"God always stays ahead. He's a pro." Hannibal Lector, Red Dragon
Since it is Thanksgiving, I hope that you are able to give thanks for a family that understands, for a church that supports, and a government with priorities in order. Why is it that we expect the mentally ill to support themselves?
"DALLAS -- The minister of a woman who admitted killing her baby daughter by severing the child's arms said Wednesday that her husband seemed emotionally stable but was searching for answers and concerned about how God will judge his wife
"He's concerned, overall, about why this happened and what would happen to her and how does God view her right now," said [the minister], who leads a nondenominational church in Plano that [the parents] have attended with their children.
Dena Schlosser, 35, was charged with capital murder Monday after she calmly told a 911 operator she cut off the arms of 11-month-old Margaret. Police found Schlosser, who had a history of postpartum depression and psychotic symptoms, covered in blood and holding a knife, a church hymn playing in the background.
[The minister] said that when he talked to [the father] on Monday about funeral arrangements, the father seemed to be emotionally stable. He also inquired about his wife's fate. A telephone message left for a [the father] was not returned Wednesday.
"He's concerned about his wife. I mean, who wouldn't be? He asked me: 'What is God saying now? I mean, my wife's in jail,"' [the minister] told The Associated Press. "I said 'John, we'll have to watch the court system and how it works out."'
[The minister], who started Water of Life Church in 1980, said he believes God uses the courts to work his will. He said he told [the father] that although the Bible instructs not to kill, God also forgives.
"God will forgive every sin and he will forgive this woman. He's the only one who can lead her to repentance," [the minister] said. "My basic thing will be simply to pray that Dena will be brought to repentance to God and acknowledge her sin and then she'll be free."
[The minister] said he did not have a close relationship with the Schlossers. He said they attended the church sporadically for about three years. Dena Schlosser and her daughters, ages 6 and 9, attended more often than her husband, he said.
"I'd say hello and that was about it," the minister said. "I don't think anybody here had that much contact with them."
The Schlossers' daughters were placed in temporary custody with Texas' Family and Protective Services after an agency determined their father failed to protect them from their mother.
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Is it really an expression of God's will that Dallas County may try this mentally ill woman for capital murder? Mind you, this is a question from someone who finds it difficult to believe that it was God's will that His Son was also tried for a capital crime.
One of the expressions of God'w will that I recall vividly from interning in the Family/Juvenile Courts in Harris County was watching His children dressed in orange jumpsuits in shackles and chains shuffling out of their holding cells to the courtroom.
The court system in Texas is hell. This family will not be able to afford the excellent legal counsel it is going to take to keep her out of prison and in a mental institution. The State of Texas will probably bill her family for her medication.
Why isn't it God's will that we rise above our ignorance and help make this life bearable rather than worrying that there is a next life?
Eighty-seven percent of Americans believe that evolution played no role in human development. We sprang from God's hands fully formed.
I am wagering if science does not occupy a certain amount of our reality, then understanding mental illness is beyond us.
Mental health must be difficult for some citizens of Texas to understand. We have a difficult time legislating enough money for it, churches have a difficult time seeing that mental illness is not a sin. Does a woman really need prison in order to get the help she needed? If it is a sin to be mentally ill and seeking psychiatric help, and this church didn't necessarily think that it was, but, it didn't help one of the flock when the lamb got lost? How about leaving those children or an infant alone with an obviously ill woman? Where was this woman's husband? He didn't think his wife or his children were in danger? Why didn't he think so?
Very few people in Texas can afford legal counsel skilled enough to fight the state's resources. This case is going to require a level of sophistication most cases don't need and don't receive.
Texas Family and Protective Services isn't indifferent. They are simply moving as much paper across their poorly funded desk as possible. Don't blame them. We are fortunate that they have the college education they do have, we are fortunate that they don't run away but go to their jobs everyday.
Another woman in East Texas killed two of her children and disabled one for life by crushing them with stones. When she got her prescriptions for anti-depressants and anti-psychotic medications, she said, "Why doesn't someone educate us about this? Why don't the schools? Why doesn't the church?" she pleaded.
Hell if I know, sister!
If the people of Texas think that government shouldn't be taxing citizens to pay for mental health then why isn't the church filling that gap? So her government fails her, her health care fails her, her church fails her, her husband fails her.
And she is supposed to confess her sin?
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