13-Year-Old Boy Killed by Deeply Held Religious Beliefs of His Parents

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A friend sent me this as a “cut n’ paste”. I did fact-checking and I’m sorry to say that this story is true in all particulars (see this and this and this).

BMD

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The parents of 13-year-old Alex Radita are on trial for murder in the death of their son. Members of the Romanian Pentecostal Church in Calgary AB, the parents had deeply held religious beliefs against seeking medical treatment for their son. Alex had Type 1 diabetes and other illnesses. His parents stopped his treatments. They declared that if he could find a way to survive without insulin and dietary regulation, he’d live… if not, they’d know that his death was God’s will. By the time of his death, Alex weighed less than 40 pounds. After his death, his family and members of the Pentecostal assembly prayed over him for some hours, expecting that God would raise him from the dead. Only after these prayers were over did they call 911 to report his death.

SOME DEEPLY HELD RELIGIOUS BELIEFS CAN BE FATAL, USUALLY TO THE INNOCENT. Remember the hieromonk who killed a young woman in northern Romania a few years ago by trying to exorcise the schizophrenia out of her. Yes, there are limits on religious freedoms, and well there should be, since we see occasions when the deeply held religious beliefs of some groups turn out to result in homicide. It does matter if it is somewhat rare for this to happen in North America, even once is too often. Alex Radita was a human sacrifice to his parents’ deeply held religious beliefs. He should be alive now and looking forward to his 14th birthday. It would be useful for someone with the time and ability to research how often incidents of this have occurred during the last century. Take into account the forbidding of blood transfusion by certain religious groups (based clearly on Scripture) and the refusal to turn to medical doctors by some others. In addition, we should review the episodes of death due to exorcisms and publish them along with the others.

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Be careful with the term “sincerely-held religious beliefs”… you could end by justifying violence and bigotry. This isn’t an isolated case, sadly enough… be especially wary of homeschoolers and those who advocate physical punishment of children… they cloak evil under the guise of “Christianity”. All too many of them are “nice” and “respectable” people, so externalities often cloak a pietistic and smarmy apologia for violence and rightwing indoctrination. Have a care… we live in evil times; some of the worst sorts justify their ill will and crank notions with saccharine religious platitudes. Our children suffer…

BMD

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12 July 2014. My Comment in Another Forum on the Hobby Lobby Abomination

THIS is David Green’s attitude to the rights of others… only his count, dontcha know! “I’ve got mine and you have NO say at all!” Any questions?

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Corporations aren’t people… ergo, they can’t have religious beliefs. Even the slow learners know that. Therefore, the decision is crank from the git-go. It’s a dodge by the owners to use religion as an excuse to impose their values on others. It’s clear… you may hold whatever belief that you wish, but you may not use the police power of the state to impose it on others. That goes for the Catholic Church, too… many of its employees aren’t Catholics, so, they can’t impose Catholic teachings on them via birth-control restrictions. By the way, I’m not a secularist, I’m an Orthodox Christian… we do allow artificial birth control via oikonomia.

The stipulation is clear… no one may use the law to push their religion or to coerce others to follow this-or-that tenet of their faith. That’s the long and the short of it.

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Let’s give you a little detail that wasn’t in the original comment. The owner of Hobby Lobby, David Green, is a religious nutter (an anti-Christian Pentecostalist) who attributes his success to “my faith in God” (he’s one of the “elect” because he’s “successful”… that idea has bedevilled the Prods ever since the time of Calvin). He takes half of his pre-tax profits and uses it to finance crackbrained “Evangelical” projects such as the so-called “Liberty University” (it’s neither free nor a university in the best sense of the word). If you can avoid it, DON’T patronise Hobby Lobby. Burwell v. Hobby Lobby is bad law… it’s a new Plessy v. Ferguson… it deserves the same fate. It creates a “separate but (in)equal” situation… the rich can use “religious belief” as a cudgel to avoid whatever law they wish to. No real Christian supports this decision… reflect on that… Christ would NOT have used such a tactic, no siree!

BMD

18 June 2014. Freedom Isn’t what the Republican Party Says It Is…

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The righties perpetually scream about “freedom”… yet, they’re bound hand n’ foot in the grip of the one of the most wicked consumerist ideologies ever seen. The ones most in thrall to this vileness are so-called “Christians”… “Born Agains”, Mormons, and Pentecostalists. That’s why Orthodox should keep far away from concepts spawned by such people… they’re not only heresy, they’re all-too-often indecent idolatry of the Great God Mammon. Yet, some of us think that the Church should become more like “Evangelicals”. I’d say, “What does radical 19th century sectarianism have to say to Christianity? NOTHING”. If you want FREEDOM, then, stay away from “Evangelicals”, the Republican Party, and the Rat Race. Yes, stay away from them… that’s what Christ and His Church bless. Think on it… do put those placards away and do stop blathering about “tithing”…

BMD

2 June 2014. Proddies Issue Crank Map of “Most Bible-Minded Cities”

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Read this. Read it? Good! It’s a crock o’ shit from stem to stern. I’d say that it’s nothing that good Orthodox Christians should get involved in. Note well that all the top “Bible-minded” communities are in the Baptist Bible Belt. They put Albany NY, where I live, as next-to-last, but I’ll say that there are plenty of churches and synagogues. Granted, we don’t have any of the phoney mega-churches here, with their entertainment masquerading as worship and their surrender to lowest-common-denominator suburbanite zeitgeist. That means that the American Bible Society is saying, without blushing, that they only consider “Evangelicals” and those like them to be Christians. That’ll be news for all the good Catholic, Orthodox, Lutheran, Reformed, and Anglican people… we had the baroque notion that not only are we Christians, but that our pedigree goes back further than that of the upstart American Radical Sectarians (“Evangelicals”, Pentecostalists, Mormons, and other such Modern American Sects). It leaves the Jews out in the cold (I had the vain idea that they were religious people, apparently not, according to the ABS!).

This is why Orthodox Christians should have as little as possible to do with so-called “Evangelicals” and their works… they don’t consider us Christians! “Bible-believing Christian”… what an oxymoronic phrase… there was a Church before there was a Bible, and don’t ever forget that. In fact, what the above map indicates is where bibliolatry is the strongest… that’s the elevation of the Bible into an idol. Yes, you can fall off the rock on the right-hand as much as you can fall off it to the left. Have a care… there be dragons… some of them are “nice” and smile overly much. There be cowpats in that there field for the unwary…

BMD