Mentally ill trying to be "Christians"?

[RichardP]

Is "Christianity" only for the mentally sane? You know the "relationship with Jesus Christ" that involves praying and attempting to live in the manner that you feel that "Jesus" is leading you.

How many horrific crimes have been committed because the person felt that they were doing the will of God? How do the "Christians" reconcile the inability of "God" to lead the mentally ill in the right direction. Is God incapable? Does God take a hands off approach? Is modern "Christianity" a dangerous religion for the mentally unstable. I mean it no longer emphasizes the Ten Commandments or the teachings of Jesus. It now puts the majority of the emphasis on a schizophrenic imagined "relationship" with the make believe spirit of Jesus Christ -- the "Holy Spirit". Christians argue that they live a "spirit led" life.

How about somebody who is not mentally insane but maybe mentally limited. Somebody with Down's Syndrome, or mental retardation? Do they really have the judgment to make good decisions based upon their feelings? Really what I am asking is if modern Christianity is dangerous.

[Psykhronic]

I will say it right now-- if the mentally insane did not have religion, they would still be insane. They may not cling to the Bible during their psychotic episodes, but there are plenty of philosophies and ideas to take the place of any theism.

[Celi]

Well, hearing voices that seem real but are really in your head goes beyond Christianity. I find it more likely that people who hear voices and are Christians will generally interpret it as the voice of God, which isn't really Christianity's fault. It could just as easily be attributed to a ghost or something. Don't get me wrong, I think plenty of nasty things can be blamed on religion, but I don't think it turns people schizophrenic, and I don't see how it could make already insane people any more dangerous than they would have been otherwise. (While the 'personal relationship with God' bit is crazy in itself, and I don't get how a sane person could believe it, plenty of them obviously do.)

[Ryantology]

Is "Christianity" only for the mentally sane?

Precisely the opposite.

[Confused Ape]

Well, hearing voices that seem real but are really in your head goes beyond Christianity. I find it more likely that people who hear voices and are Christians will generally interpret it as the voice of God, which isn't really Christianity's fault. It could just as easily be attributed to a ghost or something. Don't get me wrong, I think plenty of nasty things can be blamed on religion, but I don't think it turns people schizophrenic, and I don't see how it could make already insane people any more dangerous than they would have been otherwise.

I agree. I've been googling for examples of paranoid schizophrenic delusions.

http://www.intropsych.com/ch12_abnormal/...renia.html

In July, 1998, a man named Russell Westen, who had been diagnosed as a paranoid schizophrenic, entered the Capitol Building in Washington, D.C., with a handgun, killing two security guards before he was shot and injured himself. As it turned out, the man had refused to take his medications. He was delusional, claiming that the President was conspiring to kill him. Once he claimed that the satellite dish in his little town in Montana was spying on him for the CIA. His parents said that he believed secret powers were trying to control him through the TV set. The man's symptoms read like a textbook description of paranoid schizophrenia. Not all paranoid schizophrenics are dangerous; most of them are not. However, when they begin to act on their fantasies, like this man did, they can become dangerous.

None of these delusions had anything to do with religion.

[Zone]

Is "Christianity" only for the mentally sane? You know the "relationship with Jesus Christ" that involves praying and attempting to live in the manner that you feel that "Jesus" is leading you.

Mentally insane people may get a richer religious experience, perhaps visions or a spot of demonic possesion, or they wander around wearing a billboard preaching that the end is nigh. So Christianity is a good religion in that it has a little bit of something for everyone.

How about somebody who is not mentally insane but maybe mentally limited. Somebody with Down's Syndrome, or mental retardation? Do they really have the judgment to make good decisions based upon their feelings?

They would become Christians for much the same reason anyone else would, as in it's part of the culture were raised in. They wouldn't be formulating sophisticated exegetical principles or anything like that.

Really what I am asking is if modern Christianity is dangerous.

Completely harmless these days I think, it has no real political power or authority anymore. Islam still has some potential left in it though.