Earlier this week, megachurch pastor Jarrid Wilson, who had been very open about his struggles with depression and focused his ministry on helping those with mental health issues, took his own life. Yesterday, right-wing radio host and pastor Jesse Lee Peterson responded to Wilson's death by proclaiming that Wilson had never really been a Christian and was actually controlled by Satan.
"How in the world are you going to help somebody deal with something you haven't overcome yourself?" Peterson said. "How in the world [can you] call yourself a minister or pastor and you're depressed? Depression is not of God. Christ came so that you might have peace. God sent his only begotten son that you may have peace and if you are called by God to help others, how in the world is he going to send a depressed person to help another depressed person? That sounds like Satan to me."
Peterson then read a tweet that Wilson had sent out on the day he died in which he said that "loving Jesus doesn't always cure suicidal thoughts."
"That's a lie," Peterson responded. "That's a pure, bald-faced lie. That's from Satan."
"Jesus came so that you could have perfect peace, folks, not mental illness, not suicidal thoughts, not depression," Peterson added. "Those things are from Satan and anyone who has those things has not been born of God yet ... That is why you are still suffering with those things. All of those things are spirits of Satan and you can't serve two gods, so, this man, no wonder he killed himself."
