Answering to a leader called Queen Antoinette, they denied a 16-month-old boy food and water because he did not say “Amen” at mealtimes. After he died, they prayed over his body for days, expecting a resurrection, then packed it into a suitcase with mothballs. They left it in a shed in Philadelphia, where it remained for a year before detectives found it last spring.
Tomorrow, five of the group’s alleged members—including the boy’s mother, Ria Ramkissoon—are scheduled to be tried in Baltimore on murder charges. Sources and Ramkissoon’s mother said Ramkissoon, 22, has agreed to plead guilty to a lesser charge on one condition: The charges against her must be dropped if her son, Javon Thompson, is resurrected.
Thompson’s lawyer insists that his client wasn’t nuts, just devout: “She wasn’t delusional, because she was following a religion.” See how that works?
So very sad.
Well I think Comte has demonstrated that you can take a sound bite from any politician, whether today or hundreds of years ago, to argue either side of an issue. Same with just about everything in the Bible. Remember these are politicians pandering to the electorate. The “Say Anything” mentality has been around as long as democracy has been.
Looks like everyone missed the following quote: “At times there can be an overlap between extreme religious conviction and delusion,” said Robert Jay Lifton, a cult expert and psychiatrist who lectures at Harvard Medical School. “It’s a difficult area for psychiatry and the legal system.” Take out the word “extreme” and I completely agree.
Shout out to Heather, YGG!
“History I believe furnishes no example of a priest-ridden people maintaining a free civil government. This marks the lowest grade of ignorance, of which their political as well as religious leaders will always avail themselves for their own purpose. ”
— Thomas Jefferson to Baron von Humboldt, 1813
“And the day will come when the mystical generation of Jesus, by the supreme being as his father in the womb of a virgin will be classed with the fable of the generation of Minerva in the brain of Jupiter. But may we hope that the dawn of reason and freedom of thought in these United States will do away with this artificial scaffolding, and restore to us the primitive and genuine doctrines of this most venerated reformer of human errors.”
–Thomas Jefferson, Letter to John Adams, April 11, 1823
“Millions of innocent men, women and children, since the introduction of Christianity, have been burnt, tortured, fined and imprisoned. What has been the effect of this coercion? To make one half the world fools and the other half hypocrites”
–Thomas Jefferson, Notes on Virginia, 1782.
The Christian god can easily be pictured as virtually the same god as the many ancient gods of past civilizations. The Christian god is a three headed monster; cruel, vengeful and capricious. If one wishes to know more of this raging, three headed beast-like god, one only needs to look at the caliber of people who say they serve him. They are always of two classes; fools and hypocrites. To compel a man to furnish contributions of money for the propagation of opinions which he disbelieves and abhors, is sinful and tyrannical.
— Thomas Jefferson, in letter to nephew
Notice something? All the “Christianity is good” statements up above were public comments. The the quotes above are from private or semi-private correspondence. It just goes to show that politicians will say somethings in public that they repudiate in private.
“My earlier views at the unsoundness of the Christian scheme of salvation and the human origin of the scriptures, have become clearer and stronger with advancing years and I see no reason for thinking I shall ever change them.”
[Abraham Lincoln, letter to Judge J.S. Wakefield, after the death of Willie Lincoln]
Thanks Yeek,
You make an excellent point. It is foolish to buy into the myth that America’s founding fathers were deeply spirtual Christians, especially if one basis their opinion on one quote. In reality they were a pluralistic group – as we are today.
By the way, Lincoln’s later writings and his devotional indicate he did change his mind, but his definition of religion was beautifully simple.
“When I do good; I feel good; when I do bad, I feel bad; and that’s my religion.”
As quoted to Lincoln’s law partner, William H. Herndon
When asked by Henry C. Deming, Congressman from Connecticut as to why he maintained a deep familiarity with the Bible, but did not join a church, Lincoln replied:
“When any church will inscribe over its alters, as its sole qualification for membership, the Savior’s condensed statement for the substance of both law and gospel, ‘Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all they heart, and with all they soul, and with all thy mind, and thy neighbor as thyself,’ that church will I join with all my heart and soul.”
“Although an inability to think critically can be a sign of brainwashing, experts said, the line between that and some religious beliefs can be difficult to discern. ” ::snicker::