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A toddler whose remains were found inside a suitcase in Philadelphia in the spring was starved to death by members of a religious cult, including his mother, in part because he refused to say “amen” after meals, police said.
Ria Ramkissoon, the mother of Javon Thompson, was charged Sunday with first-degree murder in the boy’s death, and Baltimore police said Monday that three other members of a group called 1 Mind Ministries have also been charged with first-degree murder. Police and Ramkissoon’s family said the group is a cult.
Members did not seek medical care for Javon when he stopped breathing, and the boy died in his mother’s arms, according to court documents that described police interviews with a confidential informant and two children. He would have been about 19 months old when police say adults stopped feeding him in December 2006.
Where does being a True Believer leave off and cult member begin?
Its the lack of compassion that scares me. These people feel so holy but lack any compassion.
Its more about rules and beliefs then anything else. I pity the mother who has to live with the death of her child.
Ftards !
The moment you give up your volition and allow others to control your life, you’re in a cult. Almost all organized religions are cults in one form or another.
They should get LIFE WITHOUT PAROLE – OR MEALS, A SHORT SENTENCE !!!
Eidard,
They are ALL CULTS, SOME ARE JUST ***MORE VICIOUS*** THAN OTHERS !!!
p.s. Please delete previous partial post, my digital dyslexia got the better of me !
“Where does being a True Believer leave off and cult member begin?”
When you start forcing others to believe like you do. Of course that would make pretty much all religions cults at some time in their history.
We should treat religion like we should treat drug use. You can do it all you like until you start infringing on an others life and liberty.
The child clearly couldn’t survive on his own.
“Where does being a True Believer leave off and cult member begin?”
So, some murderous wackjobs in Philly who decide to go off the spiritual reservation kill a child and suddenly all believers are suspect?
PUHLEASE. I think it’s safe to say that when this happens, you can pretty much call it a cult.
#6 paddler, “When you start forcing others to believe like you do.”
Which would also include most political groups, employers, etc.
#4, JimD,
Why do you want the mother to suffer like that? That puts you on the same level of depravity as her and her cult.
A civilized society punishes / corrects people. We don’t seek retribution.
#10, unions, colleges, enviro nut groups, governments, ..
all religions are cults……
enough said….
How does that go again? … “feed a cult, starve a child”? Or is it “starve a cult, feed a child”? I can never remember.
That kid deserved it and will rot in hell because no one defies the Lord and gets away with it.
[Angel you holy bastard! – ed.]
I did a bit of research on the meanings of the words cult and religion for a post on my own blog a while back, where I attempted to make the point that cult was a bad word and should not be used.
I was wrong.
Here’s the conclusion I came to from reading a pretty good unabridged dictionary I have. I’m going to pick the definitions I find most relevant.
cult n
4. a group or sect bound together by devotion to or veneration of the same thing, person, or ideal.
5. Sociology a group having a sacred ideology and a set of rites centering around their sacred symbols.
6. a religion that is considered or held to be false or unorthodox, or its members.
religion n. 1. concern over what exists beyond the visible world, differentiated from philosophy in that it operates through faith or intuition rather than reason, and generally including the idea of the existence of a single being, a group of beings, an eternal principle, or a transcendent spiritual entity that has created the world, that governs it, that controls its destinies, or that intervenes occasionally in the natural course of its history, as well as the idea that ritual, prayer, spiritual exercises, certain principles of everyday conduct, etc. are expedient, due, or spiritually rewarding, or arise naturally out of an inner need as a human response to the belief in such a being, principle, etc.
That last def is a bit long-winded for my taste, but very clear. So, it seems to me now that all religions are cults but not all cults are religion. And, I guess I have to concede that the words are different enough to need both. Oh well. I’ll probably use cult more often now that I know this, since I hold all religions to be equally false, thus rendering them cults by def 6, for me at least.
One might even argue that cult is the more benign form and religion the more malignant. Certainly religions are more delusional than the non-religious variety of cults.
#16, Scott,
Good post.
The first mental image to pop in my head while reading the cult definition was that of a Green Bay Packer with an orange wedge on his head. Or maybe one of those TV ads where they paint their bodies in team colors.
So maybe the definition of “cult” could include “absurd”.
Not one of you posters ended with an Amen.
No supper for you.
Praise Jesus!!
AMEN
Shame on me for making light of such a tragic event.
I’m sure some religious asshole is going to make a glorifying movie about this kid’s death… just like they glorified the sadist “Mother Theresa”. Anyway, it won’t be shown on my DVD player.
When you stop feeding a kid that young because they don’t talk.
Send them to God and let him sort them out.
a religion is just a cult with a better PR department …
I wonder what cult it was? Was it the Catholics, the Baptists, Lutherans, Protestants? Which religion kills the most babies or molests the most boys? Is there a contest going on between this fuckwits that we don’t know about?