The Texas Supreme Court has ruled that the Pleasant Glade Assembly of God cannot be held liable for injuries to a 17-year-old girl from an exorcism performed on her by the church members. Laura Schubert was cut and bruised and suffered lasting psychological trauma but the Texas Supreme Court said that it is all part of free exercise of religion.
The 6-3 decision could have major repercussions for people injured by churches.
What some call a “hyper-spiritualistic environment” seems more like a hyper-negligent environment to tort lawyers. Schubert in 1996 was pinned to the floor for hours and received carpet burns during the exorcism. The experience, the jury found, led her to mutilate herself and attempt suicide. The jury found that she had been falsely imprisoned and abused by the church — awarding her $300,000 (an amount later reduced to $188,000).
The jury determination of false imprisonment is particularly troubling. Since when can a church hold an individual against her will and physically harm her? If she is treated as an adult, it is clearly false imprisonment. As a minor, it would be abuse. Either way, the sweeping immunity extended in the case could allow a wide array of abuse by churches.
For a copy of the opinion, click here.
For the full story, click here.
Whooliebacon,
I think your are right. The Niblet family is growing by leaps and bounds. Must be Irish like me. By the way, Martha H., do you have something against capital letters?
I thought that I had it bad years ago with the Nuns and their disciplinary tactics. I do not remember any Exorcism injuries.
By the way Martha H., How many people have been killed in the name of religion, just in your lifetime??
Whooliebacon,
I think your are right. The Niblet family is growing by leaps and bounds. Must be Irish like me. By the way, Martha H., do you have something against capital letters?
I thought that I had bad years ago with the Nuns and their disciplinary tactics. I do not remember any Exorcism injuries.
By the way Martha H., How many people have been killed in the name of religion, just in your lifetime??
martha h:
“you puke liberals move to the upper northeast and start your own country.”
************
Now that’s a novel neo-con idea–“if you don’t love it leave it.” Oh that’s right your predecessor confederates really did try to leave in 1861 but got a little attitude adjustment and came crawling back with a little prodding from General Grant. I have an idea, what say we rescind that little surrender at Appomattox Courthouse and you guys can have all those quaint places back like Mississippi and Alabama back. You could re-institute slavery to do all your dirty work and then sit around sipping mint juleps while lamenting the glory of days gone by. Then you could rush off to Church to learn all you could learn from that First Century guidebook and then come home to beat your slaves, mate with your cousins, and then complain that those immoral liberals are ruining everything. Yeehaw!
whooliebacon:
“Niblet, russ, percy, martha h…..
….Henny Youngman, Milton Beryle,Bob Hope etc.
All famous comedians.
Niblet, russ, percy, martha h…
you all have such wonderful ideas on how religion is the bane of all society.
i implore you to go to iran, saudi arabia, yemen, and do them as much good as you have done in america with bringing out the truth behind religion.
please go. i implore you. help those poor people realize the error of their religion.
go. oh you won’t?
so you are all talk, eh. you are just brave enough to pile on christianity….and that doesn’t take much.
i have an idea.
you puke liberals move to the upper northeast and start your own country.
don’t come bother the rest of us when you get attacked and/or starve because you all are better “thinkers” and “talkers” than those that actually accomplish something.
Can this young woman bring charges for kidnapping in Federal Court?
Mespo,
Sit down and shut up! The fossils say No!
Jill
martha h:
I always thought that since puberty I had “grown some.” that’s what gives me the courage to sally forth against the likes of you neo-cons and try to inject some thought into all that raw emotion. That’s my idea of helping those who cannot help themselves.
Patty C;
That is a fine idea. I second that.
boo
I have an idea…
Instead of posting barbs on JT’s Bio, which seems inappropriate to me, perhaps, he would provide a Free-for-All ‘Chat’ section.
It could be fashioned ‘On the Hook’ – whaddaya say?
mr. mespo
will you always be an insulent little boy or will you at some point grow some.
i don’t see you helping anyone in the world at all. all i see is a complainer, a whiner.
martha j:
The foregoing was witty opinion. No facts (except maybe the “Republican shill” part), they were in my other posts which you glossed right over. If you need me to explain the difference between a fact and an opinion, let me know and I’ll start working on those flash cards.
mespo: are you unable to post an articulate paragraph or just an up-chucking of useless baseless inaccurate factoids.
martha h:
“I am still waiting for “prestigous” attorneys, such as JT, to take on a religion other than Christianity in this country, but I won’t hold my breath.”
*********************
Me too. Why not take on the crooks in the mega-churches. They are anything but Christian. I know, let’s call them what they are: Republican shills. Come on, go ahead and hold your breath. You’ll look like Cheney when someone tells him he has to follow the law!
puzzling and Gyges,
10/4 on both your posts. My friend was saying how worried he is about the increasing irrationalism in our society. He believes this keeps people in their place as it were, as the critical thought necessary for a real anaylsis of what is happening is completely discouraged. If you don’t really understand why something is happening you can’t really, (or may not even think you ought to) address it.
I find the new age movement quite egregious in this respect. For example there is an unusually high level of childhood leukemia in a township near where I live. I can’t count the number of highly educated new agers who have told me this is because of: 1. those kids’ bad karma 2. they need to learn a life lesson or 3. god is showing other people that they need to live right or they’ll get cancer. O.K., those are three dumb-ass and cruel explanations for this problem. Here’s another–that township has a lot of homes near a leaking toxic waste site. If you’re new age, that dump isn’t going to be cleaned up becuase your understanding of the problem doesn’t include a scientifically based world view. Apparently it “feels right” to blame the victims and forget about them. This attitude certainly helps the owner of the waste site, no clean ups here! So, I agree. There is a lot of damage being done in the name of religion/spirituality. It needs to stop, NOW!
gyges: Good question. People like puzzling look the other way when it is Islam but they sure love to pile on Christians don’t they.
I am still waiting for “prestigous” attorneys, such as JT, to take on a religion other than Christianity in this country, but I won’t hold my breath.
I wonder what the ruling would be if the church was a Mosque or if the exorcism had instead been part of a Wiccan ritual?
I have little hope that the continued sexual, physical, and emotional abuse of children under the guise of religious freedom will stop anytime soon. It is particularly outrageous that all three branches of government continue to turn away from confronting these outrages.
Many years ago (10? 15?) a ‘youth minister’ at a Colorado Springs invited neighborhood children to a ‘faire’ at his church. We’re talking very young children here — K-2 maybe. Many local parents agreed. Many probably thought of it as nothing more than free child care for a few hours.
Once there, the YM-from-Hell took the children into a room and told them giant bees would sting them to death unless they accepted Jesus. Giant bees would sting their parents to death. I can’t remember all of the details, just that it was wildly inappropriate for small children and many (most? all?) were reduced to tears.
Needless to say, few parents were amused. (Especially the non-Christian ones — I shudder to imagine what he told the Jewish children.) I seem to recall that the local PD didn’t think they could get far since the parents -had- given consent for the YM-from-Hell to take their kids for a few hours. Infliction of emotional distress would run into the first amendment, esp. if this is a fire-and-brimstone church that uses fear with everyone. Maybe those stories were the norm with member’s young children. Legally, when does bad baby-sitting become abuse, especially at a church?
Some parents were talking about a civil suit, but I never saw anything more on the story. By then it was months later and 100+ miles away, so not newsworthy.