Hey Everyone,
I was just wondering what people's experiences have been with Christians, or religious people, who suffer from severe mental illness and have a tendency to take it out on other people.
I was on a forum a long time ago and witnessed a young woman making long, rambling, religious-sounding posts continuously that constantly condemned other people. For the most part, it just made me angry. And then one day, another poster wrote something to the effect of, "Please forgive this young woman, I am a registered nurse who knows her personally and she suffers from schizophrenia."
I have to confess that this is now the first thing I think of whenever I read other posts of the same nature.
One of the most frustrating things to me is when people hide behind their religion and use it as a shield for their behavior.
Example: in my younger years, I had a friend whose mother was fanatically religious all her life but also deeply troubled, and my friend had physical scars due to her mother's religious rants (aka, beatings) and insistence that my friend must "pay for her sins." It was absolutely heartbreaking. She could never talk to her mother about anything that happened because her mother never apologized or acknowledged any wrongdoing--in fact, her mother said that anything bad that happened was my friend's fault because she "didn't listen to correction."
I have so many mixed feelings about these situations, whether the person is verbally, emotionally, or physically abusive. They don't realize it, of course, because they are too busy "doing the Lord's work" or "preaching the Word of God." You just can't reason with them and I know we're supposed to pray, forgive, and bless...
But I think it goes without saying that this is much more easily said than done.
Is it just me, or does it seem like we singles run into these kinds of people more often? (I seem to notice that people with these issues seem to often be single themselves... not surprisingly... and sometimes I am afraid that as I get older, I will become just like them.) Or do people like this just see us as more gullible and easier prey for such forms of abuse? As a single, I've had times where I felt especially vulnerable to these kinds of attacks.
What have your experiences been with such situations, and how have you handled them?
I was just wondering what people's experiences have been with Christians, or religious people, who suffer from severe mental illness and have a tendency to take it out on other people.
I was on a forum a long time ago and witnessed a young woman making long, rambling, religious-sounding posts continuously that constantly condemned other people. For the most part, it just made me angry. And then one day, another poster wrote something to the effect of, "Please forgive this young woman, I am a registered nurse who knows her personally and she suffers from schizophrenia."
I have to confess that this is now the first thing I think of whenever I read other posts of the same nature.
One of the most frustrating things to me is when people hide behind their religion and use it as a shield for their behavior.
Example: in my younger years, I had a friend whose mother was fanatically religious all her life but also deeply troubled, and my friend had physical scars due to her mother's religious rants (aka, beatings) and insistence that my friend must "pay for her sins." It was absolutely heartbreaking. She could never talk to her mother about anything that happened because her mother never apologized or acknowledged any wrongdoing--in fact, her mother said that anything bad that happened was my friend's fault because she "didn't listen to correction."
I have so many mixed feelings about these situations, whether the person is verbally, emotionally, or physically abusive. They don't realize it, of course, because they are too busy "doing the Lord's work" or "preaching the Word of God." You just can't reason with them and I know we're supposed to pray, forgive, and bless...
But I think it goes without saying that this is much more easily said than done.
Is it just me, or does it seem like we singles run into these kinds of people more often? (I seem to notice that people with these issues seem to often be single themselves... not surprisingly... and sometimes I am afraid that as I get older, I will become just like them.) Or do people like this just see us as more gullible and easier prey for such forms of abuse? As a single, I've had times where I felt especially vulnerable to these kinds of attacks.
What have your experiences been with such situations, and how have you handled them?