nuhuh
Gold Member
When I heard this story on the radio my first thought was why are we fighting religious crazies overseas, when we got homegrown ones right here?
"Word of Life" Church can you get any more ironic with the name? If there is more of these kinds of loons out there they need to be brought to justice. The things people do in the name of God.
"Two teenage brothers were brutally beaten in church — one fatally — in an effort by their parents, sister and other members to get them to confess their sins, police said Wednesday in a case involving an insular congregation that had sparked gossip and suspicion among neighbors.
Police said spiritual "counseling" at the Word of Life church in upstate New York turned into an hours-long attack Sunday night in which Lucas Leonard, 19, and his 17-year-old brother, Christopher, were pummeled with fists and kicked. They suffered injuries to the abdomen, genitals, back and thighs.
Eventually, Lucas stopped breathing and relatives took him early Monday to a hospital, where he died, police said. Authorities went to the church and found his younger brother, who was hospitalized in serious condition.
"Both brothers were subjected to physical punishment over the course of several hours, in hopes that each would confess to prior sins and ask for forgiveness," Police Chief Michael Inserra said.
He said investigators have not determined what the supposed sins were.
The brothers' parents, Bruce and Deborah Leonard, were charged with manslaughter in Lucas' death. Four other adults were charged with assault in the younger brother's beating, including Sarah Ferguson, 33, the victims' sister." Police: Brothers were beaten in church to make them confess
