Guardian Article on Laree

messenger

Stephen Bates is at it again. Brother Gillis will no doubt have a no comment on this one.

. http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,596231,00.html
Devout couple accused of flogging daughter to death

Stephen Bates, religious affairs correspondent
Saturday November 17, 2001
The Guardian

A devoutly religious couple from Chicago's South Side have been charged with murder after allegedly beating their daughter more than 160 times with a 2cm-thick length of electrical cable.
A court heard yesterday that Larry and Constance Slack, both Jehovah's Witnesses, beat 11-year-old Laree - a punishment they believed was laid down in the Bible - after she was uncooperative during a search for her mother's jacket.

The girl was tied to a metal futon frame, and at one point her five siblings, aged eight to 17, were told to hold her down. A towel was stuffed in her mouth to stifle her screams.

The Slacks, both 41, gave themselves up to the police when Laree was pronounced dead at a local hospital. They are liable to the death penalty if convicted.

Demetria Soter, coordinator of paediatric trauma at Cook county hospital, said: "Do you know how hard it is to kill an 11 year-old? Massive amounts of force are needed to die like this."

mommy

Thanks Messenger,
I think it is great that Stephen Bates wrote that article. Have any of you noticed that as soon as a person who knows nothing of the jw religion learns some of the details involved, they become enraged at the way jw's act? Stephen Bates for example, he has seen the wtbts for what it is, and now he cannot be silent. So many who partcipate here have never been a jw, yet they continue to come here and rant with us.

Can you imagine what would happen if we got the word out to a larger group of people? I have read a few other message boards, most recently pertaining to Laree, and I would say 95% of the people said they would slam the door in their face next time they came to the door. If they even took the time to understand the intricate details of the UN fiasco, so many of them would never allow a jw to convert them.
wendy

Blind faith can justify anything.~Richard Dawkins

Thirdson

Thnaks Messenger,

The story is on the Guardian's main international news page.
The link doesn't work here because it stops at the commas. Try this and scroll down the page.

( http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/

Thirdson

'To avoid criticism, say nothing, do nothing, be nothing'

ashitaka

Mr Bates is a cool guy.

biblexaminer

As soon as I read the Chicago article the other day, I emailed my local paper and CC'd Stephen the article. He said thanks but I had no idea that it would make the Guardian ...

WAY TO GO STEVE!

ballistic

I got wipped with a steel sprung curtain rod. I watched my mothers toes and fingers get broke. I watched TVs, hot meals, chairs, ornaments get thrown around the house. I heard constant profanities and was kicked while in field service. He would get angry while praying over a meal. I would get lectured and sworn at for not passing theocratic assignments with a 'G'. He was cruel to our dog.

He got made a ministerial servant while I got disfellowshipped for getting too promiscuous with my fiance prior to marriage.

Your story, although much sadder, brings it all back, and is a reflection of the twisted double standards and rules of what is right and wrong in the eyes of the organisation.

If any witness reading this does not believe what I went through, email me and I'll give you the name and congregation of my once step-father.

cyberguy

Check this link out...

http://sunspot.net/news/nationworld/chi-0111140266nov14.story?coll=bal%2Dnationworld%2Dheadlines

patio34

Hi Ballistic,

I'm sorry you had such a rotten step-father.

Pat

Bridgette

Yes! the story that won't die. We won't forget you, Laree. I hope, as you say, Mommy that this touches the humanness in everyone and they see this religion for what it is. They will either be forced to massively change and evolve and make ammends, or they will perish. This is big.
And Ballistic, your story--god, so sad. So common in the "ranks" of we who grew up as witnesses. Perhaps we should start a thread or even a web page with the stories of gore that happened at the hands of our parents, who were sanctioned in their actions by the religion we knew as GOD'S ONLY SPOKESPERSON ON EARTH. What a mind rape on a child. You equate what your parents are doing with god. No wonder so many of us are turned off FOREVER on religion, esp. Christianity (perhaps the only quasi positive) but god help them if Christianity is right. Their blood guilt is amassed to the heavens.
I have forgotten so much, but one time when both parents were "in" (my father was an elder, my mother a pioneer) and I was about 5--we were working in the rurals--I had to go to the restroom desperately. We had taken a break already--and you didn't take more than the alotted breaks. My father wouldn't even pull over. I was bursting. I had to go so badly, I began to hurt, I began to cry, and then wet myself. I tried to crouch in the floorboard, as I felt the warmth seep down my legs--I knew I was fucked. My mother began beating (not spanking, BEATING) me as I kept peeing and crying all over my father's brand new cadillac. I was so humilitated in front of the two young brothers that were with us.
It was great growing up a "gift from god"--in a Jehovah's Witness household.
They can't back track on this shit. They are responsible for every blow. They LOVE this! They'd spank the grown ups if they could. These are the people who said they'd kill apostates if they could.
Sickos. No children should have to be raised this way.
Love,
Bridgette
"they are gifts from god--he says use the rod"

Guardian Article on Laree

Share this