I don't see acknowledgement of an illness

as bashing. If she had cancer, which she did, is that also bashing? They are both illnesses that resulted in consequences she could not control.

You are really grasping at straws for anything possible to ridicule. Why do you do this? You appear to be a miserable person inside. Truly.

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My take on your mental illness has nothing whatever to do with your political persuasion. But you have illustrated that you are too ill to understand that. You are annoying and I will not pay any more attention to your childish and sick comments.

sky high health care is something that affects all of us. My husband and I, retirees, for Medicare and medical supplement plus drug coverage pay right at $800 per month in premiums. We know other retirees who pay more than that. No one seems able to see that much of this health care cost is due to several things: Used to be that doctors had private practive and hospitals were not for profit. Is it any wonder that now that hospitals are for profit, they get greedier and greedier?

Everyone (and everyone doesn't necessasrily mean YOU) has their hand out for a handout. People waiting for those Obama free money checks they think will feather their nest. Well, I think they'd do well to keep their day job....or get one...because I don't think the free money is going to be forthcoming.

pray for your souls. Seriously. I'm not laughing, and I'm not joking because I truly feel sorry for you. I won't answer you any more because that seems to only make you sicker.

Religious Addiction: a mental illness with deadly social consequences.

I do believe there is a Great Spirit responsible for the creation of the universe, but unfortunately, there have been those who have been the victims of the exploitation of this higher power.

When George W. Bush and the Christian Reich took control of the most powerful country in the world, The United States of America, a very dangerous virus began spreading throughout the country.

The virus: Christian Fascism.

This lethal threat to democracy is now infecting the world, ie...the invasion and occupation of Iraq.

To understand the Right Wing Zealots, it is important to acquire an understanding of what it means to be a religious addict. The following identifies important signs of religious addiction:

SYMPTOMS OF RELIGIOUS ADDICTION as written by Paschal Baute
Paschal Baute is a co-founder and facilitator of the Spiritual Growth Network of Kentucky. He is an organizational psychologist working with leadership and team development and personnel screening. His business web page will be found at www.paschalbaute.com

� Inability to think, doubt, or question religious information and/or authority
� Black-and-white, good/bad, either/or simplistic thinking: one way or the other
� Shame-based belief that you aren't good enough or you aren't doing it right
� Magical thinking that God will fix you/ do it all, without serious work on your part
� Scrupulosity: rigid obsessive adherence to rules, codes of ethics, or guidelines
� Uncompromising judgmental attitudes: readiness to find fault or evil out there
� Compulsive or obsessive praying, going to church or crusades, quoting scripture
� Unrealistic financial contributions
� Believing that sex is dirty; believing our bodies or physical pleasures are evil
� Compulsive overeating and/or excessive fasting
� Conflict and argumentation with science, medicine, and education
� Progressive detachment from the real work, isolation and breakdown of relationships
� Psychosomatic illness: back pains, sleeplessness, headaches, hypertension
� Manipulating scripture or texts, feeling specially chosen, claiming to receive special messages from God
� Maintaining a religious high, trance-like state, keeping a happy face (or the belief that one should...) (1.) � Paschal Baute 1993

Condensed 'Characteristics of a Religious Addictive System.' Dr. Thomas Edgington is the principle author and contributed 90% of the following:

� God is seen as impersonal and vindictive: members tend to have a grace- deficit theology. (Their religion and experience are based totally on fear, not on relief.)
� Emphasis on theological correctness to the neglect of relationships and of loving others.
� Demonstrates a spiritual arrogance [considers those from outside as less spiritual].
� You will hear comments like I pride myself on my humility.
� Majors on minor theological issues and ignores or minimizes major ones.
� Scripture is said to be of primary importance, but in reality it is the leader's interpretation of Scripture that has primary importance.
� Traditions often overrule Biblical truth.
� Scripture is often misquoted, used out of context, or is degraded to the level of trite, pat answers in order to prove a point or to exact obedience to a system.
� Intellectual development is limited to what fits the system; we think the way we do because we are right; the thoughts and opinions of others are not considered.
� Dogmatism is common: the point under discussion is often explained by the quotation of a Bible verse, again, usually out of context.
� Members attempt to impose their personal opinions upon outsiders or upon those still within the system but under suspicion.
� There is a lack of objective accountability: leadership is accountable to itself ONLY. [Often explains why the religious fear and despise psychology... fear of exposure by outsider]
� Leadership is viewed as infallible and beyond reproach.
� Undue/over-emphasis upon submission to authority.
� Expression of certain emotions, particularly anger, is seen as unspiritual.
� Low self image, hyperactive conscience, undue guilt, and an inability to forgive, either others or oneself is very common.
� Communication often centers around theological issues; personal issues are rarely discussed. When they are, two phenomena find expression: shredding people,setting up and knocking down straw men.
� Interpersonal intimacy is often lacking.
� Poor ability to relate to hurting people; offers pat answers instead of demonstrating loving care (2.)

Religious Addiction preys on the Weak and Vulnerable

After reading and processing the above characteristics of a religious addict, it is very to easy to find incidents of religious addictions since George W. Bush took power:

A while ago, I was watching the news stories about the Ten Commandments Monument being removed from a Government building in the United States. As I watched the protests, I thought how twisted right wing Christian zealots are; the way they whined and moaned lying on the ground reminded me of a religious addicted cult. There is so much hate and mental defects within the Christian Coalition. It is scary.

It is important for all countries to separate government from Organized Religion. Christian Right Wing Organized Religion is a very dangerous political institution. They have decided how people should live and those choosing a different way of life are viewed as deviant or enemies.

When looking at two men, George W. Bush and Mel Gibson, it is easy to see how dangerous Religious addiction can be to the rest of the population. Both these men are recovered drug addicts and drunks. What lead to their recovery was replacing their chemical addictions with Christian addiction. Like a cult, Christian Extremists target people when they are at their weakest; both men have weak minds which made them easy prey. They should not be respected, but looked at as very weak little creatures.

As President of the United States, the mentally feeble man, George W. Bush, has been given the power to flex his religious addicted muscles: supported challenging affirmative action, proposal to ban gay marriage, increase funding to religious groups that help alcoholics and drug addicts recover, invading and taking over Iraq, funding the promotion marriage (push women in the kitchen, barefoot and pregnant, eh Georgie?)

The Christian Right seeks to oppress those who don't conform to their way of life. In order for society to evolve, Right Wing Religion must be kept out of positions of political power.

Religious addicted Mel Gibson is now a right wing fundamentalist. He believes he knows God personally, and has a whole lot of money, giving him the power to push his beliefs on the rest of us. There is nothing more dangerous than a rich right wing fundamentalist. About Mel Gibson's movie, The Passion of the Christ, Movie Reviewers and News Commentators did not have the courage to give Mel Gibson's movie a real review. It is probably like during the invasion of Iraq; people who spoke against it were intimidated, and the media was very biased toward the bullies.

Religious addiction is a serious mental illness in our society. Religious addicts, when given power, have the ability to do some serious damage to the world and its species.

Religious Addiction: a mental illness with deadly social consequences.

Endnotes:

1. Paschal Baute, Symptons of Religious Addiction http://www.lexpages.com/SGN/paschal/religious_addiction.html
2. Dr. Thomas Edgington, Characteristics of a Religious Addictive System. Nimbus.org http://www.nimbus.org/Academics/ReligiousAddiction.html

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Symptons of Religious Addiction by Paschal Baute
http://www.lexpages.com/SGN/paschal/religious_addiction.html
Retrieved April, 1st 2004

Characteristics of a Religious Addictive System. Nimbus.org
http://www.nimbus.org/Academics/ReligiousAddiction.html
Retrieved April, 1st 2004

Copyright 2004 � TrysDan Roberts

Psychiatry Ponders Whether Extreme Bias Can Be an Illness

The 48-year-old man turned down a job because he feared that a co-worker would be gay. He was upset that gay culture was becoming mainstream and blamed most of his personal, professional and emotional problems on the gay and lesbian movement.

These fixations preoccupied him every day. Articles in magazines about gays made him agitated. He confessed that his fears had left him socially isolated and unemployed for years: A recovering alcoholic, the man even avoided 12-step meetings out of fear he might encounter a gay person.

Darrel A. Regier of the American Psychiatric Association favors research but says it is not clear that establishing a diagnosis would be useful. (By Marvin Joseph -- The Washington Post)

He had a fixed delusion about the world, said Sondra E. Solomon, a psychologist at the University of Vermont who treated the man for two years. He felt under attack, he felt threatened.

Mental health practitioners say they regularly confront extreme forms of racism, homophobia and other prejudice in the course of therapy, and that some patients are disabled by these beliefs. As doctors increasingly weigh the effects of race and culture on mental illness, some are asking whether pathological bias ought to be an official psychiatric diagnosis.