NEW HARTFORD, N.Y. (AP) – Two teenage brothers were brutally beaten in church – one of them fatally – in an effort by their parents, sister and other members of the congregation to force them to confess their sins and seek forgiveness, police said Wednesday.
Police Chief Michael Inserra said investigators are still looking into what the supposed sins were.
Lucas and Christopher Leonard, 19 and 17, were pounded with fists Sunday at the Word of Life Church when a “counseling session” meant to explore their spiritual state turned violent, Inserra said. They were beaten in the abdomen, genitals, back and thighs, authorities said.
Lucas died and his brother was hospitalized in serious condition. Six church members – including the brothers’ parents and sister – have been arrested.
“Both brothers were subjected to physical punishment over the course of several hours, in hopes that each would confess to prior sins and ask for forgiveness,” Inserra said.
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It brings into question the social role of churches, mosques and synagogues and their jurisdiction in modern life, in the West.
Human rights and freedoms should take precedence over any religious rules.
Quoting New York Times
NEW HARTFORD, N.Y. — To its neighbors in this upstate town, Word of Life Christian Church presented itself as a constant curiosity: an imposing but tidy former schoolhouse whose occupants kept to themselves, almost never opening their doors or their mouths, secluded behind a closed entrance.
Over the last three days, however, the inner life of that secretive sect suddenly spilled into the outside world. On Sunday evening, the authorities said, two teenagers — brothers and the sons of two members of Word of Life — were called into a sanctuary and savagely beaten by at least a half-dozen people, including their parents and older half sister.
“Both brothers were continually subjected to physical punishment over the course of several hours, in hopes that each would confess to prior sins and ask for forgiveness,” Chief Michael S. Inserra of the New Hartford Police Department said at a news conference on Wednesday.
It is not clear what those sins were, but for several hours, into Monday morning, punches and kicks landed on the brothers’ stomachs, genitals, backs and thighs, as the so-called counseling session turned into a case of manslaughter and assault.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/15/nyregion/lucas-leonard-beating-death-at-upstate-new-york-church.html?utm_source=Pew+Research+Center&utm_campaign=62f11c85d5-Religion_Weekly_Oct_15_2015&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_3e953b9b70-62f11c85d5-400098637&_r=0