Religiosity common among mothers who kill their own children

[Mari333]

DALLAS - Andrea Yates said Satan told her to drown her five children.

Deanna Laney said the Lord sent her signs to beat her three sons with stones.

And the night before Dena Schlosser became the latest Texas mother to take her child's life, she told her husband she wanted to give her children to God. The suburban Dallas mother was charged with capital murder for severing her 10-month-old baby's arms. Attorneys were expected to discuss her competency in court Tuesday.


In a recent study of 39 Ohio and Michigan women - all acquitted by reason of insanity in the deaths of their children since the 1970s - about 15 had religious-themed delusions, said Dr. Susan Hatters Friedman, a psychiatry fellow at Case Western Reserve University.








http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?BRD=1994&dept_id=339096&newsid=13548481&PAG=461&rfi=9

[ObaMania]

1. Absolutely... also, these are "kept" wives and...

.. they all seem to be from Texas!

Pretty messed up.

[Feathered Fish]

2. A dangerous combination

post-partum depression and religious fundimentalism.

[Maestro]

3. That is exactly what it was.

Deep post-partum depression and creepy religious beliefs. Really, this is disgusting.

[RPM]

7. oh my...

While reading the original post, I wondered how long it would take for the Texas thing to be brought up. Wasn't disappointed - first reply....

[msmcghee]

4. And Susan Smith . .

. . was strongly religious.

Her stepfather was a well-to-do Republican businessman who molested her when she was 16 - with her tacit encouragement.

I suspect that many people whose lives are confused and stressful will naturally fall into some kind of religious affiliation - or will rekindle a relationship that has waned.

Probably not as a way to improve their lives as much as to find some anchor and establish an appearance of normalcy to others - by associating with a socially approved group.

This is probably more likely in places like the South where religion is more respected within society.

[kcwayne]

5. Interesting, although Susan Smith killed her children for

a 6 inch god (or was it 4?).

Anecdotally it seems to me than whenever I hear about some very bizarre act like murdering children, extracting eyeballs, severing limbs or self mutilation, some religious perversion is involved. I would be very interested in a scientifically based data collection and analysis done in this area, on an international basis.

[trof]

6. Now that you mention it...

I've never heard of an atheist going off the deep end like that.
hmmmmm

[Feathered Fish]

8. That's a tough call

There was a terrible murder here a few weeks ago where a mother of three stabbed her oldest daughter, her husband and herself to death as well as severly injuring her middle daughter as an alleged result of post-partum depression. There was no indication that they were religious at all, but then again, they could've been.

[msmcghee]

9. I'm sure it happens . . .

. . but, I suspect a correlation in that (many) atheists are so because they rejected the idea that they needed some supernatural force to maintain their grip on reality.

These persons would be more likely to take life at face value and would know how to deal with things realistically - than persons who have spent their lives under the spell of some "mythical forces of good and evil" in the universe.

Some atheists however, are atheists out of disinterest. And that would probably be less likely to apply to them. Just a guess.

[rasputin1952]

17. I have, they just blame it on something other that "God's Will".

Besides, religious people expect agnostics and atheists to act like that, so it is not newsworthy.

If everyone actually read the Bible, and other religious texts, instead of being spoonfed garbage by people who have NO CONCEPT of what the religion asks people to do; ie Christianity: Love, compassion, empathy, forgiveness, aiding the poor, aiding the hungry, sick and lame; and above all combating hypocrisy with truth and justice; they would have a leg to stand on.

But reading, much less instituting what you've read, is too much work.

I weep when I hear of children murdered...no matter WHAT the 'cause'.
I can not picture anything but pure love for my kids, I could never harm them. Nor can I allow others to harm children, it goes against everything I hold dear. Hug kids, smile with them, hold their tiny hands and enjoy their beauty and innocence. This is what I have found to be a good 'tenet'; and Love has never failed yet...:)

[ArkDem]

10. Yes, murdering your children is a main tenet of most

Christian religions.

[moggie]

11. I'm an atheist, but...

In a study of 39 insane murderers, 15 had religious delusions. So, 24 (a majority) didn't have religious delusions. And that's a small sample size, anyway. Let's not get carried away...

If your delusion results in you hearing a voice telling you to do things which society frowns upon, you need to rationalise this. Some people attribute the voice to God, some to the devil, some to aliens. This doesn't mean that a large proportion of religious people are murderous nutjobs.

[patcox2]

13. Good analysis.

And even more interesting because the majority of people in america purport to be religious. Therefore, if the majority of the people in this study were not, there would actually be a negative corelation.

I have no doubt that when nutty people are religious, their nuttiness is reflected in their religiousness just as it would be in any other aspect of their lives, because they are nuts. In other words, the fact that some religious people kill their children doesn't imply that religion is the cause of the behavior in question (the child killing). Its a chicken or egg thing, they probably took up extreme religious beleifs because they were insane in the first place.

As far as never having heard of a crazy killer atheist, umm, I would suggest taking your fingers out of your ears, whoever said that. Many sociopaths are atheists, and if memory serves me correctly, ted Bundy and Dahmer would be two examples. Another famous example was the "mensa murderer, I am going to go google him to see what I can find. (sociopaths are also manipulative liars and they will profess religion if they think it will help their cause, so don't believe every jailhouse conversion story, either.

[IHeart1993]

12. Religion has become the new insanity defense nt

[Silverhair]

14. So??

Most murders also like mashed potatoes. The lack of logic is the same.

[RUDUing2]

15. okay...but isn't religiousity also common among women who DONT kill their

children?

[ilovenicepeople]

16. There seems to be alot of Satanic overtones in Christianity nowadays

They didn't call satan the "great deciever" for nothing.Why is it that so many so called Christians are evil?