Intolerance towards Christianity can come in many packages.
Sometimes the packaging is candy-coated. On social media, one manager of a
mental health group wrote me to remove my essay:
·
Please just post articles that are about mental
health. I will ask you to remove this post. If you don't then I will have to. Faith
can be a beautiful thing, but it cannot be forced upon others. There are people
here with different beliefs and that's fine. What we have in common is our
mental illness. I hope you understand.
I responded:
“I guess I don't
understand. We all have different beliefs. That shouldn't stop us from
communicating. Besides, I'm not trying to FORCE RELIGION on anyone. I am just
offering what I think is a needful perspective.
Meanwhile, the mental
health profession has been trying to influence others in favor of their own
religion, which promotes the belief of self-trust, that we have the ability
within ourselves to change ourselves. What then is the matter of presenting the
opposing perspective – that we don’t have this ability, but that God does! Even
if they reject this latter option, at least they will become aware of their own
biases. This will help them see more clearly what they do believe in.
By suggesting that we
have the ability to make ourselves healthy is like telling someone that he can
fly. While this might temporarily make someone feel good, it is just placing an
extra burden upon them. This burden will eventually make them feel doubly a
failure once they discover that they cannot fly despite their best efforts.
Mental health should
be about the awareness of the options and not shielding them from one of the
two options.
If you want to remove
the post, you are certainly free to do so.”
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