Write and Mum,
I understand. I do grasp the darkness of the concept. I don't like it either. I can also imagine how vulnerable people with mental illness might be negatively affected. However, I still return to freedom and intention. I do understand how the topic is repellent and fearful and may seem unevolved to most people who are savvy and smart and use the internet to read up on psychological issues and find support and community.
However, I also Googled demonology and the town in Tennessee that ReallyME mentioned, and see a real course that is clearly taught by convicted Pentecostals or people with similar beliefs.
The reason I stayed open to it, is because these Tennessee people feel familiar to me, and not evil.I have many fundamentalist relatives. With my strong beliefs in accepting and respecting others' religious beliefs...it is a cue to me to listen harder and try not to demonize those with radical faiths I do not understand.
The reason this came to be important in my life is that one relationship summed up the dilemma for me. I had an uncle who was a preacher, literally preaching in an old barn, and he preached many Old Testament texts and in a fundamentalist mindset that I had long since dismissed. I had to grapple for a long time with the fact that I loved this uncle despite many of his scary beliefs, that I dismissed. I also pondered the fact that of all my relatives, this uncle walked the Christian walk in a way I was moved by. He spent every single Saturday night visiting extremely poor people in tiny little country nursing home. Many of these old people had noone else, and had been abandoned. He was doing more things that were loving and right, in service to others, than I ever have. Yet, he told me things such as, I am so worried for your soul that I nearly wore out the knees of my pajamas praying for you last night! (Because I was Unitarian, divorced, and more...SO different from the path he believed was right.) That morning, after I'd spent the night on their farm, I just said, well Uncle, that's why I slept so well. And what I meant is, I know that my uncle genuinely loved me. His inner crusade to "save" me was motivated by love. He hated to travel and he drove across two states to visit me at my college in the late 60s when he was worried about me.
The place where ReallyME studied and had her experience is Tennessee. I lived in Appalachian Kentucky at one point, working at an orphanage. We interacted with many people who had such alien beliefs...possession, snake handling, speaking in tongues (I witnessed this as well). I do not accept or share any of these beliefs or practices.
What I'm trying to get at is that I experienced these people as good people. Rigid and intolerant is one way to describe their beliefs, as I feel is true with any sect that is fundamentalist, whether Christian, Islamist, or whatever. (To my mind, it might as well be voodoo.) In my education and middle class experience they might have been primitive. But these Appalachian people were also strong, admirable, extremely poor...and when they came to our events down by the river they would sing the old songs from the early religion that so many of my relatives had known, and their voices moved me.
I noted that the little evangelist school that ReallyME referred to also runs a home for unwed mothers, and collects food for the hungry. They walk the walk. So...I just choose to stay open.
Rituals I don't get, and different ways of grappling with the darkness in life...I feel that although there is potential harm in any of it, there is also potential good. It all depends on the intention. I know Al Queda grew popular because they also fed people, and paid them...so I do understand the connection between radical religion and community influence, for good or ill.
But I don't see these evangelical Appalachian sects, that remind me of many early American Protestant roots...as Al Queda. They're not killing. They are trying to save people, in the ritual and the language that is real to them.
I don't share this reality but I can't bring myself to try to ban it. From here, from the world. I can express my disagreement, my more "modern" and liberal ideas about mental health and spirituality.
But my uncle loved me. And I loved him. In honor of his memory, I defend ReallyME's right to tell the story of her experience and her convictions, even though I do not believe them myself.
I simply have to trust that even if someone is mentally ill and vulnerable, the intelligence that brings them to find this board, which has so many, many valuable threads and different ways of approaching healing, such a rich variety of voices and discussions...that same healing intelligence would guide them away from this and the other controversial thread if there is danger for them there. (I know there was an earlier thread I decided to delete all my posts from, because I found a voice there was threatening to my inner peace. And I am still here, and I am well.)
Does this make any sense, Write and Mum? I coudln't respect two people more than I do you, and I sincerely understand your objections to this topic. I just honestly have to respect others' voices here too, if I feel their intention is innocent.
Maybe Doc G would have an opinion, if you are deeply concerned. I know at times people do get upset when this board drifts off the original outlines of its topic...but ReallyME wanted to talk about narcissism too. Should we shut her up? I can't. I am very sorry about your distress and I respect your concern for vulnerable newcomers here.
Love to all,
Hops
