Religious scrupulosity afflicts some faithful

Religious scrupulosity — that’s something I had never heard about until I read a story about Indianapolis Colts offensive tackle Braden Smith and his struggle with it.

In an interview with the Indianapolis Star, Smith said religious scrupulosity is a form of obsessive-compulsive disorder associated with faith. In particular, it causes those suffering from it to worry about committing sins that will cause God to punish them and send them to hell.

“It’s like every wrong move you make, it’s like smacking (a) ruler against (your) hand,” Smith said of the condemning and judgemental God that loomed large in his mind. “Another bad move like that and you’re out of here.”

In his case, the disorder was so severe that he contemplated suicide.

“I was physically present, but I was nowhere to be found,” Smith said. “I did not care about playing football. I didn’t care about hanging out with my family, with my wife, with my newborn son. … I (felt like) was a month away from putting a bullet through my brain.”

Relief came after Smith learned about a psychedelic drug called ibogaine, a substance banned in the U.S. but available in Mexico. Smith said it helped to reset his brain, setting him free from his obsession about doing faith wrong.

When I read about Smith, my thoughts went back 50 years to a friend I knew in high school. This friend — a very religious person — unexpectedly developed a fear of doing religion wrong and being sent by God to hell.

She was a great person; everyone liked her and admired her commitment to her faith. But nothing we would say could convince her that her fears were wrong, that God was not displeased with her.

One day, she was gone; I remember hearing she was sent to a mental health facility somewhere. Maybe what she was suffering from was the same thing as Smith.

To find out more about the disorder, I turned to the website of the International Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) Foundation. On its pages I learned that people afflicted by religious scrupulosity are obsessed not only by the idea they are doing religious rule or rituals wrong, but that even their thoughts could be sinful and cause God to be angry with them.

To try to cope, they might say prayers repeatedly or read scriptures excessively or do rituals over and over again out of fear they did them wrong. Beneath it all is a fear they are unworthy of God’s love.

It can happen to any person of any faith; the Foundation has information about the condition as it pertains to Christianity, Islam, Judaism and Hinduism. It notes that religions that have a strong focus on specific rituals — hand washing, prayers, food laws — can be especially challenging for people with the disorder.

To get another perspective, I reached out to Dr. Jason Ediger, a local psychologist who has worked with patients who suffered from religious scrupulosity.

One of the things that makes it tricky to treat, he said, is that religion “has a long history of being concerned not just with actions but with thoughts,” he said. “Yet policing thoughts goes completely counter to a modern psychological approach that says thoughts are just thoughts, it doesn’t make them true.”

When people with the disorder see the fate of their souls tied up with those thoughts, it can cause real problems, he said.

For Ediger, one thing that could help people struggling with religious scrupulosity is for faith groups and leaders to emphasize a loving and accepting God — not someone who is “a judge with a lighting bolt in hand waiting for us to screw up.”

He also noted that forms of religion that use hellfire and brimstone as a way to scare people into heaven are very dangerous for people who are experiencing religious scrupulosity. That “plays right into this and makes it very challenging,” he said.

The disorder can also be challenging for preachers. “We rarely know the full stories of everyone we meet or what might be triggering for them,” he said of when preachers stand in front of a congregation to deliver a sermon, not knowing how their words will be received by everyone who hears them.

At the same time, “I’m not sure we can get to the point where we ensure that no one is negatively affected,” by what a preacher might say, Ediger said. “This is especially true if we’re trying to influence and or encourage some kind of change in the audience.”

There doesn’t appear to be any easy answers for something like religious scrupulosity. Professional help is required. At a minimum, and as a Christian, the very least I can do is promote the idea of a loving and accepting God to all I meet. And to take heart from the words of Jesus, who said “my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

faith@freepress.mb.ca

The Free Press is committed to covering faith in Manitoba. If you appreciate that coverage, help us do more! Your contribution of $10, $25 or more will allow us to deepen our reporting about faith in the province. Thanks! BECOME A FAITH JOURNALISM SUPPORTER