Posted on 08/02/2004 2:18:19 AM PDT by fdsa2
A SWEDISH Lutheran pastor, who faked telephone text messages from God to get his nanny-lover to murder his wife and try to kill the husband of a second mistress, has been sentenced to life in jail.
The case has fascinated Sweden with its intoxicating mix of sex, death and the workings of an obscure religious sect.
The court found Helge Fossmo, 32, a Pentecostal minister in the town of Knutby, north of Stockholm, guilty of inciting Sara Svensson, his children's 27-year-old nanny, to kill his second wife and his next-door neighbour, Mr Daniel Linde.
He was having an affair with the nanny and Mr Linde's wife.
The nanny admitted to the January murder of Mrs Alexandra Fossmo and to shooting Mr Linde, who survived the attack. The same court has ordered her to be sent to a psychiatric institution.
'Helge Fossmo ruthlessly made use of Sara Svensson's love for him and her dependency on him as a religious leader,' read the verdict of the court.
The trial painted a picture of a bizarre religious community, far removed from the liberal and secular society most Swedes recognise.
The community's ministers exercised a controlling influence in the lives of their flock.
Svensson testified she received anonymous text messages, which she believed to be from God, urging her to kill.
A technology company traced erased messages on her phone to Fossmo, who admitted sending them but said they were only intended to guide the nanny in her faith. -- Reuters
What is missing in this brief is information on the "bride of christ" who many believe are the true leader of this congregation and her role in all of this. Well, the pastor has submitted an appeal, but for now this story seems to have come to an end (for now at least).
Fascinating. Well, bring us up to speed! V's wife.
OKay but what person would be believe that God was sending them text messages on their cell phone? I mean that alone makes this just such a hoot...It doesn't really require any of the additional nuttiness of an offbeat cult...just the messages from God is enough for me...And this "pastor" is having an affair with the nanny AND the neighbor's wife...sounds like a man of a different religion to me.
The only way that happens is if the guy is a Laestidian, and most of them are in Finnland or the United States.
(This is the famous Apostolic Charismatic Church of the First Born I've mentioned several times befoe).
His other behavior suggests he has been quite a successful shaman anyway.
Other than the consequental death and carnage, looks like the old Saami religion continues to ride high in Sweden "North of Stockholm" ~ make that "way North"!
There are Freepers who really don't believe this sort of thing is possible.
Lutherans don't have priests. They have pastors.
Sounds like Catholic bashing by the back door...
In any case, for a short while in the early 1800s parts of this group were affiliated with the Mormons in the US before they moved to Illinois and then Utah.
It's just fascinating as can be to find a practitioner at work in modern Sweden (ROTFLMAO).
BTW, Lutheran ministers are commonly referred to as "priests" in Scandinavia.
No he is not a Laestidian - they are thriving in the north of Sweden in the border area between Finland and Sweden.
Why the lutheran reference? Don´t really know. The minister in question is originally from Norway and the church is pentecostal. Apparently a lot of their members met during bible studies at a nearby pentecostal "school".
In the US, these same folks tend to believe in faith-healing as well, and do not use doctors.
I wonder how they reconcile that belief with the Swedish approach to medical care ~ they don't give you many choices there.
BTW, a current issue in Russia (Murmansk area) is whether or not the Orthodox should tolerate continuation of certain Saami practices among the locals, or simply excommunicate them.
Good Lord, the resident "Everyone is a Catholic Basher!" can even find "Catholic Bashing" in an article about Lutherans.
Geeeeeesh!!!!
There shouldn't be any "Catholic bashing" going on in this one FUR SHUR!
I think at least one of these folks is a member of a group identified as the Smolt Saami.
sounds like democrats to me
Sheesh.
The common term in Sweden for a pastor or minister is präst, which is related to our word, "priest." (The term kyrkoherde also is used specifically for a parish pastor.)
I was just over in Sweden for six weeks, and the Knutby case was the sensational story of the year. This did not do wonders for those of us in the clergy profession. I was talking to a couple of guys in a bar and told them what I did. "Jag är präst" ("I am a pastor"), I said. Their immediate reaction was, "Knutby!"
The interesting information that is missing (and which may have been reported in Sweden while I've been abroad) is whether the "erased messages" actually were recovered or whether the pastor was convicted only on the testimony of the killer herself.
We are looking at one segment of his life, not the whole thing, so that particular aspect may never be clear to any of us.
There's a website with a picture of this preacher, his girlfriend (the killer), and another woman who I believe to be the tribal "Herb Woman", in this case called "Bride of Christ".
The girlfriend looks almost prototypically Swede. The preacher and the second woman could pass for blood over on the side of the family with all the Smolt Saami!
I suspect that at the bottom of his success as a seducer and a Pentacostal this fellow is one heck of a dope peddler, most likely a mix of amanita muscaria and some peyote from his American theological cousins.
If that's the case, it wasn't so much that the self-sustaining community REFUSED the police the opportunity to investigate, as they were just lethargic from the peyote (but still feeling like they were flying from the amanita.)
I've long suspected the Norse folks in the rest of the Scandinavian peninsula are generally so oriented toward Europe that they do not relate all that well to the Saami and are blissfully unaware of what it means to have shamen in the camp!
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