http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gjGTfeinqzkG4UejsZ2BFyLeIazw?docId=ba5e418018014347ab0496f0a1c251fb

"During an initial interview, Lawson said she believed her children were possessed by demons, according to police. She also said she could not take Jezaih's temper tantrums.

Police said she told them she gave both children doses of oil and vinegar, but that she left her 10-year-old daughter alone when she spit it out.

According to the court document, the daughter told police how Lawson put Jezaih's body on a couch and called her over to say goodbye to her brother. The girl said her mother then placed Jezaih on a bed and told her to pray over her dead sibling."

Possessed by demons? What an idiot.

It seems that this sort of foolishness is on the upswing. So we'll have much, much more of it in the future to look forward to. Or dread. Take your pick.

voltaire Wrote:
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> Possessed by demons? What an idiot.
>
> It seems that this sort of foolishness is on the
> upswing. So we'll have much, much more of it in
> the future to look forward to. Or dread. Take your
> pick.

Idiot? Sounds mentally deranged.

The idiotic crap people do in the name of religion.
It's a mental illness!

That's the most horrible thing I've seen in a long time. I feel even worse about the daughter who saw the whole thing and has to live with that for the rest of her life.

Sounds to me like she was mentally ill. who is to say she wouldn't have done something similar even without religion?

"mental illnesses".
I have seen people go from being normal and rational to believing that the "Holy Spirit" was possessing them to babble in some kind of "prayer language". People really get crazy over this stuff.
Muslims and ancient Hebrews would murder their own daughters because of religion. RELIGION.

I'd say it is more accurate to say that mental illness often takes a religious form in religious people. That doesn't mean religion necessarily caused the problem in the first place.It is possible but by no means certain. Mental illness is often cause by a problem in brain chemistry. This woman may have done the same basic thing with a variation or two or something worse if she hadn't been religious.Mental illness is a disease.Do we blame religion if someone gets cancer? Not ususally.

AS I have said, I know people who started out normal, joined a true-believer type of religion, and are now shutting themselves in a prayer closet and babbling and waging spiritual warfare.

And it very well might have been their crazy that led them to seek out that religion in the first place.

BadGirl Wrote:
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> AS I have said, I know people who started out
> normal, joined a true-believer type of religion,
> and are now shutting themselves in a prayer closet
> and babbling and waging spiritual warfare.

Appearing normal and actually being normal are not the same thing. Mentally healthy people do not do things like that and crazy people can appear normal until set off..

OK, I'm starting to like you.

Eh, crazy people are just crazy. Religion is just the framework that some of them organize their crazy on.

Either way--it's tragic. Poor child.

readthissomewhere Wrote:
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> Eh, crazy people are just crazy. Religion is just
> the framework that some of them organize their
> crazy on.
>
> Either way--it's tragic. Poor child.

That is my point. This is tragic, but I am not sure it is the fault of religion per se. Crazy is crazy. If she had been an atheist who killed her child because she thought her dog had ordered her to do it, we wouldn't be blaming it on atheism. I need a few more facts before I blame this on religion.

Yes, I agree with you in mildly disagreeing with BadGirl in blaming religion for that woman's actions. That was my point too--that religious belief or activity does not cause mental illness in the mentally healthy. However, the troubled may be attracted to certain elements of religious life, in turn giving the appearance of causation.

readthissomewhere Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Yes, I agree with you in mildly disagreeing with
> BadGirl in blaming religion for that woman's
> actions. That was my point too--that religious
> belief or activity does not cause mental illness
> in the mentally healthy. However, the troubled
> may be attracted to certain elements of religious
> life, in turn giving the appearance of causation.

I agree totally.

you find her reasoning. He was 3 and he was having tantrums (ho hum, what's new). She said she couldn't stand it anymore and instead of calling Nanny 911 she attributed his tangtrums to the devil and reached for the olive oil.

I'm sure she was into DIY Exorcism. But that's no mental illness--unless you consider all those religious extremists wacko, wait a minute.....

No, she's a child murderer of the mother-monster variety, who will probably plead temporary insanity.

I've had three year olds drive me crazy, haven't you? IN fact, when my kids say "Mom you're crazy, I'm quick to point out they drove me there and opened the car door."


Anagrammy

There is another possibility. She just lost it and is working on an insanity defense

The question is who put the idea in her head that tantrums were caused by demons? Who put the idea in her head that olive oil had magical properties against demons?

It sounds like she was a poor single mother without much education, and probably came from a home that lacked proper parenting models. I don't think she meant to kill her child. I do think it was a tragic accident caused by ignorance and incorrect mental models of how to deal with children who act up.

helemon Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> The question is who put the idea in her head that
> tantrums were caused by demons? Who put the idea
> in her head that olive oil had magical properties
> against demons?
>
> It sounds like she was a poor single mother
> without much education, and probably came from a
> home that lacked proper parenting models. I don't
> think she meant to kill her child. I do think it
> was a tragic accident caused by ignorance and
> incorrect mental models of how to deal with
> children who act up.

I agree with you that the idea of pssession came from religion, but if she is mentally ill, and it sounds like she is, she would probably have done something else to her child as a result of her delusions. Maybe she would have burned him to death to rid his body of aliens from the planet , Zoran or had a vision where her dog tolsd her to torture him for some reason. The point is, she would still have been ill.

On top of the strange exorcism-by-vinegar-and-oil method, she apparently didn't have the wits to dispose of the body which she kept for 13 months in a tote bag and even took it with her when she moved residences.

Also, can you imagine the terror that her 10 year old daughter suffered? Seeing her mother kill her little brother and probably too frightened of her crazy, violent mom to tell anybody?