Mother Kills “Possessed” Daughter

Apr 9th 2008

If anyone was wondering why there is so much anger against fundamentalist Christianity here is your answer. An Illinois woman stabbed her 6 year old daughter to death because she believed that her daughter had been possessed by a demon. Next to the child’s body were found an image of Jesus, May and Joseph. According to the story the woman had no problems with drugs or mental illness so no using that as an excuse.

I briefly mentioned a story from last month about a family that prayed while their daughter died of an easily treatable medical condition. There was also another case last month where a 15 month old girl died of an easily treatable condition because her parents did not believe in antibiotics. Thats three preventable and tragic deaths in less than two months directly caused by superstition and a belief in magic. I’m sure there have been more that I don’t know about as well.

As far as I am concerned there is no difference between these deaths. It makes no difference that one family stood by and did nothing while their daughter died or that the mother stabbed her daughter. They are all equally dead and their parents are equally at fault. However the fault does not stop at the parents but also the church’s and preachers that spread the fundamentalist Christianity that caused these tragedies.

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Comment by SEAN

2008-04-09 13:35:26

Fundamental Christianity says thou shalt not murder. Fundamental christianity does not instruct one to kill a child that is demon-possesed in any sense. So the mother’s idea to stab her 6 year old daughter did not originate from the bible or fundamental christianity. Also I have never seen a bible reference that instructed one in the use of antibiotics. All I can think of that would be related is Paul’s instruction to a someone to drink a little wine for their ailment. I don’t know enough facts about your second example to comment on it. Overall it seems these people acted in an incosistent way toward the bible. Do you really think that the author of the bible, God would do such harm to innocent people? Only God has right to take life in such a way and He instructs people to preserve life. Thus we have laws of not murdering and not stealing.

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Comment by William

2008-04-09 14:36:35

SEAN - “Fundamental Christianity says thou shalt not murder”

You should study your Bible again. There are many passages where God commands his followers to kill. For example Deuteronomy 13, Exodus 22, and 2 Chronicles 15 commands Christians to kill anyone who follows another religion, Exodus 22 demands death to witches, Leviticus 20 demands death to children who curse at their parents, and Exodus 31 demands death to anyone who works on the Sabbath. There are dozens more examples but I think you get the point. So while the Bible does not specifically state to kill possessed children, it can be inferred by its demands for murders of everything non-Christian.

SEAN - “I have never seen a bible reference that instructed one in the use of antibiotics”

What a dumb statement. Antibiotics were not invented until the late 1930’s or so. How in the world would tribesmen (The Bibles authors) wandering around the middle east write about them?

The bible does say that prayer will cure sickness, and that is what those families were relying on when they killed their daughters. James 14,15 “Is any one of you sick? He should call the elders of the church to pray over him and anoint him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise him up. If he has sinned, he will be forgiven.”

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Comment by SEAN

2008-04-10 08:26:13

I would like to suggest that the “thou shalt not kill” statement in the bible is better translated thou shalt not intentionally and with premeditation, murder another. And I draw this conclusion based on the context and the hebrew words for kill. That is why the mother who stabbed her 6 year old daughter was clearly doing a wrong and in contradiction to the bibles commands. I would like to refer you to this short essay on meaning of kill - http://www.godandscience.org/a.....tkill.html

Also check out this explanation given by biblestudy.org website -
Q. I am studying the 10 commandments. Please explain the Sixth commandment “thou shall not kill.”

A. The commandment “thou shall not kill” (Exodus 20:13; Deuteronomy 5:17), is better understood to mean “you shall not murder,” most modern translations of the Bible rendered it this way. According to the Bible not all killing, the taking of a life, is murder. Murder is the unlawfully taking of human life. The command not to murder applies to human beings, not to killing animals or plant life for food. God gave animals to mankind for his use (Genesis 1:26-30; 9:1-4). But, this does not mean that humans have the right mistreat animals and the environment (Genesis 2:15; Deuteronomy 22:6-7; 25:4; Proverbs 12:10). Under the Old Covenant God allowed the Israelites to kill other humans under very special circumstances such as punishment for certain sins, for example, murder (Exodus 21:12-14, Leviticus 24:17, 21) and adultery (Leviticus 20:10, Deuteronomy 22:22-24). God also allowed the Israelites to engage in warfare and even gave them instructions about waging war (Deuteronomy 20:1-20). God also recognized that humans might accidentally kill each other, and he made provisions for this (Numbers 35:9-34; Deuteronomy 19:1-13).

The primary reason God hates murder is that out of all creation, only human are made in the image of God (Genesis 1:26-27; 9:4-6). Even before the codification of the Ten Commandments at Mount Sinai the murder of other human beings was wrong (Genesis 4:8-12; 4:23-24; 9:4-6; Exodus 1:16-17). While on earth, Jesus spoke out against murder (Matthew 5:21-26; Mark 10:17-19). We also see in the writings of Paul (Romans 1:18, 29-32; 13:8-10; Galatians 5:19-21), James (James 2:8-11; 4:1-3), Peter (1 Peter 4:15-16) and John (Revelation 9:20-21; 21:7-8; 22:14-15) that murder is wrong.

Comment by William

2008-04-10 16:33:45

Its always fun to watch fundamentalists try to rationalize the many contradictions in the Bible without admitting that their supposedly infallible book is hopelessly self contradictory.

Comment by gmknobl

2008-04-11 14:56:50

I always get a laugh out of this myself. If you take the bible literally, you’ll be wrong in it’s interpretation. Jesus usually spoke using symbolism. Kill, murder, yeah, we know there’s a difference and the OLD testament probably meant murder, not kill, but I’m not a true biblical scholar. You can also do the same thing with “turn the other cheek.” It can and had been taken by many to be a Jiu-Jitsu type reference to using the other’s force against them and also to NOT mean, let them do to you what they will. However, taking Jesus’ life and actions as a whole, it is very doubtful he ever meant anything other than the more commonly held peaceful interpretation of this.

So, why is there all this contradiction here in interpretation? Because people always have differences in anything. People aren’t perfect. And regardless of what you want to believe, it is a fact that people wrote and compiled the Bible. That makes it imperfect. Sure, it may be the “word of God,” or logos, but anytime man get in contact with that, you will have errors. Mankind was given free will, and that includes the ability to make errors. No one is perfect. Despite what radicals may teach, those who put together the bible were prone to error therefore the bible is prone to error. Does this make the bible wrong in it’s main message, especially in the New Testament? No. But it is how us fallible humans interpret it that allows for it to be misinterpreted.

Now, fundies, I want to hear you talk about the origins of the Book of Daniel. Was Daniel a real person? Did he do all those things in that book? Let’s have a discussion!

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