We have previously discussed how some insanity defense cases raise actions that are identical to those of religious figures in the Bible. What is considered a divine act in the Bible remains a heinous act in the criminal code. That is the paradox involved in the case of Kimberly Lucas, 40, who killed her former partner’s two-year-old daughter after listening to a sermon of Metropolitan Community Church Pastor Lea Brown on Genesis 22 where God asks Abraham to kill his son Isaac.
The MCC boasts “over 40 years of ministry to the GLBT community and beyond” in the “worship and celebrate God’s all-inclusive love.” Brown is quoted as saying later that the sermon on obeying the wishes of God to kill a child was meant to make another point: “The message of that sermon was the message of every sermon we have here which is about the redemption and the healing that we can find in God’s love even in the face of things we don’t understand. And that’s what the message was and whatever happened in her mind, only god knows.”
Lucas was arrested for allegedly killing Elliana Lucas-Jamason and attempting to kill her 10-year-old brother of the girl before trying to kill herself. In a suicide note, she refers to the sermon of Genesis 22 and said “Lea’s sermon really, really touched me yesterday, but God never told me to stop!”
The note also reportedly blames Lucas former lesbian partner, the mother of the slain girl. The note states “In YOUR WORDS ‘WHEN YOU ARE LAYING IN BED AT NIGHT REMEMBER YOU (expletive) DID THIS TOO YOURSELF!'”
We previously discussed how acts heralded in the Bible are viewed as manifestly insane in actual cases. For a prior column, click here. For those who are mentally unbalanced, stories like that of Abraham can resonate in a dangerous way as shown in this case. The fact that such individuals may believe that they are acting under orders of God is obviously no defense and prosecutors often oppose its use as part of an insanity defense.
Some time later God tested Abraham. He said to him, “Abraham!”
“Here I am,” he replied.
Then God said, “Take your son, your only son, whom you love—Isaac—and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on a mountain I will show you.”
Early the next morning Abraham got up and loaded his donkey. He took with him two of his servants and his son Isaac. When he had cut enough wood for the burnt offering, he set out for the place God had told him about.
On the third day Abraham looked up and saw the place in the distance. He said to his servants, “Stay here with the donkey while I and the boy go over there. We will worship and then we will come back to you.”
Abraham took the wood for the burnt offering and placed it on his son Isaac, and he himself carried the fire and the knife. As the two of them went on together, Isaac spoke up and said to his father Abraham, “Father?”
“Yes, my son?” Abraham replied.
“The fire and wood are here,” Isaac said, “but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?”
Abraham answered, “God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.” And the two of them went on together.
When they reached the place God had told him about, Abraham built an altar there and arranged the wood on it. He bound his son Isaac and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood. Then he reached out his hand and took the knife to slay his son. But the angel of the Lord called out to him from heaven, “Abraham! Abraham!”
“Here I am,” he replied.
“Do not lay a hand on the boy,” he said. “Do not do anything to him. Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son.”
Abraham looked up and there in a thicket he saw a ram[a] caught by its horns. He went over and took the ram and sacrificed it as a burnt offering instead of his son. So Abraham called that place The Lord Will Provide. And to this day it is said, “On the mountain of the Lord it will be provided.”
The angel of the Lord called to Abraham from heaven a second time and said, “I swear by myself, declares the Lord, that because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son, I will surely bless you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as the sand on the seashore. Your descendants will take possession of the cities of their enemies, and through your offspring[b] all nations on earth will be blessed,[c] because you have obeyed me.”
Source: WPTV
That is the “bright” Uncle Clarence fan club.
Annie
Where did my video go? Hmmm, maybe Wordmess IS God.
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WordMess is gawd! Lawdy! Lawdy!
Praise Cheezus green bay … !
Here is another vidoe until a chivalrous knight retrieveth the one Smaug tooketh.
Where did my video go? Hmmm, maybe Wordmess IS God.
Davidm2575:
Ha, ha……………..Thank you David, had begun to think I was losing it. Now I understand the previous Mel Brooks comment. Also, for Annie. Thanks for the video. However, I must admit I never really liked Monte Python. That snippet was quite comical. Thanks guys
believer – just as a filmic note, Monty Python and Mel Brooks do the same genre of comedy, but are quite different stylistically. Having said that, they do seem to rip each other off from time to time, the endings of Blazing Saddles and The Holy Grail have somewhat similar endings..
Schulte: I was also unaware of there being 15 commandments on the tablets. Where can I find that in the Bible? I take info mostly from the Bible and several other books I have in my library. Could I possibly have overlooked that in my studies? In all my years (‘m no spring chicken) I have never heard of 15 only 10. At this point I regret the fact that I did not go to Seminary as planned, I might have heard it at least once.
Believer, lighten up. They are playing with you. The 15 commandments is from a Monte Python parody, a comedic film from 1981 called the History of the World Part 1. Moses is mocked by showing him coming down the mountain with three tablets, announcing that God has given them 15 … then he accidentally drops the third tablet, and seeing the problem corrects himself and says God has given them 10 commandments to obey. It never happened. It’s a joke, an imaginative fantasy about what might have happened.
believer – you will find the reference to the 15 commandments in History of the World, Part I.
“Kimberly Lucas proves animal spirits run the brain to a rational thinker.” -Descartes
davidm2575
…
Have you ever read Descartes? His proof of God is based entirely upon rationalism.
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“… Descartes thought that the pineal gland is full of animal spirits, brought to it by many small arteries which surround it … Descartes described these animal spirits as “a very fine wind, or rather a very lively and pure flame” … and as “a certain very fine air or wind” … He thought that [the animal spirits] inflate the ventricles just like the sails of a ship are inflated by the wind … In Descartes’ description of the role of the pineal gland, the pattern in which the animal spirits flow from the pineal gland was the crucial notion. He explained perception as follows. The nerves are hollow tubes filled with animal spirits.” (Stanford University, Descartes). Yeah, quite the rational thinker eh?
Dredd wrote: “Yeah, quite the rational thinker eh?”
That wasn’t the example I mentioned, but yes, despite your mockery, Descartes was a very rational thinker. Even your example demonstrates that.
I never understood the need to complicate one’s ontology by posting the existence of the unprovable.
And I’ll certainly never understand the need to force one’s religion on others.
Schulte:
“there were originally 15 commandments on three tablets, but Moses dropped one, so now there are only 10.”
You should credit Mel Brooks for that.
Davidm2575: ………
I was aware of the Torah having 5 books of laws and I knew that the first 5 books of my Bible contain the Laws. I did not know that the first 5 books of my Bible were called the Torah. Thanks for the correction.
I also knew the first 10 Commandments were written on tablets by God and that they were broken when Moses was angered at what he saw. But, Moses was commanded to go to the mountain so God could complete the laws, The people were not to go near or they would die. Seeing that the 5 books are so long, they had to contain several hundred commandments, how many I did not know. 613 in number, again, thanks for the lesson.
When I referred to the scroll in the arc, I meant the Parchment Scroll which is kept in the Synagogue Arc. I know the original plates were broken and that the the second set was lost, I did not know the second set was in Ethiopia being guarded there. I know I am no religious scholar so I appreciate your setting me straight.
By the way, do you answer to Rabbi or Priest?
believer – there were originally 15 commandments on three tablets, but Moses dropped one, so now there are only 10.
Bizarre, tragic, evil. Religion can be a dangerous thing.
So what do we say about the crimes of our leaders and the rich, which, committed by common citizens and the poor result in death sentences or long prison terms but in their case result in nonprosecution, even celebration of their acts of war, economic treachery?
Bettykath:
Dave:
I am truly sorry you think of religion/God as a myth and so negatively. I must be one of those weak crazies that believe in myths then. I will tell you one thing, He does exist, I am here due to a miracle. If you don’t believe he speaks to people, that is your right. He doesn’t have to speak audibly, many times it is through his spirit that you get your answers or through prayer and meditation. Besides that, meditation and prayer sometimes makes room in that ole brain to get rid of deviant thoughts. Please, Please don’t take me wrong, I am not trying to convert you. I am only sad that you can’t feel the same love I feel for my Lord. Someday when all else fails you, maybe you may consider letting his love into your life. Until then keep searching for your answers and may God Bless you in your efforts.
Bettykath: regarding the original subject of the blog, Ms Lucas, It is very apparent that she had enough anger and revenge in her that when she heard the sermon, It gave her a good argument for pleading insanity should her attempt to kill herself fail. Her goal, punish the lover. Saying God spoke to her she thought would give her a reason to kill………………… Now, regarding Abraham: When God Told Abraham to take his son and sacrifice him. God had a purpose for Abraham and to accomplish that, since Abraham’s love was so great for his son, and having free will, Abraham needed to prove to God that he loved the Lord more than the son and that he feared the Lord. When Abraham was willing to do so, God then stopped Abraham and provided the lamb for the offering.
What God/your myth asked Abraham to do, the Lord later did with his own son to save all of humanity. What possible purpose could he have had for this woman to kill two children she did not bear or have real love for?
Well, Wordmess does seem to have supernatural powers.
WordPress is an angry God.
Paul C. Schulte
Dredd – I do hope that you are not attempting to deify WordPress.
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You will have to wait for the comment to appear to determine that … oh wait … no you don’t … you respond to what you thought I said but didn’t.
WordMess eateth up one of my comments … to davidm2575.
Dredd – I do hope that you are not attempting to deify WordPress.
believer – what you eventually get to is the Uncaused Cause.
Schulte: Such a useless phrase, I prefer to think of it as God as he has no beginning and no end, therefore why not say what it is and forgo the crappy slang. I prefer to believe in the Bible and its miracles and they happen all because of the Alpha and the Omega……..GOD!
I find that I am a scientist, one decently familiar with biology, quantum mechanics, and other socially-forbidden science topics, and I have a vividly clear and well-tested scientific model of the quantum mechanical nature of the so-called “cause of existence.” Putting it on the Turley blog, is something I deem improper, however.
The model of the cause of all causes is deeply entrained in a pragmatic and thoroughly tested model of the solution of the so-called “measurement problem” allegedly in physics.
What I have come to understand is that the “measurement problem” is not actually a problem in theoretical physics, because the whole realm of physics as a science is “immensely too small” to contain a solution to the “measurement problem.’
A hint of how and why the :”measurement problem” is actually and factually a foundational problem in theoretical and applied-theoretical biology may be noticed in the famous cat of the “Schrödinger’s cat” thought experiment.
When does the wave function of the cat in the box collapse into a dead cat? When the actual cat in the box dies, hopefully, years after being let out of the box, alive and thriving after the experimenter who put the cat, the weak radiation source, the radiation detector, the vial of poison, and the vial breaker into the box comes to a sense of active conscience and opens the box to let the cat out.
Paul, I don’t know and don’t care, but if the scientists figure it out, I’ll be happy to hear what they have to say. Like I said, I don’t need to make up an answer for every question, including that one.
bettykath – the scientists have no answer except for the Uncaused Cause.
bettykath wrote: “I don’t know and don’t care, but if the scientists figure it out, I’ll be happy to hear what they have to say.”
So you don’t care, but you have no problem denigrating the answers of those who do care? If you don’t know and you don’t care, then you should not be telling people who do care that their answers are a myth.
Paul, I don’t need to provide an alternate explanation. I reject the “explanation” of some all powerful god doing whatever cannot be otherwise explained as a myth. Rejection of the myth leaves the question unanswered and that’s ok with me. It’s also ok with me if you and/or others choose to believe the myth if that makes you feel better.
bettykath – what caused the Big Bang?
Paul C. Schulte
bettykath – the Uncaused Cause is not a myth. He/She/It is the cause of the Big Bang.
I didn’t claim it was a myth. I didn’t claim it was anything. My claim is that the uncaused cause as explained by some is the myth.
Unless you can explain away the Uncaused Cause, it is not a myth.