Hey, disgusting behavoiurs such as that are NOT endemic just to Australia you know.

You are certainly right. It is certainly an explanation, but it is no excuse. There are kind mentally ill just as there are hateful. The hateful ones deserve no free license to abuse others, imo. Prisons are full of mentally ill. Bad policing notwithstanding, the mentally ill can still do great damage and must not be tolerated to do so. Look at t-Rump, for example.

@MikeInBatonRouge Hey, don't tar ALL peoples with Mental Illnesses with the same brush please.
By saying what you have said you ARE placing an even worse stigma on those who REALLY suffer and Endure Mental/Psychological Illnesses/problems where none truly need to be and I, for one, know how damned hard it is to live with a so-called Mental Illness.
After all is said and done, " What is one persons sanity can easily be seen as another's Mental Illness".
Criminal Lawyers have been using the 'Mental Illness card' as a means to get either reduced sentences for Clients OR get off Scot Free excuses for decades have they not even with NO tangible, falsifiable evidence/s that their Client has EVER suffered from a REAL Mental Illness, have they not?

@Triphid There are many varieties and flavors of mental illness. For the most part, I trust the definitions of the DSM-5.

@mischl Yes, quite a comprehensive list I see.
But still, as a Recognised Psychologist, there are more cases than enough where, imo, Criminal Defence Lawyers seek to mitigate sentences for Clients using the "Mental Illness ploys.'
Which by way of doing so place unnecessary, needless stigmas upon those who are TRULY suffering and enduring REAL Mental/Psychological Illnesses and Problems, would you not agree?

@Triphid Yes, I totally agree. Luckily, I never had to take the stand and be vulnerable to attorneys ripping me and my reputation to shreds.

@Triphid I never did as you suggest. That was your interpretation. Mental illness is inded a very broad category, and all of us have mental health to tend to. I also agree with your reply to mischl. His comment of "batshit crazy" seemed to me like a casual dismissal of some of the imeasurable damage done in the name of religion. So that woman was batshit crazy. That in no way means her abusive words need be tolerated. The mental health card has countless times been abused as an excuse for bad behavior :"I only killed my cheating wife in a fit of rage because of mental anguish!" "Whaa? Okay, Not guilty" or I bashed the gay dude because I felt traumatized when he (supposedly) undressed me with his eyes!" Alternately, gays and trans people have been condemned as mentally ill at the very same time as condemned as abominations to God. Nice hat trick.

@Triphid My own mother was bipolar, ...and deeply religious, a fundamentalist. I saw first hand how the cheap promises of fundamentalist religion can appeal to people struggling with emotional imbalances. Mom thought she was an end times prophet. She was convinced the rapture was coming in 1982, then 1986, then conveniently forgot she had ever pronounced such prophesies. She also repeatedly "saw" angels and demons. Coddling people with delusions does them no good. They need reality testing.

It stuck out to me years ago when I read in the dsm that delusions that are an indication of psychosis, such as "shared delusional disorder," are dismissed when such delusional beliefs are shared by a religious community. That was most telling about the allowances society is prepared to grant in the name of respect for religious faith.

@MikeInBatonRouge I've been battling Chronic Recurrent Depression now for nearly 20 years my friend.

@Triphid I feel for you.

@MikeInBatonRouge Thanks M8, much appreciated.
As my Teacher, Mentor and personal Role Model in the world of Psychology tried his best to teach us, " Any problem IS only a Problem IF you decide to LET it be a Problem."

@Triphid That's good. Another I try to live by is "The key to happiness sometimes is found by lowering our standards" (aka expectations; aka demands). We sometimes compound our own depression and/or anxiety by telling ourselves we SHOULD feel better. We do ourselves a great service to lower pressure if we just remember to cut ourselves some slack.

@Triphid

I used to think this was about biblical Mary. It isn't. It was actually a remembrance of an actual person, a friend's mother, who had good advice.

@MikeInBatonRouge Nice song by the Beatles BUT never once in my 60+ years of life have found even the smallest iota of wisdom nor comfort from religion/s.

@Triphid right. It is not a religious song. Mary was an actual person known by either Paul or John. I forget which.

@MikeInBatonRouge Fair enough, but to me it always had a somewhat religious connotation anyway.

@Triphid I always though so vaguely, too, until I read it in a Beatles bio.

Knowing what I REALLY know about the ' helping hands, etc, of Catholic Priests I'd be 99.999% certain she been there, done exactly that many many times before.
Since she once told 20 people on the bus about a year ago that "Her twins were born in 1987, 13 and a half MONTHS AFTER her husband had died from a Heart Attack and that the Priest laid his miraculous hands upon her so she may have more children to share her sorrow and bring her joy."

"Immoral Soul" more likely imo.

Nope, as a Psychologist and, sadly knowing her as well, I'd say that my diagnosis would have to that she is, by no means, suffering from a REAL Mental Illness, rather just a very severe case of being a Self-righteous BITCH of the First Order and nothing less.

There are lots of blithering idiots in pulpits.

@anglophone Pulpits attract idiots like shit attracts flies.

@anglophone certainly are some, but I see most of them as trusting victims of confidence men/women.
It’s the religious leadership that I hold in contempt.

@Canndue That makes a lot of sense.

That's one of the stupidest phrases I've ever heard.

@Lilac-JadeCanada Here’s another stupid statement “He/she died doing what she/ he loved to do.”

@ADKSparky Yeah, that too.

Getting there though still quite 'pissed off as well though.'
Lucky for her I managed to remain in some of control over my 'temptations.'

@Triphid Yeah, I take ages to get past being furious with people. I'm feeling rather pissed off for you.

Between religious nutters & covidiots, I feel pissed off most of the time lately.

It is lucky for her that it was @Triphid that she attacked verbally. If she had done the same to me I would have called her all the names under the Sun and pointed out that the God of the Bible cannot exist so why was she stupid enough to claim that He existed. I do not take any prisoners in such situations.

@anglophone Yes, I'm sure many of us wouldn't have been so polite, & controlled.

@Lilac-JadeCanada Lucky for her it wasn't tomorrow, the 20 th. Anniversary of Lorrae's death, then I may well NOT have been so self-controlled.

@Triphid Well, can't say I'd blame you if you exploded at that piece of lowlife.

n.F.I. but who ever it was deserves to be sacked on the spot.

Quite tempted to tell her, " I KNOW where you live," should I ever meet her again anywhere.