Lawyer: Mom too meek to stop fatal beating of son in church

[KamaAina]

http://news.yahoo.com/police-unsure-sins-provoked-attack-brothers-054706362.html

A woman charged with beating her teenage son to death inside a church felt helpless to stop an intervention that spiraled into violent punishment by others, her lawyer said Thursday.

Deborah Leonard stands charged with manslaughter in the death of her 19-year-old son, Lucas, but her lawyer Devin Garramone, said he believed other people caused the fatal injuries. Six people have been arrested in the beatings of Lucas and his 17-year-old brother, Christopher, who were pummeled with fists and kicked at the Word of Life church in New Hartford during what police have described as a spiritual counseling session to urge them to confess their sins and seek forgiveness.

Like police, Garramone said he wasn't certain what supposed conduct led to the encounter Sunday night. But he said Deborah Leonard "had no idea how far it would be taken" and didn't have the emotional strength to oppose others in a church where she'd worshipped for 30 years.

"It looks like she went along with it, and it spun out of control," he said. "This woman is so meek and timid, she didn't have the temerity to stand up to them and say, 'You're not punishing my kid. You're not doing this.'"

[alcibiades_mystery]

1. Then walk out the door and call the police

I mean, honestly.

[Major Nikon]

2. Better yet don't bring your kids there in the first place

[SamKnause]

3. If watching her sons being beaten (one to death) in front of her

did not bring her out of her religious stupor, nothing will.

(She didn't have the emotional strength to oppose others in a church

where she'd worshipped for 30 years.)

Something is very wrong with people who put their religious beliefs

above the well being of their family.

Shaking head is disbelief.

[exboyfil]

4. Why manslaughter?

[2naSalit]

5. Sounds like murder

one. How could it be anything else?

Religion is about controlling the lives and actions of others based on fear and guilt.

[exboyfil]

10. Religion aside

Beating someone to death is murder whether you are a father/mother and crazy congregation or a cop (see recent death after tasering a restrained man in the genitals).

[2naSalit]

13. Indeed.

[Brickbat]

6. "The parishioners so firmly kept to themselves that when a fire broke out a few years ago, they

extinguished it themselves and didn't want to let firefighters in, Inserra said."

Honestly, we can't imagine what any of those people are experiencing.

[Rex]

7. Bullshit, the parents TRIED to say their son was shot to hide what they did!

They lied to the hospital to keep their worthless asses out of prison! THIS IS why I say fundamentalism is a plague on mankind.

[dembotoz]

8. sounds less like a church and more like a cult

they can exert extreme pressure on an individual to conform.

proof....waco and johnstown

[exboyfil]

11. One persons cult is another person's religion

My daughter asked me if these folks were a cult. That prompted me to respond with the Reply Title.

If the older boy hadn't died these folks would be in the range of a relatively popular book among some circles.
http://www.amazon.com/Train-Up-Child-Michael-Pearl/dp/1892112000/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1444941643&sr=8-1&keywords=to+train+up+a+child

[GreatGazoo]

9. This is a cult with about 30 members from 5 families,

a closed community that homeschooled and walled themselves off from neighbors for decades.

This sentence seems odd: "...during what police have described as a spiritual counseling session to urge them to confess their sins and seek forgiveness." If the cult describes it that way it is one thing but if the police actually accept that explanation that is problematic. Hours (about 3 hours ?) of beatings ending in the death of a teenager is simply a crime. Leave the excuses and the cray cray to the trial. Murder in the 2nd degree should have been the charge IMHO.

[whatthehey]

12. 59% of US churches have congregations< 100.

Don't try to do the Pilate thing and wash your hands of these folks by pretending they are anything other than a Christian church. People always do that and it's a transparent NTS fallacy pretending they are not REAL Christians so others get to avoid any comparison to their own churches. There are about 1.8MM homeschooled kids in the US and 64% of their parents listed religion as an important reason why, so again this is not an indication of anything beyond the norm for religious folks.

Beating teenagers to death is of course, but it's just another way in which religious, not cultic or outre but just Christian, people have killed their kids for faith-based reasons, from other punishments (the Pearls made millions shilling books on how to beat your kids for Christ. Fatalities are far from unheard of) to ooga-booga primitivist nonsense like exorcisms, to relying on prayer to heal infections. It's religious people doing this. Not some weird other that you get to pretend aren't of the same faith.