Child Killed in “Exorcism”

A woman accused of killing her 3-year-old daughter earlier this week believed God had instructed her to stick a rose in the young girl’s throat to ward off the devil, according to documents filed in Nantucket, Massachusetts District Court. The police were called to the family’s home at about 12:40 p.m. Monday. Officers found Pleitez’s daughter, Nicole Garcia, lying on a table inside the home and attempted to resuscitate her until paramedics arrived. The girl was taken to Nantucket Cottage Hospital, where she was pronounced dead at about 1:18 p.m.
“During an interview shortly after Garcia’s death, Pleitez, who is originally from El Salvador, began singing and praying, telling investigators through a Spanish interpreter that the Holy Spirit could speak through her.” “Pleitez said she stuck a rose down her daughter’s throat because God told her to...” She put the rose in her daughter’s throat because demons were inside the girl, according to the translation, the officer said.
Source –Religiousnewsblog 

Commentary:
Obviously the initial inclination is to charge this lady with just being crazy, and maybe she is. But, is Pleitez’s justification any different from the justification given by the many people in the Bible who committed mass murder claiming that “God told me to”. Is her justification not in line with Abraham following the direction of a voice, which he assumed was God’s, to go sacrifice (kill) his son (Isaac)? Of course, he was stopped when a goat showed up in the nearby bushes which he substitutes in place of his son. However, because he was willing to follow the direction of a voice he heard makes it no different. In fact, in today’s time, Abraham would be seen in the same light as Ms. Pleitez, insane, someone suffering from schizophrenia. Certainly, this craziness did not just happen; it is derived from her intense belief in her religious worldview, and this is what religion does to people, especially the most enthusiastic. The only way she could see and interpret the real world is in this bizarre tunnel vision of superstition.