"She wasn't delusional, because she was following a religion"

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/03/28/AR2009032801936.html

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.

Well, good news for Satanists or somehting then. Um...

poor little boy :( i can't even imagine a delusion or belief strong enough.

It is a terrible article :( But its interesting too, this line between religious belief and delusion.

The home video :-( :-(

And the mother still convinced he will be resurrected. How can that not be delusional?!

Oh, ye of little faith!

More like she's delusional because she was following a religion am i >>>>

other way around

Legally, what happens if the boy actually gets resurrected?

"I'll have the God she's following."

LB: we shit ourselves?

"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."

hi dere new life church

After he died, they prayed over his body for days, expecting a resurrection, then packed it into a suitcase with mothballs.

I think they got confused on how to take care of a child and how to take care of wool. Were they also breastfeeding some cardigans and tea cozies?

No, srsly, this is fucked up and heartbreaking...and I think DELUSIONAL is obvious here no matter what religion they were following. IMO Jehovah's Witness moratorium on blood transfusions is delusional for the same reason.

they denied a 16-month-old boy food and water because he did not say "Amen" at mealtimes.

Had he even said his first words yet, holy shit.

If she was that convinced everything was cool and he was coming back, why hide the body? BULLSHIT

I wanna know when "I'm not delusional, this is my religion" becomes some kind of crime defense. It seems they tried to pull that here without success, but it'll only take one daft rightwing judge to set a "dont opress faith!" precedent...

"she wasn't delusional, she was following a religion" isn't a defence here, it's the opposite: preventing her from using an insanity plea. but noodle vague otm.

1 mind, more like 1 brain cell.
The more i hear about religions, the more i get annoyed.

Chrages will be dropped when child is resurrected:
http://edition.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/03/31/cult.child.death/index.html

Amen.

Terrible story.
It's always interested me - what constitutes a 'religious belief'? It's the sort of thing that's assumed when rights etc get debated but it's rarely defined. I had an interesting conversation with our HR manager about this - they can't discriminate on grounds of religion, so if I believed Monday to Friday were holy days when I couldn't work, would they still have to keep me employed? Do you have to subscribe to a 'major' religion? They didn't exactly answer me but did tell me an interesting story about someone whose religion was vampirism.

Tragic cases like this one do raise some interesting questions about where 'normal' irrational behaviour and 'delusional' behaviours meet. (If we all had to act 100% rationally or be deemed 'delusional', we'd all be delusional).

someone whose religion was vampirism.

And consequently, couldn't work during daylight hours?

large amounts of locals have spent the past week praying in front of mould on a wall that looks like jesus. or maybe it's mary. crackpots.

I do kind of consider raising yr children e.g. Jehovah's Witness to be a form of abuse.

the entire sun turned into a big Jesus face when my dad went to Medjugorje once. Apparently everyone saw it but for some reason it never made the news :(

I had an interesting conversation with our HR...

Damn, I was really pumped that you were kickin it w http://www.le-gouter.com/blog/images/hr-bad-brains.jpg and you know just exchangin some ideas about human rights and stuff.

my parents had friends when i was a kid who refused to take their children to doctors, only believed in homeopathic medicine. which led to one of their children getting very, very ill (like, near death) with a disease that i don't remember what it was -- something that could have been treated fairly easily if the treatment had involved more than herbs and berries -- and ultimately spending most of a year in a cast and a wheelchair with partial paralysis. he recovered completely, but i remember my parents being pretty horrified by it all. i think the kid's parents ended up suing their homeopathic doctor, but really, it seems to me they could have been on the hook for a child-abuse investigation.

anyway, the people in this case all deserve to go to jail forever, whatever their beliefs are. they murdered a child.

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.

Elisabeth just signalled to me in her baby sign language she's happy mommy's atheist. Seriously, wtf, my kid's 18 month old and still babbles.

I refuse to click on this (and other related) links because it breaks my heart. Kids shouldn't suffer this way. :-(

Thas what I'm sayin y'all

the entire sun turned into a big Jesus face when my dad went to Medjugorje once. Apparently everyone saw it but for some reason it never made the news :(

― EMPIRE STATE HYMEN (MPx4A), Wednesday, 13 May 2009 10:48 (5 years ago)

Did the official investigation into Medjugorie ever get published? It was supposedly finished in January this year but, as far as I can tell from a brief Google, is still unreported. Going to be a lot of disappointed old Irish ladies if that goes the wrong way.