Mother says she stoned sons to prove faith

[Don Claybrook]

No commentary necessary:

http://www.salon.com/mwt/wire/2004/04/01/mother_stones_sons/index.html

April 1, 2004 | TYLER, Texas (AP) -- -- A housewife said the first sign that God wanted her to kill her three boys came Mother's Day weekend when she saw her 14-month-old playing with a toy spear.

Deanna Laney said she resisted at first, but the signs kept coming. The baby came to her with a rock, and later in the day squeezed a frog, and she believed God was suggesting that she should either stab, stone or strangle her children.

A sobbing Laney recounted in a videotape played at her capital murder trial Wednesday how she smashed her sons' skulls with rocks to prove her faith to God.

"I was telling him no, and each time it was getting worse and worse, the way that it would have to be done," Laney said. "I thought it was the Lord saying to me, 'You're just going to have to step out in faith. This is faith. You can't see why. You just got to.'"

...

Laney, 39, who homeschooled her children in the tiny town of New Chapel Hill, 100 miles southeast of Dallas, has pleaded innocent by reason of insanity in the deaths of 8-year-old Joshua and 6-year-old Luke and serious injury to a child in the beating of the 14-month-old, Aaron.
(more)

[blingbling8ball]

1. 700 club

She was probably a disciple of the dark arts of pat robertson.

[BR_Parkway]

2. Where was the husband/father? How could she have never

mentioned it to him, some of these other fundies are so vocal about what they believe. Maybe he could have gotten her some help.

[mzmolly]

4. There must have been signs? I don't know that she would have told him

or not though. Often times people try to conceal the fact that they are hearing voices etc, and early signs of psychosis can be very subtle.

On a personal note, my mother is a paranoid psycho/bi-polar combo, and my step dad was always the last to know.

I was always the first to figure out that my Mom was in need of a rubber room and some medication. The thing to keep in mind is that hearing voices ect.. often comes on very slowly. I also think some people are simply more sensitive to what happens around them? I feel had to be, for survival frankly.

This story is heartbreaking. It makes me ask what more could be done?

There is so little help for the mentally ill and their families and children in this country. Unfortunately, there is still such a stigma involved with it that many don't recognize what needs to be done.

*sigh*

[mzmolly]

3. "Mother was insane" "Society failed mother and children"

This is the sad bottom line here.

What a sad and tragic story.

[ElsewheresDaughter]

5. what the fuck is happening in Texas?..damn is it in the water? the air?

:scared:

[zbdent]

6. Abraham was stopped by God

Don't you think that God would have said to this woman "Okay, just kidding! Put down that rock! You pass!"?

I think that this person took religion a liiiiiiiiiittle too seriously.

[mzmolly]

7. This isn't about religion. It's about being ill.

:shrug:

[zbdent]

8. I think the illness was there, the religion kicked her over the edge

.

[mzmolly]

9. I disagree. Many dillusional people claim God or the CIA or Al Capone

ordered them to do such and such. Religion had nada to do with this, and focusing on religion in this case, is a distraction from the REAL issues here.

[MadAsHellNewYorker]

10. exactly

religion is just an apriori ecxcuse for a crazy murderer...

[mzmolly]

12. I think the excuse is in the headlines which use religion as a tantalizing

*reason* for someone going insane.

It doesn't work that way. People who are delusional will find an avenue. Could be the TV, or a book she was reading (in this case the bible) or any number of *things* ???

Were she not "religious" she would still have been quite capable of hearing voices and committing a horribly violent act.

I don't think the courts will show mercy on her for her *religion* but they will take her illness into account.

[Zinfandel]

11. Another Texan said God told him to kill and he's president!

Bush said God told him to attack and kill in Afghanistan and in Iraq.

I'm going to use that defense in court, if I decide to kill Rush Limbaugh...God told me to.

Hey, Bush gets away with it everyday.

[mzmolly]

13. The defense is *insanity*

not religion.

The woman told the story of her halucinations, and the media is making it into a *religious* matter IMHO.

Am I missing something here?

Edited to add, I think Bush belongs in a rubber room as well!

[Zinfandel]

14. Bush tells of his vision and how god spoke to him and we know

he's insane...get real, it is religion no matter how you look at it.

A halucination is not real and phony by definition. I'm with Bush on this one God spoke to me and told me to kill Limbaugh, so we can have peace throughout the world.

[mzmolly]

15. Plenty of people have a religious life with out killing anyone

Focusing on *religion* instead of mental illness is utter bullshit.

Unless I misunderstanding your post?

Are you saying the REASON this woman killed her children is because she was *religious* and not because she was *insane?*

"Five mental health experts consulted in the case agreed Laney met the standard for legal insanity."

The reason this story is so salacious is because she had a *Godly* hallucination. Were she to say Dan Rather told her to do it, we probably would not be aware of this tragic story. Furthermore, Dan Rather would not be in any way responsible.

[derby378]

16. I think God put Deanna Laney on Earth...

...to test my religious faith!

Can we put her under the jail instead of in it?

[oasis]

17. God also told her to call C-SPAN and expose the evils of Hillary.

Stay tuned.