OVO

Lisa Sandberg: Court reverses judgment against church in exorcisms [LINK-ZUM]

A North Texas Pentecostal church should not be held liable for emotional trauma a former parishioner suffered as a youth when church members physically restrained and touched her during two exorcism attempts in 1996, the Texas Supreme Court ruled Friday. [Laura] Schubert was 17 at the time when fellow parishioners at the Pleasant Glade Assembly of God Church in Colleyville, in an attempt to rid her of evil spirits, held her down and "laid hands" on her body as she struggled to break free. [...] In her original suit against the church, Laura Schubert said she suffered lasting emotional trauma in 1996 when, on two separate occasions in one week, church members held her down and "laid hands" on her while she cried, kicked, clenched her fists, gritted her teeth and made guttural noises. She said the ordeal left her deeply depressed and suicidal and needing psychiatric help. She dropped out of high school.

[...] "The key point of this ruling is that we don't have a right to have our standards of reasonableness foisted upon some other religion," Dallas attorney David Pruessner said. "None of our religious beliefs can be examined when they are emotionally disturbing to other people."

[Article continues at link. So there you have it. See a teenage girl you want to 'lay hands' on? Maybe hold her down against her will while she struggles to escape? And do it a few times, you and your buddies? Just do it in the name of religion and down Texas way you won't even have to pay the legal fees. Any loathesome behavior can be excused when committed in the name of an invisible monster that lives in the sky. If you falsely imprison and abuse a teenage girl in the name of an invisible monster that lives in the sky then no one has a right to have their standards of reasonableness foisted on the act. No superstition can be examined when it is emotionally disturbing to other people - not in Texas, anyhow. Can you think of any activity other than superstition that exempts one from the rule of law so thoroughly? When was the last time - if ever - that you read a similar story about those can't-be-moral atheists? - Trevor Blake]

Labels: christianity, theocracy

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