in our journeys and our congregations or families and that it is a weakness, it's indicative of our faith.
Perhaps if we're struggling then we don't have enough faith. There were a lot of wrong, some really wrong theology, bad theology perhaps in this area of mental wellness, mental health. And so thank you for bringing that up. As you were talking, I also, I was thinking, yes, the Social Principles and the book of resolutions, all of that helps give language, but it also lends some understanding as we seek to learn more. Perhaps we can also start having some more understanding about what this looks like that your example of your family member who has a bipolar disorder, having a bad day is one way to say it. But if you drill down a little more what is really happening, I've really always heard that mental health is kind of a spectrum. We're all on the spectrum at some point. Some days we're doing better at it than others or having better mental health days than others. So it isn't isolated. We're all a part of this conversation as we also take care of our own mental wellness and mental health. And so what does the church say about that? How we take care of our own mental health?
Camille: Well, so when we look at the scripts or these theological scripts that we receive on a daily basis, we receive so much about taking care of one's body. It is all throughout the sacred text. And of late, I have really been, so the reason why I feel like I'm going broad here is because there is almost this mandate, this divine invitation to take care of our bodies as beings, that were created by God. That is what we are. We join in on this great work of creation and taking care of our physical beings. One thing that I have noticed, we hear all this, your body is a temple. You should treat it as such. Your body is. And so there is so much focus on our physical body exercise, making sure that we're drinking water, eating all of those things. But I think the adjustment that we should make is to note that the health of our mind is included in the maintenance of our body.
And I say that because, so what does the church say about taking care of one's mental health? It is everywhere of the scripts of being able to care for oneself, care for one's community. That too is the work of psychological maintenance that through the ordination process, in terms of my own experiences, a lot of the questions that they ask are how we create systems and frameworks to support ourselves so that we are able to minister. And for clergy, we pay a lot of attention to the therapeutic practices that are within our toolbox because we know that we cannot carry out what we have been called to do if we neglect the way God intended us to flourish. So the intention is to be fluid in body and mind, right? To pay attention to the ways and the emotions that we are processing and feeling. And so the call very much so, whether it be the Social Principles, whether it be the book of resolutions, whether it be the Bible is to care for oneself, body, mind, and spirit. And I think the adjustment, or what I'm hoping I'm communicating is because the call is already there to take care for oneself. I think we have to make an adjustment to understand that that includes our mental health and it is not an addition to it. Yeah,
Crystal: It's part of, as you said, it's part of the wholeness of who we are.
Camille: Yeah. Yeah.
Crystal: So I want to go back to what this might look like for us in our churches. What can we do? How can we be welcoming? How can we take action?
Camille: Yeah. So I come from the pastorate served as an associate pastor in my appointment before coming to Church and Society. And I served during a time where the community was responding to a family that was in the midst of a mental health crisis. But I found that as even the clergy team was preparing to respond that there are certain resources that would have been helpful to have in place before we reached the point of crisis. Those resources being, do we as a church have a network of mental health professionals that, and I know church budgets or the focus of the church varies, but are there ways that we can maintain connection with mental health professionals in our community? Because in the moment of crisis, I think it is very important for clergy to know the line of distinction between their training in pastoral care and counseling and the need for a clinical healthcare professional.
There is a difference. We want to make sure that we give our all in serving our congregations. And I think in doing that, we as clergy have to be mindful that our ability to serve is not boundless. There are limits. And so one, making sure that pastors as pastors, that we know where those limits are. And two, when we have reached those limits, that we already have people in our network that we can reach out to say that this is beyond my training and this community is in need of a clinical healthcare professional. So one, how can we begin to develop those networks, those relationships, just to have people on call? One of the things that I have learned from caring with family members, caring for family members who are going through mental health challenges is that sometimes their or observing their mental state triggered something in myself.
And so not all the time was we know that this is who this person is, and I speak of bipolar not as something that we have to do away with. This is something that this person is living with. And so if we know that being bipolar is a part of this person's personhood, then what is it in me that feels it necessary to fight against a part of this person's makeup? And so I think when we bring that to the larger context of a congregation, if we do note that there are people in our congregation who are living with mental health conditions that may manifest in ways that we are not used to. Clearly this person is comfortable with who they are, they are coming to worship. But I do often see people triggered by way of the manifestation of another's mental condition. And so part of this inquiry is how we might be able to talk about that concept of what about another person living their truth is triggering for me? And to start there and to see if we can do that in the frameworks that we already have in the life of the church. So we already have small groups, we already have Bible studies. How can we begin to use those spaces that we do have to ask that question? And I think for Bible studies, the book of Job is really good for that, of examining how people were responding to him and seeing if there are parallels in the way that we respond in our present age.
Crystal: That's such an interesting thought, Camille, because it probably, I mean as talking about it, I'm thinking about myself and it reveals some misunderstanding, some fear. And so that's really on me to work on myself and to get to a better place.
Camille: And I think with that, because we are ultimately building awareness of, in addition to educating ourselves this process of building awareness of, so if I am noticing that there is fear coming up for me, then that starts the process of finding the type of resources or the type of information that would mitigate that fear of do I have fear of the way someone would interact with me? Well, maybe I can get additional information on the symptoms or the type of mental health condition and how they operate in their every day. So I think for certain that inquiry, which leads to personal awareness, gives way to direction for the type of information to ask for.
Crystal: That's really helpful. Thank you. Camille. As we finish up today, is there anything you had hoped we would talk about that we didn't talk about or that you wanted to expound on?
Camille: Yeah, I wouldn't be doing my job if I did not mention a few legislative components. And so we have from Church and Society been carrying out the Grace over greed campaign, and I think it is important to note that as we are talking about comprehensive mental health care, that that is definitely on the chopping block. As the United States Congress is preparing to reduce Medicaid coverage by hundreds of billions of dollars. And so I would invite persons who are listening to this podcast to go to our website, so that's www.umcjustice.org, and we have a number of different ways to respond via action alerts to note and to express the importance of protecting Medicaid, especially for instances like the one that we're talking about today, mental health care.
Crystal: Thank you Camille, for bringing that up, and we'll definitely link to that on the episode page as well. There's some great information and really great [email protected]. So that'll a good resource for a lot of reasons. But specifically for the context that we have today, as we finish, I'll ask you the question that we ask all our guests on “Get Your Spirit in Shape”, and that's how do you keep your own spirit in shape?
Camille: Yes. So I have a toolbox of things, but the things that I did today, I'm really grateful for Peloton. I'm really grateful for Peloton, and I really love using morning workouts, a ritual of strength training and walking and stretching and meditation as my introduction to the morning. And that is what I did today begrudgingly because I barely made it through. We thank God that I am getting stronger, but my lungs tried to shut down several times, but that is where I am placing intention in that combination of morning routine of working out, stretching and meditation. That is my quiet time with the Lord. And so that really works for me.
Crystal: I love that. Thank you so much, Camille. Thank you again for being a guest on “Get Your Spirit in Shape” and for having this important conversation with us and sharing all of these tremendous resources. We appreciate your ministry to The United Methodist Church.
Camille: Thanks. It's my pleasure.
Epilogue
That was the Reverend Camille Henderson-Edwards discussing The United Methodist Church's Social Principles and how they guide us to care for those with mental illness as well as caring for our own mental health. To learn more, go to umc.org/podcast and look for this episode where you'll find helpful links and a transcript of our conversation. If you have questions or comments, feel free to email me at a special email address just for “Get Your Spirit in Shape” listeners, [email protected]. If you enjoyed today's episode, we invite you to leave a review on the platform where you get your podcast. Thank you for being a “Get Your Spirit in Shape” listener. I'm Crystal Caviness and I look forward to the next time that we're together.
