Amos,

As a psychologist and as a physician working at a mental health center, I wholeheartedly agree with you that the DSM is, and always has been, political. I never said or implied otherwise.

In answering the question asked in the title of this thread, I first gave the answer the APA would give, when I said, "The definition of the term "delusion", from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual - Fourth Edition (DSM-IV), of the American Psychiatric Association, specifically excludes religious beliefs. So, yes, according to the APA, 'it's not delusional if it's religious'."

When physicians make a diagnosis, they don't normally just make up their own personal definitions, nor do they just follow common informal usage. If a given diagnosis has an "official" definition, they will generally use that definition. The term "delusion" has an "official" definition. A person may be, shall we say, "reality challenged" and yet not meet the standard definition of "delusional".

My PERSONAL answer to the question in the thread title is that the whole dispute is nothing but a legal red herring, that the "religious" angle is nothing but a lawyer's excuse.

Kent