Can the mentally ill hold religious beliefs?

[Lordquinton]

13. My worst crime: poor phraseing

I understand and agree with you that it can be taken in an offensive manner, but I would then follow up with why take offence when it is directly brought up like this, when no one peeps about it when it's heavily implied?

It is a broad and almost meaningless term, everyone has something that can qualify them as mentally ill, and the fear of being labeled such leads to many who need help to not seek it. It's a scape goat for the right wing (look at the NRA pushing mental examinations for gun ownership) and it's almost as bad of a label as Atheist.

I find the best way to eliminate the stigma of such terms is to use them, talk about it like they're people and not some savage beast to be locked away.

There was also a paragraph about ableism that I cut because I didn't want to distract from the point, and didn't want religinists to feel like they're just being called up a made up name. Theism is rife with ableism, only the worth can walk again, their beliefs don't count they are mentally ill, even the inverse with putting the handicapped who do good on a pedestal, using autistic children to get likes and so on (big on using the handicapped to get more likes for god).