Religious leader killed four-year-old because he thought he was gay

Religious leader killed four-year-old because he thought he was gay
The leader of a religious cult could face the death penalty for killing a four-year-old boy because he thought he was gay.

Jonny Payne
9 July 2011

The leader of a religious cult could face the death penalty for killing a four-year-old boy because he thought he was gay.

Prosecutors are pushing for Lucas Moses, 27, to face the sentence after he was charged for two counts of first-degree murder against four-year-old Jadon Higganbothan and 28 year-old Antoinetta McKoy, who was looking to abandon the Durham-based sect in North Carolina.

The court was told on Friday how Moses, head of the polygamist Black Hebrew Israelites, shot Higganbothan for gay ‘behaviour’ after he found him hitting another boy on the bottom.

Moses also forced Vania Sisk, the mother of the four-year-old to shoot McKoy, while another two women who lived with Moses, Lavanda Harris and Larhonda Smith, have also been charged for their parts in the killings.

As reported by ABC, Durham County District Attorney Tracey Cline said: “In the religious belief of that organisation, homosexuality was frowned on.”

She added: “Sometime in October 2010, Smith told Moses that Jadon had hit another child’s bottom, and Moses became angry and started walking around the house with a gun that belonged to Jadon’s mother, Vania Rae Sisk.”

Cline told the court how Higganbothan was taken to the garage and shot while the Lord’s Prayer in Hebrew was played on speakers to mask any noise.

McKoy was also beaten and shot after trying to escape Moses’ home. Moses believed she might tell people about the previous murder, according to Cline. As reported by ABC, the attorney said: “Once she got in the front door, the beating started. Moses began to beat her and other ladies in the house began to beat her and this beating went on for most of the day.”

CeCe wrote:Good grief. Poor little kid. Religion, ignorance & outright stupidity are 3 of the main causes of suffering in the world.

CeCe wrote:Good grief. Poor little kid. Religion, ignorance & outright stupidity are 3 of the main causes of suffering in the world.

Forgiveness Man wrote:

CeCe wrote:Good grief. Poor little kid. Religion, ignorance & outright stupidity are 3 of the main causes of suffering in the world.

Religion is not the cause of any suffering in the world. People's decisions are. If you try to use religion as an excuse, you just give people a reason to find another excuse.

It's sad what happened but blaming religion instead of the individual just shows that we're only after a different excuse rather than solving the problem. People kill because they want to. I find it funny that when a religious person kills, we blame religion. But when a religious person/group feeds the hungry, shelters the homeless, donates to the poor, we never hear these same people saying how religion helps people too. Nooooo! We only hear about how bad it is when a rogue religious person makes up their own doctrine and kills someone. That's how I know the concept is full of crap that religion brings suffering.

What this man did is rotten and he should face severe punishment. But it was him that did it, not the concept of religion. I am sure if he wasn't a cult leader, he'd have looked for another excuse to kill the boy, or maybe even have used the same one. When you commit cold blooded murder, it's your own darkness making you do it. Blaming religion is giving killers a free pass.