'Cult' Starved Toddler Who Wouldn't Say 'Amen'

[Lace Neil Singer]

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,402004,00.html

"A toddler whose remains were found inside a suitcase in Philadelphia this spring was starved to death by members of a religious cult, including his mother, in part because he refused to say "amen" after meals, police said."

[Shangri-laschild]

"My daughter was a victim, just like my grandson," Khadan-Newton said. "Somebody made that decision to not feed that child, and my daughter had to follow instructions."

Of course. Her daughter could never do any wrong. Which explains why she tried to petition to courts to get custody of the kid.

[Sylvia727]

That's fucking sick. I try not to use gratuitous language, but there is no other word to describe how evil this was.

Of course. Her daughter could never do any wrong. Which explains why she tried to petition to courts to get custody of the kid.

Possibly. In domestic abuse situations, the abuser often maintains control by enlisting one victim against another. That's why battered wives will watch, but not stop, their husbands as they beat their children. The victims often feel that they have no choice but to cooperate, that if they cause problems then everyone will be worse off. The grandmother could very well have sought to remove the child from an abusive situation she could not remove the mother from.

That being said, this woman was his mother. She had an obligation to this child far beyond that of fellow human being. She was responsible for his life, and she failed him, at the very least. Starvation didn't happen overnight. She knew he was dying and she didn't take him away. That sounds like murder to me, even if it wasn't her decision to starve him.

[DesignFox]

That is so disturbing.

[MadMike]

It's situations like this that make me say that religion causes more problems than it solves.

Believe it or not, I'm not blaming religion itself. Religion is a tool, and tools are inanimate objects, and as such can be neither good nor evil. It all depends on the person using said tool. Religion was meant to give people hope and give people guidelines on how to treat each other. Sadly, throughout history, it's been misused to mistreat people and to separate people into superior and inferior groups.

If there is a God, I imagine he'd be pretty pissed at the atrocities that have been carried out in His name throughout history.

[Flyndaran]

It's situations like this that make me say that religion causes more problems than it solves.
...

Religion is a feel good mantra. No matter what horrors you commit, if it's what god wants, then there's no need to feel bad or suffer nightmares.

Being good to people is the obvious human basic urge. Religion says be good only to X people.
Being bad to people makes most humans feel bad. Religion says it's okay to be bad to X people.

Any action or thought carried out in anger is almost automatically wrong and destructive. Yet look at all the angry religious people.