Vegetarian Buddhist tortured their 3 y/o son with bamboo sticks (Demon Exorcism )

[moobu2]

Prosecutors: Bamboo sticks used in 'demon' beating
Sister says couple also poked their 3-year-old child with chopsticks


Both parents of a 3-year-old southwest Harris County boy beat him with bamboo sticks and poked his feet with chopsticks in a violent attempt to remove demons from his body, a prosecutor said Tuesday in a court hearing.

Assistant Harris County District Attorney Darin Darby, citing a witness statement from the boy’s 6-year-old sister, on Tuesday presented new details of the attack on Saturday to state District Judge Debbie Mantooth Stricklin in the case against Phung Tran, 36.

She and her husband, Jacky Tran, 35, are charged with injury to a child with serious bodily injury, a first-degree felony. He was arrested on Saturday. His wife was charged on Monday. Both face up to life in prison if convicted.

Prosecutors say the parents, Buddhists and vegetarians, believed demons entered the boy through meat he ate.

Medics flew the boy to the hospital, where he was being treated for skull fractures. Officials said he is expected to survive.



LINK

[and-justice-for-all]

1. Child abuse is child abuse, dont care what ones religion is..

TO JAIL YOU GO!!

[derby378]

2. Shocking, especially considering...

...that Buddhists as a whole have such a low level of persecution and violence compared to many other world religions.

The Trans are a blight on their fellow Texans and fellow Buddhists.

[ZombieHorde]

7. Tibet had some pretty brutal punishments before the Chinese Government

moved in and started their own brand of horror.

The samurai in Japan were Buddhist.

[rpannier]

9. Shinto

Japanese are Shintoists

[ZombieHorde]

11. Shinto and Buddhism are not exclusive from each other.

The samurai holding their swords with both hands in front of them comes from Zen philosophy.

[rpannier]

21. No they're not...You are correct

But, the Japanese consider themselves Shintoists

When they conquered Korea, they closed the Buddhist Temples and replaced them with Shinto ones.
Sort of a tomato, tomahto thing

[Why Syzygy]

34. Hi, ZH

Just wanted to say :hi:

[ZombieHorde]

36. Hi!

[ZombieHorde]

3. Do you consider her religious beliefs to be sane? nt

[Liberal_in_LA]

4. awful...glad the kid was rescued.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

5. Wacko fundie Buddhists?

I guess no religion is without a few loons.

[rpannier]

12. Lotta Crazy Buddhists in Asia

In areas like China and Korea (where I live) Buddhist teachings merged with Confucianism and created a rather oppressive, fiercely hierarchical structure in society.

While most of this was due to the influence of Confucian scholars, it did permeate into the Buddhist temples

[Speck Tater]

13. The opposite of fundie Buddhists...

The most basic core teachings common to all forms of Buddhism DO NOT include the concept of gods and demons. Pure, core Buddhism is atheistic, or at least agnostic. What they practice is obviously a perversion of the teachings of the Buddha. But that's not unusual since there are so many places where Buddhism has been layered with ignorant superstition and nonsense. It's a shame, really. If I had to pick a religion, I'd probably pick Buddhism. (Or maybe Wicca. I hear they throw great parties!)

[Avalux]

6. Of course we'd expect buddhist vegetarians to be peaceful and content.

Not in this case though. Strange.

[MADem]

8. Buddhists and vegetarians?

If it weren't "for real," one would assume it was a lousy joke.

[roughsatori]

10. First time I've seen a report on child abuse that includes the parents dietary habits.

Now if they ate human brains that would warrant a mention. I've never read a headline such as: "Pot-Roast eaters beat child with spoons."

[Speck Tater]

I believe it was relevant since they thought their child got demons by eating meat. nt.

[moobu2]

16. The parents felt that the boy had become possessed by a demon due to his consuming meat,

otherwise it wouldn’t have been important.

[ZombieHorde]

18. Many people are deeply offended by vegetarians and especially by vegans.

When I was a vegan I loved the shock value I got from telling others. I told one friend of mine, who is now a Buddhist monk, and he became visibly angry and snapped; "Milking cows doesn't hurt them." (or something close to that) To be fair, he was drinking that night. His Catholic boyfriend was actually completely comfortable with my decision; now that I think about it, his boyfriend was the only person other than my self who was completely comfortable with my veganism.

[Occam Bandage]

20. I would bet for the same reason that people are often irrationally offended by

ultra-fundamentalist Christians, or by strong atheists. "I'm a vegan" is every once in a while followed by, "so I don't eat dead things *cold look* like some people do," in the same way "I'm saved" is occasionally followed by, "and are you? Or are you hellbound?" Or, I might add, in the same way "I don't believe in God" is occasionally followed by "or other ridiculous, childish fairy tales."

I think vegans get a bad rap because people equate vegans with being moralized at--or at least enough of them do that their attitude spreads to their friends who have not had any first-hand experience with vegans.

[ZombieHorde]

24. That could be, though I never preached for others to be vegan.

I just change my diet every few years.

I still found humor in my Buddhist friend's reaction.

"Ha ha, the spiritual coordinator of the Tibetan Buddhist center doesn't like the lack of animal products in my food." (Does this teasing make me an ass?)

[Occam Bandage]

25. Oh, no, it doesn't make you an ass.

Well, yet. Once you die, all bets are off there.

On edit: To be clear, I don't mean that most or even a significant proportion of vegans/Christians/atheists are moralizing jackasses. Just that a few are, and that people remember the offensive few more than the inoffensive majority.

[moggie]

29. Do you find that happens more with men than with women?

That's been my experience as a veggie: men are more likely than women to get unpleasant about it. I get the sense that, for some men, eating meat is part of their sense of masculinity.

[ZombieHorde]

35. I didn't notice any difference between the genders,

but you may be right about some men believing eating meat is a part of their masculinity.

[rpannier]

14. Not sure what their diet has to do with child abuse nt

[moobu2]

17. The article says

"Prosecutors say the parents, Buddhists and vegetarians, believed demons entered the boy through meat he ate."

[rpannier]

22. I missed that part of the story

I need to read more carefully

Thanks

[roughsatori]

15. A few more details and link:

The Trans remain in Harris County jail on $100,000 bond each. Phung Tran’s attorney, Charles Brown, said he wanted a psychiatric evaluation done soon. Child Protective Services placed the couple’s older daughter in foster care and planned to ask for custody. The Trans are scheduled to appear in court again May 14.

Link: http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/6359936.html

Americanbuddist.net mentions the case: http://www.americanbuddhist.net/buddhist-community-outraged-over-demon-beating-case

[Occam Bandage]

19. OMG but Buddhism preaches kindness!

So does like every other religion. People do evil shit regardless.

[ZombieHorde]

26. She seems crazy to me.

She "beat him with bamboo sticks and poked his feet with chopsticks in a violent attempt to remove demons from his body". Is this sane?

Seems crazy, but I'm not sure if I am just being prejudiced against her belief in the supernatural.

[moggie]

32. You're prejudiced against her belief in bamboo

The chopsticks I use are bamboo. It had never occurred to be that bamboo might have demon-repellent qualities, but my kitchen does appear to be demon-free.

[Sandrine for you]

23. Son of a Bitch Demon, hey ? Are we Talking about Jeeezus Super Christ ?

I was thinking that he was tortured on a cross....

[TheMadMonk]

27. WTF does Budhism or Vegetarianism have to do with this?

What happened here came out of woeful or willful ignorance, nothing more, nothing less.

What was written, comes out of an agenda the writer has against philosophies (religous and/or dietary) that he or she disagrees with.

[moggie]

28. Read the article

"Prosecutors say the parents, Buddhists and vegetarians, believed demons entered the boy through meat he ate"

You know nothing about the writer's diet. I've been a veggie for 25 years, and I'd write the headline the same way, because it's relevant.

[TheMadMonk]

30. I got that much. Again: So what?

Christians believe in demons. In fact most religions believe in demons, and a good many of them have some idiots that think demons can be exorcised with a good beating.

Some veggies (as well as adherents to other dietary practices) starve their kids to death.

Some belief systems and practices are indeed dangerous, but neither Budhism nor vegetarianism are normally considered so.

The way the practices are mentioned in the article, it seems to me that the writer's intent is to link the abuse to those practices rather than the ignorance of the parents.

[moggie]

31. I don't get that from the article

It doesn't seem slanted, it's a fairly dry court report. The Buddhism and vegetarianism are mentioned only in that one sentence, reporting what "prosecutors say". Without that sentence, readers would be left with no idea what motive the abusers thought they had. Honestly, if I thought the article gave undo prominence to the veggie/Buddhist angle, I'd be complaining with you, but I think you're over-reacting in this case.

Should every court report include a disclaimer saying "the alleged behaviour should not be taken to be typical of any group to which the defendants belong"? Bigots would ignore that anyway.

[Sal316]

33. This just goes to prove....

....assholes come in all flavors.

[ZombieHorde]

37. You make it sound good. nt