Police:Brothers were beaten in church to make them confess

[shali]

http://news.yahoo.com/cops-discuss-mans-fatal-beating-inside-york-church-110209962.html?soc_src=copy

 

Truly critical times hard to deal with!  I cannot believe the parents had no problem with it! (no natural affection)

[Mykyl]

I cannot believe that folks are not noticing how much Religion in a negative light is in the news. Completely blind.

[Luezette]

I think they noticed by some of their comments below the article.

And those church people claim they're christian. See how they sully Jehovah's good name, that and true Christianity? No wonder they don't want to hear what we have to say! Is it any wonder? They think all religions are the same: immoral, killing bunch of imbeciles!

We have a lot if work to do! May Jehovah continue to give us strength and compassion for people. So sad.

Edited October 14, 2015 by Luezette

[Musky]

It's quite a story!

 

The ‘cult’-like church whose members are accused of fatally beating a teen

 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/acts-of-faith/wp/2015/10/14/the-cult-like-church-whose-members-are-accused-of-fatally-beating-a-teen/

The red brick building is quiet now, though a sign on the door still tells visitors: “Welcome to Word of Life.” Inside one room of the former schoolhouse, according to the Syracuse Post-Standard, there is “cold coffee still in Styrofoam cups and a half-eaten pork sandwich sitting on a counter.” In another, according to the newspaper, a notebook is open, showing what appears to be sermon notes.

 

Some who live near the mysterious Word of Life Church near New Hartford, N.Y., call it a “cult,” telling the Syracuse Post-Standard that they often hear members singing and chanting in the middle of the night. The men, they say, walk around in “long, black trenchcoats.”

 

“There was just a really weird vibe about the place,” a former neighbor, Adriane Hectus, told the Utica Observer-Dispatch.

 

It was inside the building where, police said, a couple allegedly beat one of their teenage sons to death and seriously injured another, with help from parishioners.

 

New Hartford Police Chief Michael Inserra told reporters that following a church service on Sunday night, 19-year-old Lucas Leonard and his brother, 17-year-old Christopher Leonard, were forced to sit through what parishioners called a “counseling session” that turned violent. For hours, the teens were physically punished “in hopes that each would confess to prior sins and ask for forgiveness,” Inserra said.

 

Authorities have yet to determine what those sins were.

 

Lucas Leonard was pronounced dead Monday at a nearby hospital, after sustaining blows to his abdomen, back, genitals and thighs, police said. Inserra said autopsy results showed contusions to his torso and extremities.

 

Christopher Leonard remains hospitalized in serious condition.

 

Their parents, Bruce Leonard, 65, and Deborah Leonard, 59, from Clayville, were charged with first-degree manslaughter, Inserra said at a news conference Wednesday. The two are being held in Oneida County Jail on $100,000 bail. Four fellow church members were charged with second-degree assault and are being held on $50,000 bail. Police have not given a possible motive for the attack.

[shali]

So much for being "Christ-like"!  There is no stretch of the imagination that would ever allow me to think of Jesus hitting someone to get them to confess something!!!! Reminds me of the Spanish Inquisition.

[Mykyl]

At 17 and 19, regardless of what this world thinks, they were just kids. Grown men as soldiers cry for their mums in the worst of times. They had nobody to help them. Just sickens me. Wish this system would just end so that the suffering could just end.

[Luezette]

Question: what would guys have done if, upon called for jury duty at Criminal Court, you find out the criminals, opps, I mean the defendants were a husband/wife pastor team? A so-called healing church. The reason they were in Criminal Court was because a lady going to be healed was found almost dead by a hot candle with dripping hot wax. What would you have done?

We were told that if we didn't want to serve, to just go, through via the court officer to the judge and explain.

Well let me tell y'all something!!

Once I found out who it was exactly trying to proclaim innocence as to their vocation, all sheol broke loose inside me! I automatically felt they were indeed guilty by the fact of their shady business!

Yep, I got off. As a matter of fact, the judge grudgingly said "GO HOME!" HAHAHA. My pleasure.

(Nooo, in case you're wondering I didn't say what I wrote here about them. I just said, and very nicely too "I'm one of Jehovah's Witnesses and would not be able to be nonbiased." A sister said that's not what we're supposed to say. I didn't know that at the time. But I was fuming there anyway. Figured that since Jehovah had already condemned them...yep they did it!!!).

Edited October 14, 2015 by Luezette

[bagwell1987]

Remember the couple who kidnapped the young Smart girl years ago? These people in the article look like them, in the eyes. Deranged. 

I learned a lesson about 10 years ago, when something makes you go "huh?" Or makes you look twice then there's something wrong. Listen to that voice in your head.

Edited October 14, 2015 by bagwell1987

[shali]

Those precious boys will need new parents in the new system - how refreshing it will be for them to have parents who worship a God of compassion,true love and gentleness, parents who love Jehovah. I've never had children of my own and may not even have them in the new system, but will be glad to help children resurrected into the new system who need TRUE loving parents!