Can This Stop Now?

One of the odder happenings I've kept up with on this blog is that of parents who do horrible things to their children because they believe their children are possessed by demons and are attempting DIY exorcisms. Generally it's not a huge topic. There's been only a few instances I hear about annually, but this year seems to be off to a bad start. Already, two parents have murdered their children to get out non-existent demons.

In the first case, a mother forced her child to swallow an oil and vinegar mixture which (unsurprisingly) he threw up. So the next time, she covered his mouth, apparently forcing him to choke on it. Today, there was a report of another mother who beat her son to death to get demons out.

This can stop now. There are no demons. There are no ghosts, no goblins, gods, jinns, spirits or anything of the sort. Children are hard to deal with and often act in strange ways. But this isn't abnormal and isn't a justification for murder. Instead of leaping to the conclusion that something supernatural is wrong and reaching for magical elixirs or beating children, parents like this need only a good dose of reality.