Lieb on Mania, Thomas on Religion

Cal Thomas and Julian Lieb (Commentary, Feb. 16) are out of their element in their treatment of religious phenomena. Thomas implies that Hopi religion is the worship of plants and animals, or “animism.” He also mocks Bruce Babbitt’s return to Catholicism.

“Animism” is a discredited category. Western anthropologists mistakenly thought that indigenous peoples believed rocks, trees, animals or celestial bodies were divine. In fact, all religions use symbols that point to invisible realities. None literally worships objects.

Julian Lieb incorrectly compares Hitler and Stalin to Jim Jones and David Koresh. He may know something about mental illness, but he does not understand historical analysis; sectarian movements, such as the Branch Davidians, are not induced psychoses, but religious phenomena. Hitler and Stalin are two anomalous cases, hardly a demonstration that all or most genocide is caused by psychotic leaders, or that manic-depressives are dangerous people.

Not all religion is “good,” but it is religious, and must be studied in comparison with other religious phenomena.

JEAN ROSENFELD

Tarzana

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* Lieb’s “Hatred Often Lurks in the Shadows of Mania” is one of the most stigmatizing articles against persons with mental illness that I have ever come across. I have been fighting a battle with mental illness for five years. I am a facilitator in a peer support group of people trying to cope with manic-depressive illness. There is tremendous stigma and prejudice against people with mental illness in our society. We suffer discrimination in housing, employment and social relationships. Lieb’s article just made life that much harder for us.

According to Lieb, I and my fellow sufferers of manic-depression are now in the company of Hitler, Stalin, Jim Jones and Koresh. Lieb’s premise is that a person that does evil deeds is in reality a manic-depressive not yet on medication. This is absurd. You can medicate against depression or mania but you cannot medicate someone evil into someone good.

And what about the thousands of SS officers also guilty of war crimes? Were they supposed to be manic-depressive too?

FRANK C. BARON

Los Angeles

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* The fact that Thomas is unable to detect even a reflection of divinity in his pet cat, while easily recognizing it when he looks in a mirror, demonstrates the moral and intellectual poverty of his philosophy more effectively than volumes of rebuttal ever could.

TIMOTHY R. RYAN

Capistrano Beach