Posted on 04/18/2007 10:36:54 AM PDT by Froufrou
(1) Slandering her dead husband and inventing vicious stories about him that play into the Lifetime MovieChannel/Hollywood picture of Bible-believing preachers.
(2) Taking advantage of the Scripture-based forgiveness and concern that her husband's congregation extended to her after she committed this vile crime.
It underscores precisely the cultural trap that has been set for fundamental Christians according to your analysis.
(1) Mary Winkler grew up in a strict Christian household, where she was taught that the husband has total authority over the wife and that questioning this authority is sinful.
(2) This same upbringing instilled in her the notion that divorce is evil, that it brings shame and humiliation on one's entire family and that seeking a divorce is an admission that one is a complete moral and spiritual failure.
(3) She had great trauma as a child when her sister died and never sought the help of a professional. For this reason she had terrible feelings of inadequacy and depression that tortured her and were left untreated.
(4) Her husband was abusive - mentally, physically and sexually and took delight in dominating and humiliating her. She could not conceive of leaving him because of the repressive cultural milieu in which she was raised. In her world, divorce was unthinkable, so she had to endure the abuse.
(5) In order to please her husband she hit upon a scheme to bring extra money into the household. She hoped that this would please her husband and temper his abusiveness.
(6) She wasn't thinking clearly because of her undiagnosed mental and emotional trauma, and was drawn into a scam that lost the family's savings and put them in a bad legal position.
(7) The scam may even have been her husband's idea and he may have forced her into it - and she went along wanting to please him and stop his abuse.
(8) When the scam went sour, her husband went ballistic. Crazed with fear and anticipating that the abuse would get worse, her mental and emotional problems overwhelmed her, her mind snapped, and in a moment of temporary insanity she killed her husband.
This line of reasoning has won juries over before and may again.
What went on behind closed doors is something that I know nothing about and is indeed theoretically possible that the woman was severely abused (I'm not following the trial). However, even if she is the victim in this case (again, a theoretical possiblity I am in no position to judge) we may be sure that Biblical Fundamentalism will be indicted as a whole, despite the fact that the vast majority of Fundamentalist marriages and families seem to be happy and well-adjusted.
Are you a lawyer? If not, you sure could be!
[no offense!]
My wife is the attorney in the family. But I contemplated the bar back in my younger days before deciding against it.
I did too. I even took and passed the LSAT. That’s as far as it got.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.