"If thy [baby's] right hand offend thee, cut it off..."

Christians are hip to blame all of society's ills on things they don't like in the first place. They need find only one example of when an heavy-metal album, R-rated movie, or video game is implicated in someone's bad deeds to demand legislation to get rid of the bad influence on our children and society.

But then something like this happens. It seems that a mother in Texas literally interpreted the bible verse, "If thy right hand offends thee, cut it off and cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell," and thus decided to cut off her infant daughter's arms with a butcher knife. And so commences the hypocrisy.

Because if this woman, in the throes of post-partum depression and likely psychosis, had been influenced by anything Christians didn't like in killing her daughter, say, if the police found a Metallica album playing when they arrived on the scene, Christians would be up in arms. Even when the connection is tenuous or nonexistent, such as when they claimed records had messages in them if you played them backwards.

But, when it is Christianity that is implicated, and not indirectly but explicitly, Christians are silent. Because it doesn't matter how much harm Christianity does. Christians will never admit that their religion is harmful, and further, will never judge their religion by the same criteria as they judge everything else. Anti-gay marriage Christians spout supposed unreliable data about how homosexuality causes shorter lifespans and more disease and thus decry the homosexual lifestyle as "unhealthy," but choose to overlook the millions of corpses racked up by Christianity over the past 2000 years.

But, in this case, even the defense that this heinous crime wasn't caused by Christianity but by the mother's mental illness falls flat, for, as shown in an article at World O'Crap, this woman belonged to a Christian church whose pastor teaches that mental illness is caused by demons that must be driven out. And that demons can pass from mother to child during pregnancy. Thus, this woman was taught not to seek medical help for her mental illness, that her illness was caused by demons, that further demons could have passed from her to her daughter, and lastly, "If thy right hand offend thee, cut it off, and cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell."

That is to say, she was taught that it is better to cut off her daughter's arms to let the demons out so that her daughter won't spend an eternity in hell than allow her daughter to live and be damned. Certainly, this woman was mentally ill and could possibly have harmed her daughter without Christianity's influence. But it's difficult to see how a religion that told her not to get medical treatment, that she and her daughter are possessed by demons, and that you should cut off your hands rather than spend an eternity in hell, were not in some way responsible for this act.

There is certainly a much more direct connection between what Christianity told this woman and what she did than there is between a kid listening to "Crazy Train" and then killing himself. But Christianity is off limits to these hypocrites, who are willing to deny any freedom, tear down any law, and destroy any life in order to implement their Christian agenda, no matter how many people have to suffer or die.