God's Interns: religion or mental illness?

[pstokely]

http://onegoodmove.org/1gm/1gmarchive/002669.html

[ChairmanAgnostic]

1. I once did some research on studies which tried to see if

mental illness and strident religious ideas were linked.

The type of studies and articles date back to the 1930s. Every 15 yrs or so, a brave social scientist would study both groups to see if there was a link. And every 15 yrs or so, they would find that those with mental illnesses were much more likely to be extremely strongly religious. And every 15 yrs or so, the extremely religious would create so much noise, threats and garbage, that the research was stopped in its tracks.

The last truly well designed study I could find came out in 1994, so I am waiting for the next wave.

Masters and Johnson underwent similar fear-mongering and abuse. "HOW DARE you study something evil like . . . . (sex). . . .? Don't you know that you are causing pedofiles and rape?"

With the new-found political and social powers gathered by the Religious Right, I can only imagine their latest reaction if and when a new study is announced by a serious scientist. With Kansas leading the way into the Dark Ages, with Bush and his idiot cronies stopping real scientific research and replacing it with faith-based theories, with the Big Ditch in Arizona having government offices supporting the idea that god took his little finger and scratched it out 6,011 years ago, can you imagine their reaction when we properly consider their mental illness as a large part of their beliefs?

[lvx35]

3. all I know is that if a fragile flower like psychology goes up against

a 20,000 year old global force like religion, psychology is going to be crushed, not religion. This is not going away, either. Read the documents of the founding fathers. Read the documents of Bush or even clinton. the technology level is increasing, but people aren't getting any scientifically smarter or less religious. Therefore we need to tolerate the positive stuff and condemn the loony stuff, but not condemn RELIGION as mentally ill.

[Heidi]

2. Ya know . . .

They're not hurting anyone. I wonder if people would get their panties in a similar twist about Buddhists (like my husband and I) renting a building near the Halls of Power and chanting Om Mani Padme Hum 24/7?

Edit to add: But then again, my husband and I aren't really interested in influencing public health policy. We might be, though, if Roe v Wade is overturned.

[RC]

4. Who's not hurting anyone?

The religious loonies? Let's start with this war in the Middle East and Armageddon. Life can be so very cheap when the loonies decide that their god will sort the poor souls out. Religion is the scourge of the earth.

[progdonkey]

6. I think she means the specific people in that Primetime story...

They're not hurting anyone by sitting in their huge room, praying and revelling in their idiocy.

Frankly, I prefer them far more than any of the other religious fundamentalists who are actually trying to change the government through corruption and intimidation. The people in the video were just having a good, psychotic, hysteria-filled time. As long as they think their prayers actually have some effect, they won't go looking for other, more effective methods of influencing the Supreme Court.

[Heidi]

7. Exactly.

Thank you, progdonkey.

[progdonkey]

5. fundamentalism is a mental illness; religion not necessarily

Simply being religious doesn't mean or even imply that someone has some sort of mental illness or defect: they may have simply grown up in a religious household, and they use their religion as an anchor and coping mechanism, or they simply find some great comfort in believing a benevolent god is protecting them and providing meaning for their existence, or any number of other reasonable grounds.

It's when it turns into fundamentalism or, in the case of those in the video, what really amounts to "hysterical praying," that you begin to see a large number of truly disturbed people. (Of course, there's always an open chicken-or-the-egg question of whether the fundamentalist doctrine messed up their minds, or their already-disturbed minds found fundamentalist positions attractive.)

When a group of people are in a room twirling, dancing, swaying, screaming, crying, muttering to themselves, talking to God, etc., they better be either highly self-medicated or listening to a kick-ass band, which is really all that Jesus is to these people: a drug to quelch whatever emotional pain or doubt they're experiencing, and a focal point (or excuse) for releasing all of the energy they've kept bottled up. Their lives were empty and they needed a place to feel they belonged and their existence mattered (that one girl said as much when referring to her being a "passionate person" but never really feeling anything until she joined the group). If these kids didn't get involved in this nutjob group, they'd be fanatical members of some environmental or political group, or fanatical followers of some rock band, etc.

On a side note, the perfect example for me of the "fundamentalism is a mental illness" thing was the "God Warrior" lady on Trading Spouses a few weeks ago. She was quite plainly a severely disturbed woman, perhaps even being a paranoid schizophrenic, but because the entities she spoke to were figures from a mainstream religion (and not Harvey the Rabbit), she's allowed to roam freely, her deranged rants viewed as simply being the prayers of a deeply religious person.

[Cats Against Frist]

8. Illness, for certain

But not necessarily any more ill than people who shave their body hair, buy giant cars, or stuff themselves with Ho-Hos, while watching reality television.

The more I see these kinds of people, the more it turns me off of all religion, in general. I used to be the non-denominational spiritualist, until I realized that that position was just as absurd and contrived as the sheath of saints and the finger of Jesus in the mega church. I even find Paganism, Wicca, Majik, just as fucking absurd. I want to burn every fantasy novel that I come across, for making that shit blossom.

I hate religion, I hate constructs -- but I think we're all pretty mentally ill, in our little plastic bubbles, with our toys, and our corrupt leaders, and our revisionist history, and our political correctness and our three-chord songs and treeless cul-de-sacs.

As others have said, as long as these little Jesus freaks are minding their own business, let them have their fun. In my opinion, it's no weirder than the audience at an Insane Clown Posse concert -- bad music, lots of jumping around and 15,000 "alternative" kids, in the same clothes, with the same hairstyles. Constructs on parade.