A man in Halifax, Nova Scotia, tried to defend himself against accusations of domestic violence by claiming that he had a faith-based right to beat his wife. The court fortunately rejected this defense, insisting that religion simply isn't an acceptable justification for violence. It's a pity that we don't hear this more often.
"Freedom of religion does not trump obligations to comply with the criminal law. This is so obvious that it goes without saying," Judge Anne Derrick said in convicting Dalton Cornelius Jones of five counts of assault and one each of uttering threats, assault with a weapon, resisting arrest and failing to appear in court. ...
Of the assaults on his three-year-old daughter, he quoted passages that said "withhold not correction from the child: for if thou beatest him with the rod he shall not die" and "Thou shalt beat him with the rod, and shalt deliver his soul from hell."
Jones had said he was disciplining the girl out of love, and he wanted her to follow the right path in life and not end up in prison.
Source: The Chronicle Herald
The fact that he insisted on representing himself may have contributed to him using such an awful defense for such awful behavior:
"I think the point has come when you very well should reconsider," the judge said. "I'm very much emphasizing the benefits you could have from legal representation at this stage of the proceedings."
He replied that he was still going to represent himself, and said he didn't refer to himself as Jesus during his closing arguments because Derrick didn't want him to.
"May I say something impertinent? If Jesus Christ was here I would be recommending that he have a lawyer," the judge replied.
It's sad how often people will try to use religion as an excuse or justification for behavior that would never be allowed otherwise -- but even sadder is how often that excuse is accepted. Many people sincerely believe that if they have a religious reason to do something, then that makes it OK; and many others sincerely believe that sincere religious beliefs are magical in their ability to make atrocious behavior acceptable.
It's worth noting just how warped this man's moral compass has become. He'll be going to prison for trying to keep his daughter out of prison; he wanted to show her "love" when all he really communicated was violence, disrespect, and hatred. How many secular ideologies are there that can warp people to this extent?
The man's brother says that he's mentally ill. Is he? Perhaps, but religious believers don't like to be told that they are deluded. So why would it be OK to tell this believer that he's deluded? The distinction between delusion and reality isn't simply that one causes harm to others but the other doesn't.
There probably is something wrong with this guy, but he has the same basis for his beliefs and the same amount of evidence for his beliefs as lots of other people who are also convinced that they are right. How do they know that they aren't as delusional as this person seems to be?
No comments:
Post a Comment