Another Case of Blame

Ah, two things that make people want to tear their hair and do crazy things: Religion & Politics. When the two mix, you can be sure there will be a small War. Or two.

Or a rant.

To start, this has less to do with politics and more to do with general stupidity, but, it's still enough to really get my goose. And my geese don't like to get got! Anyway. This story comes from an August 18, 2008 article on CNN. The headline has to do with a cult that prayed to resurrect a little boy.

Now, on the surface, that seems pretty cool. But, once you start to read the story, you find that it's not quite so cool. In fact, you find yourself wanting to find this cult and put them out of your misery. Especially if you're a Christian--since that's what the cult calls itself.

I'll go back to that part later.

For now. An 18 year old girl gives birth to a child, then leaves the church she's in when her pastor "betrays her trust" by admitting to molesting boys in his congregation (again...this is a rant for another time or three). Now, I'm not a parent. I have no desire to be a parent. I may be wrong in my thinking here, but, most children at the age of one are lucky to be speaking in full sentences. Yet, this young mother somehow thought it was an appropriate punishment to withhold food and water from her son because he didn't say "Amen" at the end of his prayers.

Whiskey Tango Foxtrot?!

A 1-year old not saying "Amen" after his prayers deserves to not be fed?! And they say Jerry Fallwell put the "mental" in "fundamental." After two days of not having food or water, the little boy died, needless to say. So, the cult members all circled up at the mother's home and started praying that God would resurrect the child.

God's ways are not our ways; His thoughts are not our thoughts, yada yada yada. But, I'm pretty sure that God would agree with me when I say, "...bwuh?"

Yes, God is a God of miracles, but, bwuh?! You've just killed your one-year old child because you've somehow proven the survival of the fittest theory false by your longevity and you're expecting God to fix your problem? So, when He doesn't you can whine and moan there is no God? I'll say it again: WHISKEY TANGO FOXTROT!?

I don't care if you're a member of a cult. I don't care if you're an agnostic, an atheist, a deist, a theist, a Free Presbyterian, a LOCKED-UP Presbyterian, or whatever. It's wrong in any religion to not feed a one year old baby.

It's. A BABY.

Now, I could understand, maybe, if the child was, ya know, able to actually talk in a full sentence and actually, ya know, understand what he was supposed to be doing. At one, you hardly have any cognizance about who the woman shoving her boobs in your face is, let alone why you wouldn't be allowed to eat or drink anything for two days!

To top all this off, she and the rest of the cult discovered that God wasn't going to hear their prayers and resurrect the child, so what did they do? They didn't call the authorities and say, "Hey, we may have screwed up here..." and claimed the Religious Indemnification clause--which must be somewhere in the Constitution since every group that isn't Christian claims it--so they didn't have to face too much trouble. NO! Instead! They get the brilliant idea of putting the body in a green suitcase, filling it with mothballs and dryer sheets (I assume to keep the body soft and fluffy) and carry it with them! This brings a whooooooole new meaning to the phrase, "Going Green."

Finally, they just decided to leave it behind a house in Philadelphia and re-locate to New York. A year later, the police discover it. With the body still inside. So, if you're MacGuyver and you're looking for a great way to preserve a corpse, mothballs and dryer sheets. Of course, you'll have to figure out how to make those out of duct tape and a Swiss Army knife, but you'll manage.

So, now the mother faces jail time for first degree murder. Her lawyers, however, are doing the American thing and hanging blame on the cult leaders. It's their fault! They brainwashed her! Uh...am I the only one NOT buying that? She was 20 at the time. The last time I checked, a 20 year old could make their own choices. They can say "no." They can say "I don't think that's right," or "I don't think that's going to work." Even I, reared as a fundamental Baptist, opened my big mouth to challenge every bit of doctrine crammed down my throat. Yeah, it may not be popular, but you come out with a brain.

...and rants like this...

Send the lot of them to jail. While you're at it...don't feed 'em for a couple of days and make up some story about how they didn't say the secret password....