let's add the atlanta "exorcism" child murder to the day's festivities. this is an excerpt from the most recent ajc story:
Christopher Carey, 29, and Valerie Carey, 27, both are
charged with murdering that daughter, Quimani, 6,
during an act that family members told police was
aimed at ridding her body of demons.
Police discovered the girl's body early Monday at the
Savannah Suites motel in downtown Atlanta, hours after
the mother and father were spotted, along with their
two other children, a 2-year-old boy and 7-year-old
girl, walking nude in near-freezing cold down Piedmont
Avenue.
When police attempted to stop the couple on the
street, they simply kept walking. The couple said an
officer who approached them did not exist and that God
had commanded them to walk in the nude, according to a
police report.
Both resisted arrest, punching and kicking at the
officers, and, once subdued, refused to give
information about themselves, police said. "Instead
they just constantly stated the words 'love' and
'Michael Jackson,' " the report said.
An Atlanta police spokesman, Sgt. John Quigley, said
he had no explanation for the parents' behavior.
Although police are skeptical about the family's story
concerning an exorcismlike ritual in which the girl
was strangled, stabbed and beaten, Quigley said, "In
their minds there's some religious connection."
The girl's body was found on the motel floor,
partially covered. Pages had been ripped from a Bible
and placed on her body.
Police said the two other children may have been
involved in some kind of defiling of the girl's dead
body. Both were placed with the state Division of
Family and Children Services.
I can only wonder how it is that Michael Jackson figured into their thinking. Here's the "Intro to Religion" exam question:
"Explain how the Atlanta exorcism child murder could be interpreted as an instance of Abrahamic religion. Cite specific details from the case and relate these details to Biblical narratives using textual examples. Then make a case for why the murder should not in fact be construed as an illustration of Abrahamic religion. Finally, offer your own judgement on this issue."
Go ahead--I'm an easy grader.
Combine the exorcism murder with the Nuwaubian child molestation trial and we have had a week in Georgia that even Flannery O'Connor could not have imagined. Though I suspect you could argue that the particular religious worldview of her work presages this kind of thing.
I think one could get a good documentary out of this. "A week in the life of Georgia" sort of film that would follow both the murder and the molestation trial, cutting back and forth between them. I think you'd have to take your cue from Errol Morris and avoid drawing explicit connections that let the viewer know how they should be reacting, but instead let the logic of the thing unfold organically. If you don't know Errol Morris, you ought to check him out and I'd suggest starting with the film *Mr. Death*, though others would recommend other films first. His website is worth a look too.
