Rest in Peace, Mandisa

When news came out this past April that Christian singer Mandisa was found dead in her home, the reaction from everyone was shock, especially because she was only 47 years old. Since she had revealed mental health struggles in her past, some people wondered if she might have committed suicide. But the autopsy report showed that she "died of complications from Class III obesity."

I had interviewed Mandisa several times in the last 15 years, and always found her to be a charming, happy person. But as with many happy people, there were tragedy and sadness beneath the surface. When we last spoke in 2022 about her memoir Out of the Dark, she noted that she was raped as a young woman, and that led to her weight struggles because she sought solace in food. Simon Cowell famously insulted her weight during season five of American Idol, when she was a contestant on the show. Just as famously, she confronted him about his rudeness, and he apologized.

As she became successful in the music industry, Mandisa went through a public weight loss journey, dropping more than 100 pounds. However, after the death of one of her closest friends, she isolated herself from her family and friends for several months and wound up gaining 200 pounds. Mandisa came out of that dark period with the help of loved ones and therapy. And in fact, she spoke about it publicly because she wanted to normalize therapy in the Christian community, where the idea that you can pray away mental health struggles still exists.

In 2022, Mandisa told me, "I want to de-stigmatize counselors and therapists in the body of Christ, particularly. Because I sometimes hear the phrase, 'Well, I've got God and that's enough for me.' It's a little bit of a red flag for me, because I feel like He's made us for community. He made us to depend on one another. So, if you can have somebody come alongside you in your journey - a professional and even my friends, my tribe - they've become so important to me as well, because I've come to understand, we really do need one another."

I don't know what happened with Mandisa in her final months. It would seem her weight became an issue again. Regardless, it's more important to remember how she lived. I found a quote from our 2011 interview that remains good advice, and that I know she tried her best to live by:

"I think so often, as Christians, we feel like we have to put on our brave face and show the world how wonderful everything is. The fact of the matter is, we're not promised that everything is going to be wonderful. We're actually promised the exact opposite. We're promised that in this world, we will have troubles. But the solution to that is not the absence of troubles. The solution is that we have the opportunity to walk out of those troubles with the Lord. It's not to say that we're perfect. It's to say that we're to bring our imperfections to Him, the only one who truly is perfect, and that He'll help us to walk those things out."

I pray that Mandisa is now walking and talking with the Lord she devoted so much of her life too. Eternal rest, grant unto her, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon her. May her soul, and all the souls of the faithful departed, rest in peace. Amen.

This essay is a recent "Light One Candle" column by Tony Rossi, Director of Communications, The Christophers; it is one of a series of weekly columns that deal with a variety of topics and current events.

Background information:

The Christophers