(Return to my home page) : Blog Home : July 2006
Either Fundamentalists are Crazy or Andrea Yates is Sane...
July 27, 2006 15:15
I find the overturning of Andrea Yates' conviction, even if justified legally, nevertheless unsettling. I do not dispute that she was suffering from post-partum depression. However, her interpretation of that experience in the way that she did was the result of fundamentalist Christian beliefs - whether there was also psychosis should not distract us from this important fact. I think any evangelical who saw the photos of her and heard her story recognized her as one of our own. Many Christians are taught that depression is a purely spiritual phenomenon. Much modern Christianity, and particularly fundamentalist forms, radically separate body and soul, science and spirit. The danger is not only to science education in this country. Children's lives are clearly at risk.
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