Wednesday, August 13, 2008
Toddler starved to death because he would not say 'amen'
A toddler in the US was starved to death by members of a religious cult, including his own mother, for not saying “amen” after meals.
Javon Thompson, who was 21 months old when he died, was deprived of food and water after members of the religious group, who called themselves Mind Ministries, objected to him not saying "amen" after he had eaten, according to police in Baltimore, Maryland. His remains were left in a suitcase for over a year.
Javon’s mother Ria Ramkissoon has been charged with first-degree murder, along with three other members of the group, including its leader, ‘Queen Antoinette’, 40, also known as Toni Ellsberry or Toni Sloan.
Ms Ramkissoon, 21, is reportedly also charged with child abuse, reckless endangerment and other offences in relation to her son’s death. [read all the article here]
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An innocent toddler is starved to death for not saying "Amen". Many will be sincerely shocked by this piece of news.
Others, I am afraid, if discussing with friends or acquaintances, will only be able to exhibit a sense of shock if they perceive that the prevalent sense of acceptability requires being shocked and deploring the facts. But they will be unable to have an individual, spontaneous, sincerely empathetic and direct reaction, a reaction grounded in their very flesh, as any reaction in them is subordinated to the invisible approval of some internalised powers. In other periods of our history, these same people would happily join in, or support, witch hunts and burnings or lynching activities.
Deep inside, certain devout, pious people, will feel that a toddler starved to death for the purpose of educating him to the laws of God cannot but be considered an unfortunate accident and that whoever administered such severe measures really was driven by good intentions!
Due to their upbringing, some devout people, deep inside, tend to be indulgent with 'religious crimes' because the mere fact of using the word "God", "religion", "pastor", "priest", "sin", "repent" and the like, makes their knees tremble, make them pavid and unable to express an individual, spontaneous, 'flesh' reaction.
Religion upbringing is, first and before all, an education to submission, to unconditional acceptance of authority through terror, metaphysical threats, evocation of vindictive and irascible divinities. It is, without exaggeration a form of training based upon Pavlovian principles which suffocates the natural logic of the body and of feelings, stifles creativity and free thought, turning the uniqueness of each individual into something twisted, amorphous, faint-hearted and subjected to the laws of external powers (religious, social, political etc.).
We should realise that crimes with a religious background, even when heinous, grow in the fertile ground of a mindset where humanity, empathy, critical sense, intelligence are stifled and altered by often abusive, psychologically and physically violent, inculcation - since birth - of religious content and/or of an an associated attitude of unquestioning acceptance of authority and power (under the pretext of upbringing).
Also, it is absolutely worth remembering that even in absence of evident physical violence or death, the psychological damages of religion in children are of incalculable vastity.
Too often, not only do people internalise the objectionable axiom "when it comes to upbringing a mother or a father always know best" (a "carte blanche" to unconditional power), but also "priests (or pastors) always know best", in short "power and authorities always know best". A twisted logic of power and pathology, passed from generation to generation.
Upbringing and education should pass other content instead. Content enhancing free-thinking (and the lack of fear to think), critical sense, creativity, the beauty of singularity as opposed to dull conformity, joy and pleasure in the only (tangible) world that exists.
