I think there is a link between good social programs and a lessening of religion on public life though. It might not be causal but pretty good correlation between less religious countries and more progressive, is there a super religious country anywhere that is progressive? Obviously have to factor in imperialism…

Not free from abuse no, because religion doesn’t cause the abuse but less likely to be abuse, countries like Finland with low amounts of religious people have lower rates of child abuse. It is easier to convince people who wouldn’t otherwise be abusers to accept it with a supernatural explanation.

I was raised in a Pentacostal church, washed in the blood of the lamb, raised within a spirit-filled congregation, speaking in tongues, praying in the spirit, being healed in God’s merciful light. When I was a struggling, almost-suicidal 21 year old who had never had a relationship, I went to the front during the…

Why not? We lump the billions of Muslims into one category due to the actions of a few radicals and terrorists.

Everyone understands #NotAll until it applies to them.

Also on the long, long list: Seventeen hundred years of oppressing and murdering women, persecuting and slaughtering Jewish people for wholly made-up reasons, and indiscriminately proselytizing by fire and steel. All while insisting violently that it’s just those other religions that are evil.

Every day there’s a new reason.

Attention humans: your children are not possessed. Help is out there and it comes in the form of parenting classes and mental health resources, not starvation and exorcisms.

Pro tip: if you believe that your small child is possessed by demons, take them to the hospital. They’re pretty good at determining the existence and whereabouts of demons at the ER.

Ehhh, not really. That’s what it boils down to. I say this as someone who whole-heartedly believed that stuff for 20+ years.

Well, this child had already exited the womb, so no one really cares. I mean, it's not like we're a country that invests in education or health care for our youth.

This. Is it because no one could believe god approves of miscarriages, but who are we to say he’s not down with starvation?

I don’t know the background of this boy’s family. But I always get so sad when I think of how religion prays on the poor and the uneducated. It’s horrible.

just dont try going the other way with an alive child

No it isn’t.

Sure, that’s a ridiculously stupidly simple statement of it. But in the very simple but-for sense, would this kid be dead if anyone around him had thought that maybe he wasn’t possessed, that he needed real help, and called the authorities, in time for him not to starve to death?

This is why I cannot get on board with the Jesus folk.

Nah, if you come to this country and take advantage of the opportunities provided to you (including operating a business) you have to play by our rules and, if not agree with all of our values, at least abide by them.

“homosexuals.” smdh

You could just not comment. that would be better than contributing to the thinly veiled homophobia ever so present in this comment section and everywhere else on jezebel.