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I _Tom HodgesThe devil you say!On Aug. 22 an innocent 8-year-old boy, afflicted with autism, died a frightening, unnecessary death at the hands of an organized religion, committed to the belief that the boy had been overcome bvdemonic spirits; that the only cure for his malady was subjection to exorcism, a procedure historically defined as the casting out of evil spirits by those empowered by God to issue the exit commands. That little Terry Cottrell’s death was'terror-filled was substantiated by his grandmother’s statement that, “They held the.boy down, they . held him down until... lie went to a smothery grave.”Two years ago in New Zealand the Rev. Yong Bum Lee strangled a female church member as part of a ritual exorcism.To subject an 8-year-old autistic boy to a procedure in which he was held down and smothered seems pretty close to a “malignant heart” and a “wanton disregard for human life. ”Believing that the victim’s considerable supply of evil spirits had lodged in her throat he then vigorously squeezed it until all the spirits left. He obviously was not skilled enough to evacuate the evil spirits and leave those behind that controlled her autonomic bodily functions, e.g. breathing. Not only did the Rev. Lee kill the parishioner, he continued to pound on her body during five days of death in which her now empty container began to decay and reck, while all the time assuring her family that she would arise shortly . A colleague eventually summoned authorities. According to4journalist Tony Strickland, Lee told the Hi ah Court in Auckland that the woman would eventually return ... a total human being in the flesh.” ; ;The ritual of exorcism has been around,, for thousands of years, it had its early origins in the East, including China, India, ; Tibet and Siberia. Exorcism was imple- - ' mented to cure a plethora of maladies attributed to demons, including but not limited to all kinds of then inexplicable -asocial conduct and a host of diseases ' including cholera. J.J.M. Grool in a six volume work entitled “The Religious System of China” describes a particularly complex exorcism process: “The medium (the third party used to implement the process) was stripped of most of his -clothes, and on his stomach was placed a piece of red,cloth or silk with two embroidered dragons,... His hair was unbraided and a sword placed in his band. In this dress the exorcist yelled and jumpedsee HODGES, page A-7
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Placerville Mountain Democrat
Placerville, California, US
Mon, Sep 08, 2003
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