Tx. Sup. Ct. OK's Religious Child Abuse

At least they are consistent. A few weeks ago, the Texas Supreme Court decided it was OK for the FLDS cult in West Texas to abuse children, and ordered those children to be returned to the abusive environment. Now they have defended the right of another church to abuse youngsters -- this time the Assembly of God.

It seems that the Pleasant Glade Assembly of God in Colleyyville decided that a 17 year-old girl was possessed by a demon. Without her permission, or the permission of her parents (who were out-of-town at the time), the church members decided to perform an exorcism. They grabbed the girl and held her down while an exorcism was done.

She was not only physically bruised, but was so emotionally scarred from the incident that she later tried to commit suicide and was diagnosed with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. I would have thought any reasonable person could see this was a case of abuse.

That's what the parents thought, and they filed suit against the church. A jury held the church liable and awarded the family $300,000. A Fort Worth appeals court later lowered the award to $122,000. Still, the church was held responsible for its actions. But the church again appealed the decision -- this time to the Texas Supreme Court.

This is where things went wrong. The Texas Supreme Court decided in a 6-3 decision, that even though the church did damage the girl emotionally and psychologically, they could not be held responsible. They overturned the verdict.

Justice Medina (who has his own legal and ethical problems) wrote the majority decision. He said since the injuries were caused by a religious activity sanctioned by the church, if the court imposed any legal liability for that religious activity "to which the church members adhere would have an unconstitutional 'chilling effect’ by compelling the church to abandon core principles of its religious beliefs. "

He went on to write, "Religious practices that might offend the rights or sensibilities of a non-believer outside the church are entitled to greater latitude when applied to an adherent within the church."

In plain English, any church can abuse its own members (even minors) without their consent (or their parent's consent) as long as they claim a religious reason for the abuse. This is a breathtakingly bad decision, even for a Republican court.

No one should be able to use religion to cover for abuse.

Religion Taken Too Far

Many christians (and other religious fanatics) want to view the entire world as just a battle between good and evil -- between God and the Devil. They even take this view into the lives of ordinary humans. Free will is not nearly as important as the influence of God and Satan.

If a person shows some weakness or imperfection, makes a mistake, or just disagrees with how these people view the world, then it must be the effect of Beelzebub or his minions. Whereas, people who show strength, make good decisions, or just agree with their world view have been helped or "graced" by God or Jesus.

This religious world view gives humans very little credit for the good or evil they do. A common example of this kind of thinking is an athlete that thanks Jesus because he won. It makes me wonder why Jesus didn't like the other athletes. Is the winner saying he is a better person, purer in heart or prayed harder than the others? It strikes me as a backhanded and religious way of boasting. The race goes to the swiftest -- not God's favorite.

Most of the time, this kind of irrational behavior is just irrating, but when it's taken to its logical conclusion it can become very hurtful or even dangerous. Take the example of Jon David Clark of Odessa. He is now in the Ector County Jail charged with murder. Why? He took his religious views to their logical conclusion.

His wife was not acting as he thought was "godly", so he decided she was possessed by the devil. He then decided he must perform an exorcism, so he got on top on her and pinned her to the floor face down until she died. But he says it's not his fault. The Devil entered his body while he was on top of her and caused her death. Ridiculous!

Whether there is a God and Devil is unimportant to this discussion. Either way, we must stop blaming them for our own or other people's behavior. Humans make their own decisions and should be held responsible for those decisions. If you hurt another person, you should be punished. If you help another person, you should be praised.

God didn't make you do it, and neither did the Devil.