Rather than conformity to the world, we are to be transformed by the renewal of our minds (Romans 12:2). We are to “take every thought captive to obey Christ” (2 Corinthians 10:5) and prepare our minds for action by setting our hope fully on grace (1 Peter 1:13).

Those who study war and battle tactics understand the strategic significance of choosing the right battlefield. In fact, choosing to fight in the wrong place can lead to significant loss even if your side possesses other advantages. Union General Ambrose Burnside learned this lesson the hard way in the early days of America’s Civil War. At the Battle of Fredericksburg, he led his army to engage the outnumbered Confederate side at Marye’s Heights. There was one problem. The thick Confederate front line was positioned behind a stone wall on a hilly slope fifty feet above the plain. Burnside stubbornly sent wave after wave of Union soldiers over the open field into the teeth of what can only be described as slaughter. As the cannon smoke cleared, the blood-soaked ground held the bodies of more than 12,500 dead Union soldiers.

Identifying the right theater for battle matters. The Christian life is no different.

We live in a therapeutic age that trains us to label every emotional struggle as disease. We are trained to identify illnesses for which we bear no responsibility. Our mental state is determined solely by forces outside our control. As a result, we bypass our own moral agency and engage in an external battle against invisible forces with the help of the professional medical class. Our greatest problem is never in here—in what the Bible calls the “mind” or “heart”; it’s always out there in an oppressive trauma-inducing society that wreaks havoc on emotionally-deficient persons. My only recourse is to turn to professional therapists and prescribed medications in hopes that I can cope.

To suggest that the individual may bear some responsibility for his own mental state is to do the unthinkable—it stigmatizes mental illness. In therapeutic culture, anything that makes anyone feel uncomfortable must be avoided at all costs. Therefore, we must sidestep ever suggesting personal responsibility from fear of causing the painful experiences of guilt or shame.

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