Oklahoma mother charged with using crucifix to kill 'possessed' daughter

[Eugene]

Source: Reuters

U.S. | Tue Aug 30, 2016 11:46am EDT

Oklahoma mother charged with using crucifix to kill 'possessed' daughter

A 49-year-old Oklahoma woman has been charged with first-degree murder on suspicion of killing her daughter whom she thought was possessed by the devil by jamming a crucifix down her throat and beating her, court records released on Tuesday showed.

Juanita Gomez was booked last week in the death of Geneva Gomez, whose body was found in an Oklahoma City home with a large cross on her chest, a probable cause affidavit said.

Local media said the daughter was 33 years old.

No lawyer was listed for Gomez in online jail records.

[font size=1]-snip-[/font]

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-oklahoma-murder-idUSKCN11522P

[Divine Discontent]

1. So tired of people who want to play God...

You'd wish that the moment she thought to herself, yeah, I should shove this crucifix down my daughter's throat to cure her, would make her realize she needed deep deep deep therapy.

I wonder if there was anyone else around who saw this woman preparing, or was told her intentions. This seems like some horror movie scene. That poor daughter.

[OKDem08]

2. Severe budget cuts in OK

Mental health programs are severely under-funded.

[Divine Discontent]

3. Ugh. TY, excellent info. Those programs matter!

There's millions who need counseling across this country.

I made the mistake of reading a story down the page at the link provided and seeing the details of the mother who let her 10 yr old daughter be tortured and killed in front of her. So many people being subjected to beatings or worse because they're in the custody of mentally ill people who are addicted to liquor and/or drugs.

If there was comprehensive mental health care that people could easily access, this country would be much better off.

[cleanhippie]

4. Let me save us all some time... She was mentally disturbed and this was not religiously motivated.

That's what believers will say, anyway. Considering the absurdity of religious beliefs, it can be difficult to tell where mental illness stops and religious belief begins.

[REP]

5. While I agree with most of your thesis

And I'm no friend of religion, it does seem that among the Venn diagram of "religious" and "those undergoing psychotic breaks," when those circles intersect, the psychotic delusions take a decidedly religious taint. Similar to those experiencing "near death" phenomenon; those who are religious have religious hallucinations that correspond to the culture of their religion. When I was clinically dead during a surgery, I was asleep in addition to being anesthestized, so I mainly remember waking intubated and tied to the bed.

[gratuitous]

6. Does that work both ways?

For example, the chap who was captured eating the faces of his victims didn't involve any religious artifacts at all; are we to assume that this is a result of an atheistic belief intersecting with mental illness? Or will non-believers simply say that it was not motivated by a lack of religious belief, which we can then deride as absurd?

If not, why not?

[cleanhippie]

7. No, that chap was having hallucinations from drug use.

It didn't come from a lack of belief in a god.

There is no such thing as "atheistic belief", atheism is the lack of belief in a god, nothing more.

[Schema Thing]

8. Pretty sure she was mentally ill and this *was* religiously motivated.

Severely mentally ill people act on the beliefs they held before their illness kicks in - just like everyone else. I don't know whether or not a non-believer is less likely to have killed their own offspring in a similar psychosis event (although I strongly suspect so), but I'm positive that they wouldn't have used a crucifix or believed their child was possessed.