25 July, 2024
In a grim reminder of how religion can be twisted into a tool of terror, a high school girl has died after enduring unspeakable abuse at the hands of a church member and choir director. Deprived of sleep and subjected to inhumane treatment, including being forced to write in a Bible and climb stairs, this tragedy reveals the disturbing extent of fanaticism cloaked in faith.
50 church members suspected of killing high school girl in church Photo/Yonhap News Agency
According to an indictment from
Representative Yoo Sang-beom's office, Ms. A, a 17-year-old with bipolar
affective disorder, was desperately in need of psychiatric care. Instead, on
February 14, her mother, misguidedly trusting the church's empty promises, sent
her to the supposed sanctuary. The church members, in their delusional
righteousness, claimed the choir would "take care of her."
In reality, B (52, female), the church founder's daughter and choir director, turned Ms. A's life into a living hell. She ordered C (54, female) to break Ms. A's spirit through relentless abuse. Ms. A's pleas for mercy, her desperate wish to be sent to a mental hospital, were cruelly ignored. Confined and constantly monitored, Ms. A was treated like a criminal, not a vulnerable teenager in need of help.
The abuse was relentless. After five days without sleep, Ms. A was forced to endure a twisted regime of forced Bible writing and hour-long stair climbing from the basement to the seventh floor. Even as her health deteriorated, B's response was chilling indifference. Instead of providing medical care, they tightened their grip, using dementia patient restraints and scouring the internet for more brutal methods.
By May 4, Ms. A's condition had worsened so drastically that she lost control of her bowels. By May 6, she couldn't eat or drink. Despite being fully aware of her condition, B refused to act. Instead, they escalated the abuse, which culminated in Ms. A collapsing unconscious on May 15. Rushed to the hospital by paramedics, she died four hours later.
Prosecutors have charged B, C, and three other church members with child abuse and murder. In court, the defense has shamelessly denied the charges, absurdly claiming there was no intention to harm or foresee the death. Their second trial is set for the 12th of next month.
This isn't just about child abuse and murder. It's a searing indictment of how warped religious practices can devastate lives. Sending a mentally ill teenager to a church instead of a hospital is a grotesque failure of both family and faith. This appalling act, masked as faith, is nothing short of religious terrorism. Just as we condemn the extremism of radical Islam, we must confront the dark extremism within Christianity. The Christianity brought here by American missionaries has mutated into something grotesque, and Western Christians who support this perversion are complicit in the horrors perpetrated by these so-called churches.