LIST 65

815 People Killed by Religious Rituals and Objects

1

August 13, 1984: 38-year-old John Blue was being baptized in a river, when he and the preacher fell into deeper water. Though the man of the cloth survived, God saw fit to smite Blue, who drowned.

2

November 2001: In Bordeaux, France, a young couple was laying flowers on the grave of their baby. With them were their two children, a seven-year-old girl and an eleven-year-old boy. A heavy stone cross fell from a tomb, landing on the little girl, who soon died of her injuries.

3

December 20, 2001: A 71-year-old priest was trying to close an iron gate, weighing several hundred pounds, in front of St. Agnes Church in San Francisco, when it slipped off its tracks and crushed him to death.

4

February 10, 2002: While officiating Mass at St. Agnes Church in Midtown, New York (is Agnes cursed?), a priest had a massive coronary, fell backwards, and met his Maker. A fellow priest was quoted: “He was giving the homily at Mass and keeled over immediately.”

5 6

Many people, especially children, have died during exorcisms. In January 2004, Atlanta police found the body of an eight-year-old girl who had been strangled, stabbed, and had her back broken in what police believe was a ritual to drive out demons. They arrested Christopher and Valerie Carey, charging them with the murder. The previous August in Milwaukee, an eight year-old autistic boy was smothered to death allegedly by a storefront preacher as he kneeled on the child's chest and tried to chase out demons for two hours. Minister Ray Hemphill has been charged.

7-815

1997-2004: During the annual pilgrimage to Mecca known as the hajj, Muslims have been trampled to death in recent years. This happens during a ritual late in the proceedings, in which pilgrims throw pebbles at pillars, symbolically stoning to death various devils. The crowd goes wild, a stampede ensues, and anywhere from a dozen to hundreds of people are stomped into pulp. Death tolls from recent years include 180 in 1998, 35 in 2001, and fourteen in 2003.

The body count skyrocketed in 2004—around 244 people died, with hundreds more injured. Hajj Minister Iyad Madani said: “All precautions were taken to prevent such an incident, but this is God's will.”

The worst hajj disaster of recent times occurred in 1997, when a tent city went up in flames, prematurely sending 340 worshippers to Allah.

Honorable mentions

September 25, 2001. After attending Mass, Australian Catholic schoolgirls in Merryland, New South Wales, were waiting for a bus to take them back to school. A storm suddenly hit, and before they could scramble to shelter, lightning struck the ground nearby, knocking down six of them. One of the teens was in critical condition with flash burns, another was in serious condition with unspecified injuries, and the other four were being held for observation. The Sydney Morning Herald reported: “Ambulance officers said the girls were lucky it was not a direct strike, which probably would have killed them.”

February 25, 2004: During the gory crucifixion scene in Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ, 56-year-old Peggy Scott suffered a heart attack and immediately died in a Wichita, Kansas theater. And let's not forget that lightning struck twice during the filming of The Passion. An assistant director was hit both times, and during the second strike, the main bolt nailed Jim Caviezel, the actor playing Jesus. Smoke reportedly came out of one of his ears. If that's not a sign, I don't know what is.