No, Good Intentions Are Not Good Enough

As most of you have seen, a couple of days ago, I posted a blog about the issues of treating mental illness, suicidal tendencies/ideation, and depression by purely spiritual means.

The response to this post was surprising, to say the least. When I posted it, it was more nervewracking because of how exposed I was willingly making myself, but I posted it anyway because I hoped in my heart of hearts that it would touch somebody else who had experienced the profound guilt and misery at not being healed of their torment by faith alone.

There were responses of that nature, and they filled my heart with profound sadness and simultaneous love to know that my dark past can help someone, and I was glad I'd shared it.

Other responses, however, were not so favorable.

This post isn't to call those responders out, or to be petty or cruel and trash them. That is not, nor will ever be, my intention in posting ANYTHING on my blog.

There are, however, several ideologies and lines of thinking that truly disturbed me in these responses. Just as I couldn't sit back and not say something in response to this past weekend's homily, I can't sit back and not respond in some form to those arguments.

The one that bothered me the most was the response, "He meant well in his homily."

First of all, meaning well is one of those terrifying phrases that has an infinite number of interpretations, causing the "well" half of that declaration to change based on limitless factors--whether they be age, race, gender, culture, time period, upbringing, sexuality, religion, etc., etc. This being used as a justification for ANY kind of behavior, whether objectivally good or bad, is a logical fallacy based on this factor alone.

Second of all, since we are addressing religious and faith-based topics, there are COUNTLESS examples in Scripture of figures in authority and power, sitting in their positions truly believing that they were deigned to have that power, and therefore every action they took was automatically blessed and above reproach:

Pharaoh "meant well" in enslaving the Israelites, to keep the economy, infrastructure, powerhold, and culture of his kingdom from crumbling if the slaves were indeed freed.

The Nazarenes "meant well" when they handled rocks to stone their once-companion because of His declaration of Divinity.

Pontius Pilate "meant well" in keeping such a tight-fisted control over the Jewish prefect he was in charge of, and "meant well" in scourging and sacrificing a strange Jewish man Who rambled in loaded and strangely coherent sentences, in order to appease the venemous griping of the Sanhedrin.

Saul of Tarsus "meant well" in stoning the strange and mad Stephen to keep the truth and validity of the Jewish faith from being corrupted.

Caesar "meant well" in removing the rambling lunatic Paul's head when he refused to stop preaching his strange, cultish religion.

The ENTIRE point of my previous post was to help people look on those who struggle with suicide with empathy, compassion, and understanding, and to take special care, whether you are clergy or not, in how you address such volatile topics as the relation between mental health and faith. I will not cow-tow to guilt-mongering, clericalism, or spiritualism. I will not apologize for calling out the words of a deacon (copied verbatim, as it were) as a kickstarter to a blog post that had nothing to do with him as a deacon or a person,  or his "meaning well".

Last of all, and my final response to all of these firefights, you CANNOT know someone's intentions or meaning, whether "well" or not. I give clergy the benefit of the doubt in assuming better, but none of us here on earth have the ability to know intention in its heart. 

You can "mean well", and still cause irreparable damage.

You can "mean well" and still break someone's heart, anger them, or hurt them.

You can "mean well" and still be wrong.