2 Brothers Were Beaten for Hours at Secretive New York Church, Police Say

[Don2 (Don1 Revised)]

NEW HARTFORD, N.Y. — After services on Sunday, the two brothers were called into a counseling session in the sanctuary of a secretive upstate church here called the Word of Life.

The session was supposed to be a chance for church members “to discuss their spiritual state,” the authorities said on Wednesday. The brothers, ages 19 and 17, were met by their parents and an older sister, as well as other congregants.

Then the counseling turned violent.

...

For several hours punches and kicks landed all over the teenagers’ bodies, he said — on their stomachs, genitals, backs and thighs.

The older brother, Lucas Leonard, was found unresponsive and not breathing the next morning by church members, Chief Inserra said. He was taken to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead from blunt force trauma.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/15/n...ng-death-at-upstate-new-york-church.html?_r=0

I am curious how much of a cause religion is here in people's opinions. Could the parents also have done the same thing if their kids were trying to eat dessert before dinner and the parents were just abusive? I think the answer is yes. But, do religious parents beat their kids more frequently? If so, is the problem that people are taught that their freedom of religion entitles them to do things like this?

 

[GenesisNemesis]

No current evidence that religion was at fault.

 

[Tom Sawyer]

No current evidence that religion was at fault.

Exactly. We can't just go around blaming religion for everything that people do because of their faith.

 

[barbos]

No current evidence that religion was at fault.

Exactly. We can't just go around blaming religion for everything that people do because of their faith.

I blame genetics, good thing is, these genes are less likely to propagate because one of the offsprings is dead

 

[Atheos]

Roman Catholic priest's comments at the end are priceless:

“This is not of God,” he said of the activities next door. “If this was of God, there would be growth. Not destruction.”

Gotta admit though, those inquisitions did manage to grow the church memberships...

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

Left him for dead, make it capital murder. Let them cry at the stand about how sorry they are or how it was mostly one of the other people and they stood by and did nothing.

 

[GenesisNemesis]

No current evidence that religion was at fault.

Exactly. We can't just go around blaming religion for everything that people do because of their faith.

Sure, they had faith in something, but it was not the modern conception of Christianity, which does not condone beating your kid to death.

 

[Bacillus anthracis]

There's a reason for everything.

It's all part of God's plan.

It's a mystery.

We shouldn't question God when this kind of thing happens because God loves us, especially the two boys that got beaten, and including the one who died a slow painful death.

And I think that about does it.