Some monstrosities know no bounds

Religion is often an inspiration for people to do good in the world - a ready moral compass for some.  For others, religion is nothing more than a mask - a horrible, mangled mess of a facade to hide their cruel and heinous behaviour behind.  It's an easy tool for the spiritually immoral to wave around and manipulate those who are scared or weak-minded to do the bidding of those less scrupulous people. 

It doesn't strike me as too odd that this story came out of Africa, but nonetheless, I am in shock that a community in South Africa allowed such an incredible monster into their midst. Paseka Mbhoro Motsoeneng claims to be a prophet, a son of God and performs "demon banishing rituals" in his Incredible Happenings Church.  The explicit stories that reporters have bourne witness to and subsequently reported have done nothing but leave an uneasy sickly feeling in my gut.

Sitting on the lap of a female congregant, Motsoeneng placed his hand on the head of a 17 year-old teen, who cannot be identified due to her age, and started praying for her.

Motsoeneng told the congregants her tummy had swelled up because some sorcerers had cast an evil spell on her.

 As he was praying for her she collapsed. Motsoeneng then told the teenager, who was lying on her back, to open her legs, which she did.

He then plunged his fingers into her private parts and started moving his fingers inside her vagina.

There's just no words for this.  But wait, there's more!

Part way through this ridiculous farce, another woman brought and fed him ice cream.  So, he's sat in the lap of one woman, fingering a teenage girl and being fed ice cream by another woman.  This scene would probably have made a straight-to-dvd movie in a sex shop somewhere, but no, this was one man claiming to wield divine power when he's really just getting his rocks off.  And all the more unfortunate for the poor girl being sexually assaulted, the ordeal isn't over.

He then invited a woman he said was a “medical doctor” and whom he called Zozo to examine the teen.

“This is a qualified doctor who will tell us what the problem is with this woman,” he said. 

By this time a group of female congregants had draped her lower body with what looked like a towel and surrounded her to prevent voyeuristic people from seeing her private parts. 

“Dr” Zozo then inserted what she said was pregnancy test apparatus into the girl’s vagina, with Motsoeneng looking on.

“The pregnancy tests came out positive. She is pregnant. I could also feel the limbs of the foetus,” Zozo announced .

Pregnant?  This girl needs a PROPER medical professional, a hospital and a clean and safe environment AWAY from this monster's grasp.  But unfortunately, what happened next is all the more sickening and tragic.

As Zozo was leaving the scene, Motsoeneng screamed: “Zozo, she is bleeding and her tummy has subsided.”

Zozo went back to inspect her before she rushed outside. She then came back wearing gloves and holding a pregnancy test kit.

She inserted them into the teen’s vagina and took them out.

She announced: “Now the kit shows neither positive nor negative results.”

Motsoeneng chimed in: “It is because she was sleeping with an animal.”

 ~~~

Motsoeneng then asked a women(sic) to fetch a bucket.

The young lass was then lifted from the ground and made to sit on the bucket with her legs wide open, bleeding profusely, while Motsoeneng looked on.

Let that sink in.

This horrendous monster, this scum of humanity, stood by and watched as a poor girl miscarried in front of an entire congregation, offering no help, no real medical expertise or heck, even any hint of sympathy.  Even more amazingly, the same girl appeared on his TV show a fortnight later with two stones, claiming she had given birth to them, when no such thing even happened!  I don't know which is more incredible, the fact Motsoeneng was able to get away with such deplorable behaviour, or that the girl went along with his scheme. 

This girl wasn't his only victim - he also "helped" a woman have better sex with her husband by feeling her up in front of him (but it's okay, the hand he used was sprinkled with holy water!) and also accused another girl of being a Satanist (the girl was spared expulsion after pleading from the congregation, but not until after he ordered her vagina be checked if it was wet.  How that became grounds for Satanism, I cannot fathom.)

It completely and utterly blows me away how this filth could get away with these crimes in front of EVERYONE - it's sexual and indecent assault.  It's deplorable, it's despicable and it's WRONG.  But because he's hiding behind religion and manipulating the weaker wills of everyone else, it's okay, because he's sent from God to help them.  I can only hope these people will one day wake up to the monster in their midst.

Happy Zombie Jesus Day!

In spirit of the weekend for those of you who enjoy a laugh:

Now go forth and stuff your face full of chocolate!

99.999999% probably won't repost this

I'll be the first to put my hand up to admit that I used to be quite the poster of chain statuses on Facebook.  Back in the day, I also used to be prolific in sending out SPAM to people in the form of chain emails.  Now, I look at some of them and my face meets my palm. 

One that's cropped up in my feed at the moment is this old gem:

All of us have a thousand wishes. To be thinner, to be bigger, have more money, have a cool car, a day off, a new phone, to date the person of your dreams. A cancer patient only has one wish, to kick cancer's ass. I know that 97% of you won't post this as your status, but my friends will be the 3% that do. In honor of someone who died, or is fighting cancer, or even had cancer, post this for at least a day..

 Yes, it's one I myself posted as a status; after all, I knew people who suffered with cancer in various forms, why shouldn't I show my support?  Nowadays though, these kinds of statuses annoy me.  First off, the so called statistic.  I didn't repost the status on my Wall when I saw it - does that mean that the original person doesn't regard me as a true "friend"?  Does it make me a terrible person because it means I don't support or "honour" the struggle against cancer?  Not at all - just because I don't copy and paste a few words or forward an email doesn't make me any less of a person.  I still support those who suffer from this horrible disease.  I hug them when they're upset.  I donate to the charities and buy from their shops.  I think of my Oma and remember the stories my dad would tell me about her and her fight.  Does the lack of being a link in a spam chain make me less of a supporter?

I should hope not.

Edit:  Not long after posting this, I find another one in my feed.

It has been said that everlasting friends go long periods of time without speaking and never question the friendship. These friends pick up like they just spoke yesterday, regardless of how long it has been or how far away they live, and they don't hold grudges. They understand that life is busy and you will ALWAYS love them. Re-post if you have at least 1 of these friends. They will know who they are.......

 If that's so, they'll understand why I didn't repost it eiter.

A step in the right direction

 As reported by the Daily Telegraph , a group of Jesuits have agreed to pay out a massive cash sum to victims of abuse from the priesthood as "part of bankruptcy proceedings".  This is a massive win for the victims - an order of Catholic priests have actually put their hands up and admitted to the crimes performed by members of their fraternity and are giving out proper compensation and apology for it. 

In recognition of their atrocities, the US Northwest order of Jesuits "has agreed to pay $166 million to compensate some 500 mostly American Indian child victims of 'horrific' sexual abuse at religious mission schools".  For some, unfortunately, this compensation would come too late as they have passed on.  However, more recent victims could take some hope away with them from this story - if these Catholic priests are willing to put their hands up and admit the crimes commited in their brotherhood, then it'll be only a matter of time until the more recent victims can have some closure.  We can only hope, can't we?

WBC vs Everyone (again)

So, four months ago, Westboro Baptist Church had the tyres of their minivan slashed after protesting at another funeral.

Shortly after protesting the funeral of Army Sgt. Jason James McCluskey in Oklahoma, members of the Westboro Baptist Church headed back to their minivan, only to discover that its front and rear passenger-side tires had been slashed. To make matters worse, when they drove into town they were unable to find anyone who would repair it.

Yes, old news, but I only came across the link thanks to someone on Facebook.  It also gave me some food for thought.  What the WBC do is heinous.  But, begrudgingly, they have a right to have their say (as wrong and bigotted and awful as they are).  And isn't slashing their tyres giving them more reason to be even more angry at everyone?  And not helping them either?  Again, people have their own opinions and are perfectly within their rights to refuse to help bastards.  But will that really help the problem?  I suppose this is my rose-tinted glasses at work, but wouldn't showing them that "okay, you're bastards, we hate your message, but we'll be the bigger people here and help you out".  Though I guess that would only give them reason to go all out and assume they're winning support or that everyone else are just pushovers.

Then again, the WBC are easy targets in themselves.  And make lovely inspiration for counter protesters.

Question of the day: Would it work the other way and make lesbians straight?

I don't know why - might be his happy grin, or my love of the word "fabulous" but this was my favourite picture.

In the name of the (Super)moon, I will punish you!

Yeah... if anyone gets the reference in the title, then hello fellow geek!

So, tonight is when the moon is the closest it has been to the Earth in 19 years, resulting in a slightly bigger and brighter satellite.  I for one, in a fit of moderate insanity, took the chance to grab my MP3 player and a pair of trainers and wander around my village at midnight under the moonlight.  I was only armed with my mobile phone, so pictures are non-existant for now, but I have to say, the moon really did shine brighter than I remember.  I managed to find a nice little spot near my house, on a little clearing with a hill that gave me a perfect bed to just look up at the sky.  All stars were invisible under the moon, and at one point (I think as a result of tiredness and blurry eyesight), I could have sworn the moon was burning white flames. 

It puts some perspective, staring up like that.  The moon is such a prolific symbol to humans throughout history.  There's stories upping its significance to literal god-like status.  It was once the goal of every nation in the world with a space program to reach it.  Right now, there's still footprints on the surface where humans took their first physical steps out onto a literal new world. 

I don't really know where I'm going with this - it's very late, I just chugged some hot chocolate and sleep is gnawing at me.  Still, I was moved enough tonight to feel like I should make some sort of attempt at giving the moon a salute for a wonderful evening of thought and meditation. 

He wore what?

So, it was International Women's Day this week.  And to mark the occasion, one Mr Bond (circa. Daniel Craig) and his female employer M (circa. Judi Dench) have filmed a little short.

He doesn't look too happy in that dress, and who could blame him?  It looks horrible!