Christian musician says churches are killing people: 'Since I was a child, I’ve watched the church kick their wounded'

In an interview with the Tennessean, Jody McBrayer of the Christian music group Avalon says that some church communities place an unfair stigma on mental illness. McBrayer also writes about the topic in his new memoir.

"The topic had become taboo inside the church walls, and to admit to dealing with depression would bring judgment, ridicule, and shaming from the people who should have been helping them heal in the first place," McBrayer writes in his memoir.

"Since I was a child, I’ve watched the church kick their wounded," he writes in the book, "So Far, So Good (...But It Was Touch and Go There for a While)."

Speaking to the Tennessean, McBrayer said that, "Shame is killing people in church."

"There's a lack of compassion and acceptance and understanding in a place that should stand for all those things and more," he said.

McBrayer, 51, has had his own struggles with depression. He was also molested as a child by a family acquaintance -- who was a popular Sunday school teacher. He is only the second prominent Christian music artist to disclose that he was sexually abused.

"I just remember crying the whole time," McBrayer said.

Read his full interview over at the Tennessean.