Persecution: Christians arrested for expelling a demon from a child

[Basilissa]

If you click on the link, please note that the title of this news is confusing and misleading. I guess expecting proper grammar from journalists is like expecting Jews to praise Jesus. I tried to fix the title (corrections in red), eliminating the confusion.

Parents of Missouri Girl, who was Killed By Neighbors Trying to ‘Remove Demon,' Face Charges

The parents of a 4-year-old Missouri girl allegedly killed by neighbors to remove a “demon” now face charges.
Mary S. Mast, 29 and James A. Mast, 28, both of Lincoln, Missouri, were charged Thursday with felony child endangerment resulting in death and are jailed without bond. They don't yet have attorneys.
The couple's other children, a 2-year-old son and an infant, were placed in protective custody, Benton County Sheriff Eric Knox said in a news release.
The 4-year-old girl was found dead at the family home on Dec. 20. Knox said she had been severely beaten and dunked in an icy pond as part of what appeared to be a “religious-type episode.”
Across-the-road neighbors Ethan Mast, 35, and Kourtney Aumen, 21, were charged last week with second-degree murder and other offenses. Both are jailed without bond. Ethan Mast is not believed to be related to James and Mary Mast, Knox said.
Both families attend the same church, but Knox said that the actions involving the girl are not condoned by the church, which he declined to name.
“The investigation done so far indicates that this is an isolated incident and NOT the actions of a cult,” Knox wrote in a news release on the department's Facebook page.
A probable cause statement from Benton County Sgt. Chris Wilson said the girl was already dead and had “severe purple bruising” over her body, along with ruptured blisters, when he was called to the home.
Knox said the girl’s parents also had been beaten along with the 2-year-old. The infant was unharmed.
James Mast told investigators he and his wife observed the beating of their daughter but were told they would be beaten or shot if they tried to intervene.
Still, Wilson asked James Mast “how he could let people do this to his family and he stated they were told (his wife) had a ‘Demon’ inside her and her children would end up just like her if it was not taken care of,” Wilson wrote in the probable cause statement.
Ethan Mast told investigators that he and Aumen used a leather belt to beat the girl on Dec. 19, the statement said. She was then taken to a pond behind the home where she was “dunked” in the water on a day when high temperatures were in the 40s.
Ethan Mast said everyone then returned to the victims’ home. It wasn’t clear when the child died.

Now, that's a fine example of carefully reading Proverbs! Proverbs 13:24, 19:18, 20:30, 22:6, 15, 23:13-14, 29:15, 17. I guess it's too bad the girl died in the process, but at least her body isn't inhabited by demons anymore, which is a good thing - so I really don't understand, what is the big deal and why are the parents and the other Godly Christian couple being arrested?

[MitzaLizalor]

Re: Persecution: Christians arrested for expelling a demon from a child

Two reasons suggest themselves. One is that the arresting authorities had never read God's statement on this. Clearly if they had read it either they hadn't understood it at the time or, subsequently, have adopted what they've deemed a higher authority to order their responses thenceforth.

The other is that they reject God outright. Perhaps someone could read His position (in this case on discipline) but apply it according to secular lights "in this day and age" where democratic regimes have superseded superstitious systems, as they may claim. Fine! To live and move and have one's being within such a primum mobile is a lifestyle option. Zeus may approve. God does not.

But how does a godless administration deal with demon possession? God has explained the essential prerequisite for effective exorcisms in detail:

Proverbs 20:30 The blueness of a wound cleanseth away evil: so do stripes the inward parts of the belly.

Not only does God explain WHY discipline is necessary, He even explains HOW it works. Proverbs includes a differentiation between effective and impotent words. God hears what we say. Get it right and anything is possible. Get it wrong and God rejects even the prayer for demoniacs BECAUSE those gabbled words had no meaning and the poisoned heart is worthless.

Proverbs 10:19-20 In the multitude of words there wanteth not sin: but he that refraineth his lips is wise. The tongue of the just is as choice silver: the heart of the wicked is little worth.

[Joanna Lytton-Vasey]

Re: Persecution: Christians arrested for expelling a demon from a child

That article is too long and whiny to read in its entirety, Sister. But what stands out is this:

... neighbors Ethan Mast, 35, and Kourtney Aumen, 21, were charged last week with second-degree murder and other offenses. Both are jailed without bond. Ethan Mast is not believed to be related to James and Mary Mast,

The moral I draw from the story is "Never live in a town where everyone has the same surname."

[WWJDnow]

Re: Persecution: Christians arrested for expelling a demon from a child

I thoroughly approve of exorcising demons from children and, let's be honest, an exorcism is a violent and dangerous undertaking with a high mortality rate.

I must say, though, that this is the kind of thing best left to experts, such as our Landover Baptist Church pastors, who understand the proper procedures, and not outsourced to the next door neighbors. Trained personnel know, for example, that dunking a child in water will not expel a demon--that's how you detect witches. For an exorcism, you need fire.