It’s Not Abuse, It’s Religion!
In Marion County, Oregon, Oleksandr and Lyudmila Kozlov, their contention is simple. They follow God’s law, they don’t recognize man’s law and therefore, they shouldn’t be held accountable for abusing four of their seven children. According to Oleksandr, 41, and Lyudmila, 39, God’s law is the supreme law and any suggestion otherwise is blasphemy.
Except nobody else seems to agree, not the courts and certainly not their children. When asked by the Kozlovs, who are representing themselves in court, if their children understood that they were being punished according to the Scriptures, their 9-year old daughter responded “It doesn’t say that you have to leave marks on us.”
It wasn’t long before the judge stepped in after the parents kept asking leading questions and making thinly veiled religious threats. After asking “Do you understand that you are going to answer those words to God?” Lyudmila Kozlova was stopped by Judge Thomas Hart who informed her “You cannot be asking questions or making statements designed to make her feel guilty or obliged by your religion.”
But isn’t that what religion really is? It’s a guilt trip, a sham whereby people are made to feel like crap and helpless without the constant help of an imaginary friend in the sky.
However, even after being warned by the judge, Lyudmila continued to make objectionable statements to her children and was eventually removed from the courtroom.
The Kozlovas are charged with beating their children with a variety of instruments including wire coat-hangers, belts, a leather leash, a radio cord, an iron cord, sticks and by their parent’s hands. In at least one incident, one of the boys was beaten so severely that he had to miss a week of school, the welts in most of the beatings resulted in marks that lasted several days and in a few incidents, broke the skin. In another incident, after a child was accused of taking coffee from the kitchen, the Kozlova’s three oldest children were forced to kneel in the kitchen for more than five hours while receiving whippings.
This all took place after Oleksandr Kozlov “became Christian,” Marion County sheriff’s Detective Mathieu LaCrosse said. Clearly it was being done because the Kozlovs really believed God ordered them to act in this manner.
Luckily, all of the children have been removed from the home and hopefully, the Kozlovs will spend a significant amount of time in jail, just to prove how much more powerful man’s law is than God’s.
Yet another one for the Religious Horror Show. Joy.
7 Comments to “It’s Not Abuse, It’s Religion!”
That's great, but that doesn't change the fact that for the majority of faithful, they absolutely do try to force their beliefs on others, either through proselytizing or through force of law. It's one thing for a theist to dislike homosexuality for religious reasons, for example, it's another for them to try to harm homosexuals physically, emotionally or legally.
For those relative few who keep their beliefs to themselves and don't try to push them on others, I've got no problems. It's the rest who absolutely do try to shove their religion down the throats of those who have no need for it, or who either don't know better or cannot stop them that I've got issues with.
I agree with you that we need to do something.
People, religious or not, who want power and control – cause a lot of problems in the world today. I have decided what is important for me is to stop seeking to have power and/or control over others. I decided I did not want to do that anymore, and I believe I was guided to that choice by the God I believe in.
People who want to control others, perhaps by guilt-tripping them, into submitting to some religious form or another, impose suffering on others, but people who try to stop them from doing so, using the same tactics are living according to the same rules – and their quality of life is no better.
It's possible to live free of practicing tactics of power and control, and yet have a powerful influence upon others.
I believe in a living God, and I believe in Jesus Christ, his son. That is my choice. I am willing to suffer the consequences of what other people choose to do to me on account of my faith, and we all will be held accountable to God, for what we have done – whether good or bad. My faith imposes no harm on anyone, and I judge no one.
That's because "religion" doesn't do anything on it's own, it has no ability to act independently of people. There is absolutely no concept in existence that independently acts without the influence of human beings. However, the concept of religion, as used by human beings, most certainly does promote feelings of guilt. In many western religions, the concept that man is inherently sinful and cannot, of his own accord, be a good person is central to the religious teachings. It teaches that man is horrible and it is only with outside redemption that man can ever rise above his own shortcomings.
I never once said that religion should be banned, I said that we should outgrow religion. Yes, many of the bad elements of human nature would continue, but at least we'd recognize them for what they were instead of believing that they are artifacts of some invisible devil who makes us do things. Will humanity always retain these negative features? Most likely. At least let's be honest about where it comes from and what we can do to overcome it. Praying to an invisible man in the sky is never going to make the bad things go away. Getting off our butts and working toward a legitimate solution just might.
It's not "religion" that promotes feelings of guilt, it's people that impose guilt.
A person does not have to be "religious" to be adept at imposing guilt, or blame.
However, some people use their religion as an excuse, to permit themselves to blame or impose guilt on others.
They claim, they are just being "obedient" to their religion, or God.
It's frustrating to witness people rant about how evil "religion" is, trying to stuff like "religion" should be banned, or whatever.
If we somehow were able to ban religion, I guaran-dam-tee, people will still be blaming, and guilt-tripping each other – maybe even more so.
Agreed with both of you, it's really sad how many people just react blindly to whatever they interpret the stupid book to say instead of actually thinking about it and the ramifications of acting upon what they think the book says.
Unfortunately, I've had people lately saying that religion is *NEVER* to blame when people do bad things, it's always some other cause and religion is entirely blameless. Of course, when people do good things, religion is always the cause. Go figure.
Many "enlightened" believers will read about this and say that the Kozlovs misunderstood or misapplied the Good Book. It's not Book or the religion itself that's flawed, it's the Kozlovs understanding of those things. In the meantime, kids get beaten, killed and left to die because their parents have batshit for brains. But – religion does much more good than harm. Except when it doesn't.
I think they should also be held in contempt, since they clearly don't respect nor recognize the jurisdiction of the court. They obey only what they think is a higher authority.
Well, I suppose we should be thankful they didn't take that book literally and actually stone the kids.
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