Graduation speaker loses her everlovin' mind during benediction

[charlie]

Instead of asking for blessings, this young lady chose to resolve her crisis of faith, repudiating and repenting for the sin of attending college. Stay to the end for the grand finale, a squealing convulsive collapse. Yaaaaay Team God!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hqLvV21tsdw&
(2min 45sec)

[salvorhardin]

1. That was disturbing to watch but I don't think you can blame religion on this one

Clearly something is going on with her; she's having some sort of breakdown and we can't rule out an organic cause. Sure, whatever's happening is all tied up with religion in her mind, but to say it's the cause is to conflate religion with mental illness. That's unkind to both religious believers and the mentally ill.

[Warpy]

2. That was my impression, as well

People who do that sort of thing outside a church usually have something else going on and there's no crazy like god crazy.

[charlie]

3. I take your point

You're right, she may be ill.

But, have you ever known anyone who acted like that? I've known a few. One guy would've delivered an even more spectacular performance. If he was "witnessing" or asked to lead a prayer, he'd almost always be seized by the enormous import of what he was saying and in minutes would be a mass of tears, snot, and spasms, bawling, "Don't you see? Don't you SEE? Jesus has ALREADY bound Satan! Satan is powerless because OUR LORD, PRAISE HIM, PRAISE HIM, vanquished him!"

He wasn't sick, he was sick with his religion.

Fundie churches and clubs are often insular hothouses of high emotion, paranoia, thought-policing, and grandiose mission. Psychic meltdown is a good thing to those nutters, a sign of being "slain in the spirit." And they're regularly exhorted to take their mad "gifts" to the unsaved, consequences be damned. Jesus expects no less.

Decades ago, I would've assumed she needed medical help. With the smothering hi-octane religiosity that so many practice nowadays, it's no longer such a dependable assumption.

[laconicsax]

4. I have to disagree.

There's a fine line before piety and psychosis. Repenting for 'worshiping the intellectual mind,' for 'adopting humanism,' etc are probably on the piety side of the line. Until she starts with the theatrics, she could have been any one of several religious people I've known in my lifetime. I've also seen people break down and collapse like that from anxiety alone.

Since we don't know the whole story, we have to go with what we do know: she got up to deliver the benediction at a graduation ceremony, spouted typical religious bullshit, then collapsed. I say religion followed by health.

[FiveGoodMen]

6. She may have a physical illness, but that's not what produced all the crap

she was spewing before the shaking started.

[salvorhardin]

7. I didn't say she had a physical illness

I said something was clearly going on with her mentally and it might be organic. Mental illnesses aren't always just "all in the head". Blaming religion for whatever happened to that girl on that stage is about as sensible as blaming The X-Files for the homeless person ranting on the street corner about UFOs. And I stand by my initial statement that doing so is insensitive to both religious believers and the mentally ill.

[FiveGoodMen]

8. First, what would constitute an organic problem that was not physical?

Second, do you really think all that stuff she said hasn't been said to her by whatever preacher she frequents?

[FiveGoodMen]

5. A mind is a terrible thing to preach to!

[ZombieHorde]

9. That speech went from humorous to disturbing.

Not the worst speech I have seen.

[sybylla]

10. Same thing the "witnesses" pulled in Salem, too.

I wonder how long she had to rehearse to get it right.

[Iggo]

11. My favorite part was...

...when Old Guy says "Someone get an ambulance. And now, party on, dudes!"

That was gold!