Mom expected God to provide food

[laconicsax]

http://www.nj.com/news/ledger/jersey/index.ssf?/base/news-15/1259894705182640.xml&coll=1

Over three months in 2006, as her five children grew more emaciated and listless by the day, Estelle Walker made no move to find a job, no effort to scrounge up a meal, her kids told a jury yesterday.

"We were supposed to wait for God to provide," said Walker's oldest daughter, now 21. "And that's what we did."

At one point, the daughter said, she and her siblings went 11 days without food. When police were at last summoned to the Sussex County cabin by neighbors, investigators found the children so malnourished they had difficulty talking.

...

"I don't feel the need to continue to go over the documents that we've been going over for three years," [Walker] said. "God will defend me."

Read more at http://www.nj.com/news/ledger/jersey/index.ssf?/base/news-15/1259894705182640.xml&coll=1

Of course she's going to undergo a psychiatric evaluation because people who actually believe in magic must be crazy. :eyes:

[bluestateguy]

1. Religion can be a very positive force for some people

but God cannot and will not not pay your bills.

[rd_kent]

11. Religion can be a very negative force some some people.

As in this case. Its funny though, how she needs a psyche eval for her full-on belief in god, yet no one else needs one. IMO, anyone who believes needs to be evaluated......

[mrbarber]

21. So should we put the faithful in re-education camps?

Or insane asylums? Would it be alright if someone was merely spiritual but did not believe in a strict definition of God, or is anyone who doesn't believe in things that can't be 100 percent proven also fall into that "crazy" category?

[laconicsax]

29. Wow, re-education camps!

That's a good idea. Maybe we atheists should take a page from the religious play-book and start torturing believers into recanting their beliefs and raping children.

If recent history is any guide, not too many people will have a problem with it and people on this board will vehemently defend the torturing rapists.

[rd_kent]

31. Wow, you went right off the deep end with that one.....

But no, not re-education camps. I do feel, however, that if at any time during a discussion that is not religious in nature and someone brings religion into it as a valid viewpoint, then they are not to be taken seriously. For example, when discussing a new species of frog that was found and from what other species it may have evolved from, someone may state that evolution is not real, etc, or the earth is 6000 years old, or any other reason why SCIENCE is wrong because it contradicts the bible, then that person is a wing nut and should be evaluated for being delusional.

[ZombieHorde]

23. "God cannot and will not not pay your bills" or do anything else. nt

[BrklynLiberal]

2. It is sad and sickening how many people feel exactly like that. They may not carry it to such

an extreme, but there are plenty of folks out there who do believe that #@$%@$&^**

[struggle4progress]

3. ... Walker .. is charged with four counts of second-degree child endangerment ...

Walker and the children .. had been placed in the cabin by their church, Times Square Church of Manhattan, to help them escape what Walker claimed was her husband's alcoholism. The cabin is owned by church members who open it for retreats. Walker was due to leave the cabin in May 2006 but refused, saying God had told her to stay, church members have said. The church then cut off her support and began eviction proceedings ... Before the jury entered the courtroom yesterday, public defender Ronald Nicola told Judge N. Peter Conforti that Walker had been refusing to take an active role in her defense ...

from the Ledger link in the OP

[mike_c]

4. the invisible sky dude will make it all better....

Mental illness, plain and simple.

[old mark]

5. This reminds me of Karl Rove and the Bush II regime's attitude toward

the US - we can fuck things up all we want,and god will rescue us before anything really bad happens.

Like in New Orleans.

mark

[Odin2005]

6. More proof religion rots your brain

[jwirr]

7. Stupid woman. God did - she just wanted to have Him serve it to.

[Fridays Child]

8. Well, she didn't go all Andrea Yates on her kids.

I guess that's something, anyway. x(

What. A. Loon.

[chaplainM]

9. Expecting God to feed your kids doesn't differ much from

...expecting God to heal them.

[kestrel91316]

10. I thought a basic biblical teaching was "The Lord helps those who help themselves".

[charlie]

14. Usually attributed to Ben Franklin

But not the Bible.

[trotsky]

17. Hmm, the Church of Benjamin Franklin

Now that would be a religion with some value.

[charlie]

20. Statesman, Scientist, Hellfire Hedonist

Yep, sounds like a recipe for a well-rounded life. It's certainly more worthy of God's Creation than just making OOOOOOH noises at Him every Sunday.

[ArbustoBuster]

22. It was originally said by Algernon Sydney in 1698.

It was in chapter 2, section 23, of his Discourses Concerning Government. (http://www.constitution.org/as/dcg_223.htm)

Franklin quoted it in Poor Richard's Almanack about 40 years later.

[jberryhill]

19. Lol... Odd that people think that's in the Bible

There's been polling on that, and people consistently seem to believe it's in there, but it isn't.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

12. If anyone believes that God will just magically provide them food, then

they're nuts, since 99.9% of religious people actually make efforts to get food, if not by earning money then by seeking charity.

There's actually an anecdote common among preachers about this very issue:

A man is stranded on his roof during a flood, and some people come by in a rowboat and offer to take him.

"No," he says. "I have faith that God will take care of me.

The people shrug and row away.

A little while later, a helicopter flies ahead, and the pilot lowers a rope ladder to the roof. The man shouts up to the helicopter: "No, thanks, God will take care of me." The helicopter flies off.

A little after that, another rowboat comes by with rescue workers.

"No thanks," the man says. "God will take care of me."

The rescue workers shrug and row away.

After the rowboat is out of sight, there's a big surge of water. The man is swept off his roof and drowns.

When he arrives in heaven and stands before the throne of God, the man shouts, "What's the matter, Lord? I had faith and you didn't save me!"

"Are you kidding?" God retorts. "I sent you two rowboats and a helicopter!"

[skepticscott]

13. But of course a persistent belief

in things that aren't true (i.e. "faith) can't possibly do any harm, so why do you atheists always have to get in everybody's face and be so "fundamentalist" about it??

:sarcasm:

[DeSwiss]

15. The instructions in Matthew, chapter 7, verses 7 thru 11 say.....

7 Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you:
8 For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.
9 Or what man is there of you, whom if his son ask bread, will he give him a stone?
10 Or if he ask a fish, will he give him a serpent?
11 If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him?

So what's the problem here? She's only following the instructions that the bible tells her to. Maybe she's got a defective bible???

:shrug: - Or maybe she just needs a fresh supply of Jesus dirt.......

http://www.sandofchrist.com/">

Too bad they're out of business now.

K&R

[piratefish08]

16. give a man a fish and he'll eat for a day, give a man religion

and he'll starve to death praying for a fish.

[Gregorian]

18. This is what a Sarah Palin America would look like.

These people have most likely never picked up the bible.

[laconicsax]

24. Maybe they read this part:

Matthew 7:

⁷Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you: ⁸For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened. ⁹ Or what man is there of you, whom if his son ask bread, will he give him a stone? ¹⁰ Or if he ask a fish, will he give him a serpent? ¹¹If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him?

Is Matthew chapter 7 not in your copy of the Bible?

[Gregorian]

25. Mine has Gensis 3

By the sweat of your brow will you have food to eat...

[laconicsax]

26. So...was Jesus lying?

:shrug:

[Gregorian]

27. You'll have to ask him. But perhaps he was talking about two different subjects.

One physical, and the other spiritual. And that seeking actually requires effort.

[laconicsax]

28. Well since he's a sockpuppet, its whatever you want it to be.

I couldn't care less--she's a deluded idiot either way.

[ChadwickHenryWard]

30. Don't worry, the real culprit is receiving his due:

http://www.theonion.com/content/news/lord_under_investigation_for