well, now that's crazy/ so now they kidded the baby, they sined to, thy shall not KILL, so now the child is with God, and the Mom and others go to hell

I believe that this is the reason why organizations should be monitored. People should check in on these things and make sure nothing like this happens again. Radical ideas lead to radical actions such as this.

well, at least they're going to heaven...

What the hell?! Damn people these days need to get their head out of their ass. What kind of messed up person would do that?!

terrible. just terrible. its amazing to me what some people are willing to do to fit in. how sad. so the kid was disobedient; big deal!! he didn't deserve to die!!!

Oh Jesus!

Once again, Religion is sticking its nose in where it doesn't belong.

I am an Atheist and as much as i try and try to respect people that have a religion... something comes along to make me seriously think different...

The best people in the world are Agnostic in my opinion but i have a big interest and follow science alot in my life.

This news seriously disturbing.

there is no excuse those people should be executed for there actions.people are dumbasses cult are terrible things
if there doctrine professes something like that it should not be tolerated i am so appalled by an action such as this
i don'thave an aswer,but, "what the hell "that is not approiate

This was a child. I wonder how many other power hungry idiots are running their own cults and doing this and not getting caught. Death penalty for all responsible.

"imagine" as John Lennon quoted. Imagine for a second there was no religion - what would be the damage? Would people run into the streets and rape, murder and steal? Just because you don't believe in a god doesn't mean the moral compass you are built with stops working. You would think with the EVER growing amount of athiests that the prisons would be filling up with 'non-believers'. Nope, not the case - it seems they are the most logical people on the planet. I think in most cases religion plays the opposite role. "I can murder (or do other various attrocities) BECAUSE i know 'my' god will forgive me"...or "this is how 'my/our' god wants it to be". There is very little doubt that religion in all of its holy glory has caused more bloodshed than any other single factor in the history of mankind! Now I know there are some that believe in the various fairytales out there and it 'helps' them live right - as sad as that is - but if religion never existed this world would be a much more tolerant and peaceful entity.

--- The anonymous informant told police that cult member Queen Antoinette then left the boy's body in a room for more than a week, claiming 'God was going to raise Javon from the dead,' court documents show. ----

The stank would have rank.

--- 'Somebody made that decision to not feed that child, and my daughter had to follow instructions.'

According to court documents, Ramkissoon joined 1 Mind Ministries after Javon was born.

Ms Khadan-Newton last saw her in April 2006; she later sued for custody of her grandson, writing in a letter to a judge that 'the cult leaders' were preventing her from contacting her daughter. ---

1 Mind Ministries? I would NEVER join a place that had that as their title. That's stealing free will right there.

I agree. If in an Army situation the soldier would be less liable if he were following orders of a commanding officer. If it can be proven that the daughter was working under the command of someone else it would be wise to go after said person for there could be other people at risk for such damaging behavior.

I respect opinions and views from everyone...it's always good to have your own views, but when those views require you to take the life of someone (let alone an infant who doesn't know any better) for something so trivial, all respect is lost. It's not the religion that I lose respect for, it's the people who take the religion to extremes or take it too much in a literal sense or condemn those around them for not following as they do.

globewatcher made a good point...the bible in itself can be pretty extreme, and these people took it to those extremes.

This was a horrible act and I'm thinking God would be freakin' pissed at them...guess there's no helping them come time for the Rapture.

What's it going to take before people actually consider the fact there is no omnipotent super being watching over them that requires arcane ritualistic, dogmatic loyalty and of course the occasional donation?

WE ARE USING THE WORD RELIGION(yes there are many) but in response to those refering to a bible based american religion, the bible itself is extremist and this explains the abhorent behavior of some of its adherents. religion in america is extremely dangerous. belief is a powerful thing and can be very positive. belief in the bible can(as we have seen) be very dangerous.

People shape their religions to fit themselves, these people were just incredibly sick, and the cult provided a safe haven for those behaviors.

ho hum

I don't want to sound like some disconnected hardliner, but I feel the mother and all associated parties should be sent to some South American prison....It's known that some countries if not all, have the family pay for the food of the inprisoned family member....

This act will have the highest probability of having the mother and all associated parties suffer the same fate they provide the 15 month old child.....It's a sad shame....

When it all said and done....it comes down to the same issue time and time again....YOU CAN'T FIX STUPID....!

Blatant Stupidity!!!!

Ria Ramkissoon....May God have mercy on your soul!!!!!

How does India deal with these issues of Child Abuse

It's obvious the demons are the parents, not the innocent child.

This has everything to do with religion, this is jut an extreme case. If you dont believe or you question what they are preaching you might not starve like this poor child, but you are banished. This doesnt have to do with the existence of God or some higher power, but has everything to do with simply allowing people to think for themselves and NOT allowing some preacher or whoever else force some bullshit down our throats. They dont have any better idea about what this all is than we do. The truly sad thing is that many times adults who have been sucked into it, have children. They have kids who NEVER GET THE CHANCE to think for themselves. This toddler unknowingly took a stand against the brainwashing ,but gave his life to do so. If a handful of kids now get to grow up free because of this, thinking for themselves, then this boys life was not lost for nothing. . .

This obviously had something to do with religion because it was religion that motivated the behavior. At the same time, I don't necessarily consider this an indictment of religion. People can get damn near anything they want out of religion. How a person represents their religion says a lot more about that individual than it does the religion itself.

Well, this is surely yet another fuckd up Family. Has nothing to do with the Religion.

wow this story really gives ammunition for every hungry person out there to disprove the presence of a higher being, i'm glad so many people have readily posted about this affirmation of their beliefs. could it possibly be that these people were sick and their behavior is a reflection on them individually rather than every person who believes in god? hmph maybe..

goes to show you that there is no "G"od.

serves him right for not giving thanks to the lord.
(adjust for sarcasm)

This of course is an extreme example of religion gone bad, but I think it is safe to say any religion that TELLS us all the RIGHT answers because THEY know everything, can also be considered "cult like" and should be avoided or at the very least be treated with some degree of skepticism. In my opinion, NO ONE has all the answers. We should be thinking for ourselves, lets put an end to the brainwashing!

terrible... i hope they go to jail for a loooooooong time.

Sweet lord baby jesus!!!

i remeber i didnt get to eat thanksgiving because i wouldnt say grace but this is just '' " i dont even think their is a word to descirbe how stuipd this is wow

strong beliefs can do great things or terrible things. this is a case where someone's beliefs clouded their common sense of knowing that killing a child is not good. i wonder what they were thinking?

stratuscloud9 brought up the point:

(paraphrasing) God isn't a robot and He doesn't want us to be perfect robots either.

Actually, that's exactly what he wants.

What is God's idea of perfection?

Heaven.

Is there evil in Heaven? No. Is it even POSSIBLE to sin in Heaven? No. Which is a good thing because it would be odd to go to Heaven and get raped, wouldn't it? So beings in Heaven have free-will (not robotic) but are also incapable of sin. The perfect idealized state.

So, apparently, God is perfectly capable of creating both free will, immortality and a sin-free existence.

So if He's capable of doing that and He Himself has repeatedly stated that's ultimately what He wants for all living beings....AND He intends to create that reality in the end anyway (if we take the Book of Revelation literally) then everything that is occuring prior to that end point is a waste of time, isn't it?

If the Bible were merely a fictional story, then it would be fair to ask questions about the internal logic of the story and it's characters. In this case the internal logic of the narrative and God's own personality don't really make sense.

Forcing a child to follow your beliefs is mental child abuse to begin with but then these freaks just had to take it that step further.....makes me question my stance on deathrow.

What morons. I never once as a child followed along with little "prayer" things during meals...funny thing is, I never really even believed in God. I thank my parents for not indoctrinating me.

That's just CRAZY. Who or what are they worshipping??

Why don't people have a mind of their own, and not go along with these religious freaks? We live in the 21st century. People should be smarter than this.

I don't understand why people think divine-intervention should be an everyday thing -- as if because we can't get God to fix everything it's proof that He doesn't exist. So, why didn't God just make a perfect world?

Can one have a relationship with, say, a robot that always smiles and says yes and doesn't even have the ability to leave your side? God is love (I'm sure you've heard before) and relationships and the development of them. Why would God make a world of perfect robots?

I've always figured that's what God knew would make a perfect world -- a world of change, growth, opportunity, curiosity, hard work, and a desire for love. It IS good.

Our minds come up with all kinds of ways to solve our problems and explain our world, yet I've never met anyone who isn't looking for God, whether they realize it's Him or not.

I am sorry but this is totally fucked up.

Yet another sign of revelations coming true, when good becomes or takes the form of evil, i hope this bible cult gets punished for this atrocious act of self-righteousness.

another tragic story because of people taking religion to extremes.

Magic is simply science that hasn't been figured out yet. Which is not to say that the Northern Lights aren't magical, we just understand the machinations behind them.
Magic is like faith - its the catchall for things we don't yet understand. It is not, however, a blank check to commit atrocities like what happened to this poor child. At 15 months we're still saying Mama and Dada - my son, at two, is just now getting into three word sentences. The mother deserves no sympathy, and the group does not deserve to be called a religion in any way. No modern religion espouses starvation especially of children. Shame on them...

oh. awful.

its just too much.

maybe no religion until a child can voice an opinion on the subject. I bet there would be a lot less believers in these supernatural, made up beliefs. But I guess to keep filling the church coffers you need to brainwash children's minds.

Maybe it would be a good idea to just strip Christanity of ALL it's supernatural components and treat it simply as a philosophy no different than any other philosophy.

The problem with all religions always boils down to magic.

If we can simply strip away the magical elements....then you'd have a philosophy and not a religion. You'd have all the perks of a guiding moral philosophy without any of the downside that magical-thinking brings to the table.

Yes, but what if it did work?

What if he really was a demon or what if he really was raised fromt he dead?

America is at that weird turning point in our history where we have one foot in the magical world and claiming we really do believe in the supernatural (be it the power of "The Secret" or that God uses his magic to alter the physical world in some way for our benefit) and one foot is planted firmly in the post-supernatural world wherein we automatically assume that of course these people are crazy and that there are no such things as demons or bodily resurrections after death.

We're kind of stuck between the two worlds.

Do we really believe in magic or don't we?

How can we, as a culture, go to church on Sunday and truly believe in the supernatural and then on Monday dismiss the beliefs of this cult as self-evidently insane because there is no such thing as magic?

I think we're coming close to the point where we may have to make a decision to go in one direction or the other.

Those who can make you believe in absurdities can make you commit atrocities. -- Voltaire

Twisted views of religion such as this give all religions a bad rap. There are those who practice their faith peacefully and there are people like this. The parents of the mother said that their daughter is not to blame for her child's death because she was only following orders. A parent is always responsible for their child's well-being. The fact that she succumbed to others' heinous ideas and followed their practices only exemplifies her own weakness.

At times, religion gives those who are lost a path to follow. It is easy to feel alone in the world and many religions give some people purpose. That being said, education is equally, if not more, important so that individuals can deduce what religion is best for them and the people around them, in all respects.

goes to show how sick people really are

It is unfortunate when religion is enforced on to those who are too young to even understand the concept.
How uncompassionate, negative and truly tragic!
These sick people need to be held responsible and put away for a long, long time!
I am so utterly disgusted!!!

Excerpt:

"Javon's food was stopped in December 2006 - when he was about 15 months old - partly because he refused to say 'amen' after dinner, investigators were told by two children who had been taken away from the cult by Philadelphia police.

Members viewed Javon as 'a demon', the children said.

No medical care was sought for the toddler when he stopped breathing, and he died in his mother's arms, according to court records of police interviews with the two children and another informant.

The anonymous informant told police that cult member Queen Antoinette then left the boy's body in a room for more than a week, claiming 'God was going to raise Javon from the dead,' court documents show."

---

When you start beliving in the supernatural it's a slippery slope.

If you believe that there is a magical being in the sky that will answer your prayers.....then it really isn't much of a logical leap to believe, "Surely this magical being will use It's powers to raise this baby from the dead!"

You've already accepted one extreme idea with no basis of proof in the physical/obervable world...so why would going a little further in that concept you've already accepted as "real" be illogical? It's a slippery slope.

How is that cults beliefs any "crazier" than believing in the stigmata, Marion apparitions in the sky, being healed of ailements in church by a laying-on of hands, etc?

How is believing that God will magically heal the infirm at Fatima "normal" but believing God will bring your dead baby back to life "abnormal"?

Aren't they equally abnormal beliefs?

holy shit! this is out of control. for not say amen! whoever they believe in can't be happy about these types of actions.