is this fundamentalism?

June 21, 2005 3:57 AM

Nun crucified at Romanian exorcism. A Romanian nun has died after being bound to a cross, gagged and left alone for three days in a cold room in a convent, Romanian police have said. "I don't understand why journalists are making such a fuss about this. Exorcism is a common practice in the heart of the Romanian Orthodox church and my methods are not at all unknown to other priests," Father Daniel added.

UPDATE: She was buried yesterday and the Principal monk has been charged with false imprisonment leading to death.
posted by cbjg (48 comments total)

Let me add commandment #11: Thou shalt not crucify nuns.

(Just when I think I don't have to spell out the self-evident shit.)
posted by God Almighty at 4:23 AM on June 21, 2005

for christ's sake.

what century is it?
posted by tarantula at 4:41 AM on June 21, 2005

The irony is, there is no god.
posted by Pretty_Generic at 4:45 AM on June 21, 2005

::smites Pretty_Generic::
posted by God Almighty at 4:46 AM on June 21, 2005

Mediafax news agency said Cornici suffered from schizophrenia and the symptoms of her condition caused the priest at the convent and other nuns to believe she was possessed by the devil.

Didn't we see a similar story of death-by-exorcism in the US in the last few years?
posted by jessamyn at 4:50 AM on June 21, 2005

for christ's sake.

Or so they tell us.
posted by ubernostrum at 4:52 AM on June 21, 2005

Didn't we see a similar story of death-by-exorcism in the US in the last few years?

Yes: an eight-year-old autistic boy.
posted by purplemonkie at 4:55 AM on June 21, 2005

It's happening in the UK too within the African community:

On Friday, the issue of spiritual belief within the African community was highlighted once more when Sita Kisanga and her brother Sebastian Pinto were found guilty at the Old Bailey of aiding and abetting the physical abuse of an eight-year-old girl. The girl's aunt, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was convicted of child cruelty. The court heard that the child, who was brought to Britain from Angola by her aunt after her parents died, had been beaten, cut and had chilli peppers rubbed in her eyes to 'beat the devil out of her'.

Christians are not the only ones who believe in fundamentalist voodoo.
posted by three blind mice at 5:09 AM on June 21, 2005

The story: sad and disturbing.
God Almighty: funny.
posted by mania at 5:11 AM on June 21, 2005

Wow. I saw a Law & Order episode about a little boy suffocated because it was believed that his seizures were caused by demonic possesion. I hadn't realized that was one of those "ripped from the headlines" episodes, it seems so extreme.

(Yeah, I don't keep up much with the news, but I know my L&0.)

I heard about the Romanian woman last night - it just makes me so sad to hear that schizophrenia and such are still so misunderstood that some believe that the disease is actually "demonic possession." The saddest part is that the priest obviously thought that he was acting in the woman's best interest. Seems like 2,000 years hasn't been long enough for the Church to catch up to modern medicine.
posted by grapefruitmoon at 5:15 AM on June 21, 2005

Does this mean she was made of wood, or not? I'm all confused and obviously born in the wrong century.
posted by fluffycreature at 5:15 AM on June 21, 2005

The dude with the wiry ginger beard (Father Daniel I believe) looks fucking backshit insane.
posted by snoktruix at 5:20 AM on June 21, 2005

She may well have been schizophrenic, but that priest is clearly psychotic.
posted by flabdablet at 5:21 AM on June 21, 2005

He'll be exonerated in a couple of days when she rises from the grave.
posted by shawnj at 5:32 AM on June 21, 2005

in other news, an unreligious 17 year old fucked a dog, a 3 year old and a 13 year old. a patriotic man blew up a building in oklahoma and two non-beleiving teens in colorado shot up thier school. a secular serial child molester has apparently diddled thousands. what's the point of this post?
posted by quonsar at 5:36 AM on June 21, 2005

in other news, an unreligious 17 year old fucked a dog, a 3 year old and a 13 year old.

that's not how i read the story. the 3 year old dog would screw anyone and the 13 year old dog came on to him.
posted by three blind mice at 5:45 AM on June 21, 2005

At least there are two newsfiltery links...or something.
posted by tpl1212 at 5:47 AM on June 21, 2005

what's the point of this post?

If prevents just one case of "morally-certain-priest-cruxifies-schizophrenic-nun-syndrome" from ever happening again, isn't it worth it?
posted by R. Mutt at 5:49 AM on June 21, 2005

I'm always happy to see another life brightened by the light of Jeebus.

Opium for the masses, jadda jadda.
posted by spazzm at 5:51 AM on June 21, 2005

I'm sure Father Daniel is just getting off to his combined nun/bondage fetish.
posted by spazzm at 5:55 AM on June 21, 2005

fluffy, she was obviously made with wood. c'mon, keep up!

quonsar, the point is: churches are the devil's work.
posted by gorgor_balabala at 5:55 AM on June 21, 2005

Actually, a point would be better made if the post had been fleshed out with more links on how far we haven't come in the acceptance of mental illness. The relighous trappings make this sensationalist, but it's the underlying message that people still think mental illness = evil that is really worth discussing.

But of course, don't let me stop you all from waving your internet dicks around. I think there's a couple corners you haven't pissed in yet.
posted by FunkyHelix at 6:49 AM on June 21, 2005

Cough
posted by magullo at 6:53 AM on June 21, 2005

in other news, an unreligious 17 year old fucked a dog, a 3 year old and a 13 year old . . . and two non-beleiving teens in colorado shot up thier school . . . a secular serial child molester has apparently diddled thousands. what's the point of this post?
posted by quonsar at 5:36 AM PST on June 21

The difference between the actions of Father Daniel and those of the dogfucker, McVeigh, and the two idiot kids is that none of those three performed those actions explicitly because of their secular nature. There is no secular handbook that recommends those activities, whereas the Bible and associated texts have explicit instructions on how to deal with possession. You should know better.
posted by Optimus Chyme at 7:03 AM on June 21, 2005

whereas the Bible and associated texts have explicit instructions on how to deal with possession.

The priest in question didn't follow the Bible, actually, so there wasn't a "handbook" in this case either.
posted by unreason at 8:56 AM on June 21, 2005

The dude with the wiry ginger beard (Father Daniel I believe) looks fucking backshit insane.

Ah?? He looks quite a pleasant fellow to me, with a generous and kindly nature. A more careful scrutiny reveals that he is also mildly asthmatic and has only recently given up a troubling addiction to canadian ice hockey.
posted by TimothyMason at 9:25 AM on June 21, 2005

This is what happens when you have a religion so narrowly focused on crucifixion. When you've got a hammer, everything looks like a nail.
posted by mullingitover at 9:33 AM on June 21, 2005

Seems odd that a christian would be pro-crucifixion.
posted by elwoodwiles at 9:42 AM on June 21, 2005

Shouldn't we be encouraging the clergy to crucify each other? If each man or woman of the cloth did this to just one of his or her fellows, the number of professional God-botherers could be halved overnight, and the half remaining imprisoned for life.
posted by trondant at 9:43 AM on June 21, 2005

The more you think about it, the more fucked up the whole thing is.

Abortion = bad.
Murdering the mentally ill = good? (cuz of teh S474|\|!!!1one)

Given the track record of the religion, this shouldn't be terribly surprising. However, this incident could give a new approach for abortion-seeking teens to get the clinic protesters to leave them alone. Just say your fetus is posessed.

Having worked with the mentally ill for many years, I can personally attest to the fact that crucifixion never works, and should be abandoned as a treatment method.
posted by mullingitover at 10:51 AM on June 21, 2005

mullingitover : "The more you think about it, the more fucked up the whole thing is.

"Abortion = bad.
"Murdering the mentally ill = good?"

I dunno. I support the ability to choose abortion, and oppose killing the mentally ill, but the more I think about, the more fucked up it doesn't become. It seems internally logically consistent. Wrong, but internally logically consistent.
posted by Bugbread at 11:10 AM on June 21, 2005

Seems odd that a christian would be pro-crucifixion.

No odder than adopting a Roman instrument of torture and humiliating death as your central religious symbol, really. Guess it's harder to sell miniature electric chair pendants or something?
posted by joe lisboa at 12:39 PM on June 21, 2005

mullingover - Just say your fetus is posessed.

lol, but isn't the fetus posessing you?
posted by PurplePorpoise at 1:00 PM on June 21, 2005

you know, it wouldn't hurt people to be fair ... from the 2nd link

"The Orthodox Church has condemned the incident and suspended him."

this was the act of a complete screwball who wasn't following his religion very well ...
posted by pyramid termite at 1:25 PM on June 21, 2005

No odder than adopting a Roman instrument of torture and humiliating death as your central religious symbol, really. Guess it's harder to sell miniature electric chair pendants or something?

No odder than actually trying to understand a religion you don't believe in rather than taking cheap shots.

you know, it wouldn't hurt people to be fair ... from the 2nd link
"The Orthodox Church has condemned the incident and suspended him."
this was the act of a complete screwball who wasn't following his religion very well ...

Somehow, it doesn't surprise me at all that it took 34 comments for anyone to notice this.
posted by unreason at 1:39 PM on June 21, 2005

Well, its nice to know that some priests are exploring other ways to get their rocks off that don't involve sodomizing children.
posted by fenriq at 2:20 PM on June 21, 2005

you know, it wouldn't hurt people to be fair ... from the 2nd link

we'll be fair when they're fair. Or haven't you ever had to sit through a reciting of the Christian Party Line about how socialism MUST be inherently evil because of all the atrocities that have been committed by various regimes in the name of communism? Or how atheists are all inherently immoral?

Is it patently wrong to feel that actions such as that by this Father do at least partially define christianity when there are hundreds of years of history, atrocities by the bookful as examples?

What if the only thing preventing christians from behaving thusly in general in our modern society are the social rules and guidelines for acceptable behaviour that have been promoted into acceptance primarily by secularists, usually over the strenuous objections of christianity? Rules & guidelines that vocal, significant factions of christendom continue to rail against.
posted by lastobelus at 2:26 PM on June 21, 2005

lastobelus....what are you talking about? Do you really believe that our social rules and guidelines are not influenced by that 10 commandment thingy? Secularists..no. Founding Fathers..yes. I'm not saying our "Americanism" is a purely religious entity, it's clearly not, but perhaps you should clarify those guidelines the christians are railing against (more than abortion please).

As far as the post is concerned, it just doesn't surprise me this guy would do it. Of the religious I know, the 'devout' ones are some of the scariest people I've ever met. I'm curious what the outcome of this will be.
posted by j.p. Hung at 2:40 PM on June 21, 2005

lastobelus : "we'll be fair when they're fair."

Way to take the high road.
posted by Bugbread at 3:06 PM on June 21, 2005

What if the only thing preventing christians from behaving thusly in general in our modern society are the social rules and guidelines for acceptable behaviour that have been promoted into acceptance primarily by secularists, usually over the strenuous objections of christianity? Rules & guidelines that vocal, significant factions of christendom continue to rail against.

i await with considerable interest your posting of a link wherein one of these "significant factions" proposes the crucifixion of those needing exorcism
posted by pyramid termite at 3:16 PM on June 21, 2005

Crucifixion is a pretty big leap, even for the fundamentalists. They prefer baby on the path to crushing, repressive theocracy. However, we have many fine examples in the Islamic states of where things might go, given the opportunity.
posted by mullingitover at 6:10 PM on June 21, 2005

*baby steps
posted by mullingitover at 6:11 PM on June 21, 2005

If the nun died, it was God's will. Shut up and don't speak for god.
posted by Mayor Curley at 7:05 PM on June 21, 2005

Just because some, most or all religious people are nut jobs (depending on your beliefs), doesn't mean that they wouldn't be equally nutty if organized religion didn't exist. They'd just express it as belief in a Randian world order or supply side economics or something.
posted by BrotherCaine at 7:41 PM on June 21, 2005

Keep your delusional absentee-father projection away from our attempt at a humane life please, thnx.
posted by joe lisboa at 9:53 PM on June 21, 2005

Man, where's Tom DeLay when you need him?
posted by DeepFriedTwinkies at 10:23 PM on June 21, 2005

"The Orthodox Church has condemned the incident and suspended him."

It seems unlikely that they'd do anything else, though, doesn't it? Patting him on the back and saying 'well done, father' might look, you know, bad. Churches -- 'backshit' insane or otherwise -- need that PR reacharound too.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 2:58 AM on June 22, 2005

No odder than actually trying to understand a religion you don't believe in rather than taking cheap shots.

Hey, unreason: in the event you follow up on this thead (since it's been awhile): fuck you.

I was born and raised Roman Catholic, attended Catholic educational institutions through university (inclusive, and by my own choice, fuckwit), and have studied Latin and Greek and theology enough to know your favorite god-man martyr cult sucks.

Get over yourself, get over your faux-god, and go to fucking hell.
posted by joe lisboa at 11:36 PM on July 10, 2005