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[-] protist@retrofed.com 71 points 3 weeks ago

I worked inpatient psych for many years and have seen hundreds of cases of acute mania, one common symptom of which is hyperreligiosity. I've absolutely seen people give away all their money to what we would perceive as good causes. On many occasions, I've seen people let strangers who are homeless move into their homes because they wanted to help them. I've seen people give away all their belongings to people less fortunate. I've also seen the gradual horror dawn on their faces after they start stabilizing and realize what they've done

[-] morto@piefed.social 25 points 3 weeks ago

your comment makes me think about the many things we probably have a very biased perception of, because we only know about what the media reports

[-] protist@retrofed.com 19 points 3 weeks ago

Oh yeah, the general public has no fucking clue what actual psychiatric disorders look like, and that includes the media

Yes, and when religious people have a psychotic episode, the whole mess usually revolves around religion. Including burning or cutting a religious symbol on your skin.

[-] protist@retrofed.com 18 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

It's much more complex than that. Religious delusions are culturally bound. I've seen hyperreligiosity in Hindus, New Age Crystal practitioners, and even atheists. Atheists may have a supreme feeling of being one with the earth. All of this is often paired with increased goal directed activity, lack of sleep, and some truly bizarre plans.

I've personally never seen anyone burn or cut a religious symbol on themselves based in psychosis though. Self injury like that is more often a sign of borderline personality traits rather than an axis I psychiatric disorder.

[-] Amnesigenic@lemmy.ml 32 points 3 weeks ago

They do occasionally, it just doesn't make for quite as exciting a headline. My dad had a childhood friend whose father bankrupted their family with his idea for a restaurant where there's no fixed prices and you just pay what you can because he thought it was what God wanted. Definitely better than violent bigotry, still a terrible idea.

[-] teslekova@sh.itjust.works 7 points 3 weeks ago

Damn shame. The first time someone did that, in LA in the 50s, it worked great.

[-] Quetzalcutlass@lemmy.world 11 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

Well yeah, that was in the "godless" LA. Anyone who's worked waitstaff could tell you that the surge of customers after church lets out tend to be the most demanding while also being the least generous, even leaving fake cash with scripture quotes on it in lieu of tips.

[-] Amnesigenic@lemmy.ml 3 points 3 weeks ago

Lol fair, did not work out nearly as well in Pensacola FL during the 60's

[-] CompactFlax@discuss.tchncs.de 16 points 3 weeks ago

Oh they do

They have a revelation that they should give all their worldly possessions away and it just so happens that the local megachurch can help them distribute the money.

[-] BillyClark@piefed.social 5 points 3 weeks ago

Good argument for something like UBI and public funded healthcare. Some people will lose all of their money, one way or another, and so we need to make sure they can at least live following the incident.

We should also figure out a way to rein in the amount of money that a church can take in, but I don't know a good mechanism for that at the moment.

[-] Trampampoline@sh.itjust.works 10 points 3 weeks ago

As a Christian, something horrible and unrepeatable

[-] desmosthenes@lemmy.world 6 points 3 weeks ago

religion breeds hatred, segregation by hats worn, excuses to kill and pillage “others”

[-] HerbGrower@slrpnk.net 5 points 3 weeks ago

As Jesus said, hate thy neighbour because he is the wrong skin colour, beat the fucker!

[-] subverted_per@lemmy.blahaj.zone 6 points 3 weeks ago

One of my favorite stories of Jesus is when all the elders gathered and demanded Jesus pass judgement on a prostitute. Instead he starts writing in the sand, and one by one the elders were shamed and left. Now we dont know what he wrote in the sand, but we can speculate that it was slurs against non-white non-christians which is why they were all shamed. Furthermore it is certain that afterward anyone left got sand thrown in their face as he shouted "you're next fucker!" Before banging the prostitute.

[-] Impractical_Island@lemmy.world 5 points 3 weeks ago

Yea we do; we're the ones that get sucked up and abused by cults. After an acid trip put me in a cognitive state where I was receiving synchronicities all the time that felt like God communicating to me, I was quickly identified and manipulated by a new age group that secured my trust of being with God before further drugging me and conditioning me to be a functional slave. This tweet is fundamentally wrong and ignorant because the people they are saying don't exist are vulnerable populations that are taken advantage of.

[-] Etterra@discuss.online 5 points 3 weeks ago

Sometimes they give all their money to their church though. Funnily enough, that money doesn't help the starving or homeless either.

[-] IAMgROOT@lemmy.wtf -2 points 3 weeks ago
[-] SnoopSqueak@lemmy.today 2 points 1 week ago

90% of it doesn't: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/asithappens/as-it-happens-thursday-edition-1.5393994/only-10-of-pope-s-charitable-fund-goes-to-the-needy-wall-street-journal-1.5394339

Bonus pedo protectors, again:

After a two-and-a-half year hiatus, he finally replaced Cardinal George Pell, the head of the finance office who's been convicted of child sex abuse in Australia.

[-] IAMgROOT@lemmy.wtf 0 points 1 week ago

most of it was spent on a budget deficit, a budget allocated to help the poor and needy

[-] SnoopSqueak@lemmy.today 1 points 1 week ago
[-] IAMgROOT@lemmy.wtf 0 points 1 week ago

The money also include a whopping $727,994,390 spent over 20 years on abuse prevention efforts to protect children and youth. The U.S. Catholic Church now spends an average of $36,399,720 every year to protect minors from predatory priests and religious brothers, the study reported.

[-] SnoopSqueak@lemmy.today 1 points 1 week ago

Compared to the $5 billion they spent covering their own asses? It's a child-raping death cult.

[-] IAMgROOT@lemmy.wtf 0 points 1 week ago

compensation to victims is "covering up"?

[-] SnoopSqueak@lemmy.today 1 points 1 week ago

Yes. Hush money. Erasing the symptoms instead of solving the problems.

Also this: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/20503032211015282

Catholic priests who sexually abused minors were transferred to other parishes without disclosing the actual reason for their transfer.

[-] IAMgROOT@lemmy.wtf 0 points 1 week ago

The budget that the Catholic Church has goes in majority to three things.

  1. Charity and Relief
  2. Construction and Maintenance
  3. Feeding, clothing and providing necessities to clergy and brothers
[-] IAMgROOT@lemmy.wtf 0 points 1 week ago

The Catholic Church will obviously try to stop abortion as it is murder. Catholics for Choice do not exist.

They also spend a huge amount of money on feeding the poor and other charity/relief programs

[-] SnoopSqueak@lemmy.today 1 points 1 week ago

Abortion is healthcare. Withholding it can be murder.

Fuck you for choosing death.

[-] IAMgROOT@lemmy.wtf 0 points 1 week ago

A nonviable pregnancy or a medical emergency where removal of the fetus is required is not murder.

Abortion is murder.

[-] SnoopSqueak@lemmy.today 1 points 1 week ago

A nonviable pregnancy or a medical emergency where removal of the fetus is required is not murder.

You're describing abortion.

Abortion is murder.

Abortion is healthcare. Withholding it is murder.

Let's check in on our pals in Texas, huh?

https://www.propublica.org/article/texas-abortion-ban-sepsis-maternal-mortality-analysis

The rate of sepsis shot up more than 50% for women hospitalized when they lost their pregnancies in the second trimester, ProPublica found.

ProPublica previously reported on two such cases in which miscarrying women in Texas died of sepsis after doctors delayed evacuating their uteruses. Doing so would have been considered an abortion.

Blood is on your hands.

[-] IAMgROOT@lemmy.wtf 0 points 1 week ago

It should be proven that the fetus is nonviable and/or needs to be removed for the survival of the mother before removal of the fetus is permitted

The matter should not be delayed, though and treated with urgency.

[-] SnoopSqueak@lemmy.today 1 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

It should be taken on a case-by-case basis, sure. But the more red tape you put in the way, the more likely you are to kill innocent women.

[-] gukleszl4hs48ughgxhr5xgd@fedia.io 4 points 3 weeks ago

Positive might not be the appropriate adjective, but this made me think of the last portion of the life of George R. Price.

[-] Schmoo@slrpnk.net 3 points 3 weeks ago

The People's Temple (led by Jim Jones, had a settlement called Jonestown where they committed mass murder-suicide, and is the origin of the term "drinking the kool-aid") was a progressive religious cult that combined Christianity with communist and socialist ideology, with an emphasis on racial equality. Before the whole murder-suicide thing they provided a bunch of social services including soup kitchens, rent assistance, job placement services, free canned goods, clothing, and coal for winter heating. It's pretty wild reading about Jim Jones himself and seeing parallels to some modern online tankies (there's a quote of Jim Jones suggesting they should all kill themselves because the world isn't ready for socialism and then referring to a group of defectors as "Trotskyite defectors" and "Coca-Cola revolutionaries").

this post was submitted on 21 Jul 2026
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