In a disturbing story out of Nicaragua, the Associated Press reports that 25-year-old Vilma Trujillo Garcia died after being thrown into a fire as part of an exorcism.

Prosecutors said evangelical pastor Juan Gregorio Rocha Romero and four other people had been arrested. Rocha Romero denied wrongdoing, telling the newspaper La Prensa that the woman fell into the fire without anyone pushing her and a demon exited her body.

What an odd statement…

She just fell into the fire. It was completely accidental! Oh, by the way, the demon left her body, so our plan worked!

Allegedly, Garcia tried to attack church members with a machete the week before… though, if I knew members of my church were the types of people who would throw me in a fire, then whipping out a machete sounds like pretty damn good self defense.

Her husband was, as you might expect, devastated:

“It’s unforgiveable what they did to us. They killed my wife, the mother of my two little ones,” he said. “Now what am I going to tell them?“

Tell them that irrational religious beliefs in the hands of gullible, violent idiots killed their mother, and those kids should do everything in their power to make sure no one else suffers from that kind of lack of critical thinking ever again.

It won’t make them feel better, but they deserve an honest answer. Without religion, their mother would be alive right now.

(Image via Shutterstock. Thanks to Scott for the link)



