National Enquirer circa 1966: "I ate my baby because God told me to."

[PCIntern]

I will never ever forget that headline and it's been 45 years. It was what awakened me as an individual to the potential insanity which can affect a person or people. When I was a kid, adults used the terms 'nuts', 'crazy' or 'insane' as pejoratives but I never understood the nature of mental illness until, as a young adolescent, I read the story in that rag. It was one of those "Aha!" moments which all of us occasionally have.

I think of the four year old boy who was killed because it was thought that he was gay: another miscreant doing "God's Work" I suppose. The difference between then and now is that there is a wholly accessible media which is promoting this brand of insanity, rather than poorly duplicated or printed tracts which used to be handed out outside supermarkets or 5 and 10 cent stores.

By the way, one other story in that particular edition of the Enquirer was one about a man who caught his arm in a threshing machine and had to cut himself free with a knife. People in the shopping line were so sickened by the headline that they were shaking their heads - my own mother told me to put the paper back in the holder and to get away from it. Now, they make films with that type of action as the centerpiece. We've come a "long way, baby".

[hlthe2b]

1. So was this story true? (NE was not averse in the early years....

to wild ass made-up stories, or those that so exaggerated the actual facts as to be essentially lies.... :shrug:

NO, I'm not questioning that mentally ill individuals have, throughout history, blamed religious messaging for their horrific deeds.