The meme is about John Calvin, who founded Calvinism. Essentially Calvinism is the idea that if God is all knowing, then God already knows who is going to heaven and who is going to hell. God is nice to the people going to heaven, so people who are wealthy and healthy are so because they are good and going to heaven. If you are poor or had an accident, it is because God is smiting you because you are bad.
Essentially this is the root of American puritanism. In my experience of being a mentally ill person, having the thought “you have a mental illness because you are a bad person” isn’t helpful but damn it’s pervasive.
As an undiagnosed autistic raised in a conservative christian (Calvinist) home, it took me a long time to realize my depression wasn’t because I was bad but instead because God quite simply hates me / gets off on my pain.
The meme is about John Calvin, who founded Calvinism. Essentially Calvinism is the idea that if God is all knowing, then God already knows who is going to heaven and who is going to hell. God is nice to the people going to heaven, so people who are wealthy and healthy are so because they are good and going to heaven. If you are poor or had an accident, it is because God is smiting you because you are bad.
Essentially this is the root of American puritanism. In my experience of being a mentally ill person, having the thought “you have a mental illness because you are a bad person” isn’t helpful but damn it’s pervasive.
As a recovering Calvinist… oof
As an undiagnosed autistic raised in a conservative christian (Calvinist) home, it took me a long time to realize my depression wasn’t because I was bad but instead because God quite simply hates me / gets off on my pain.