WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.040 --> 00:00:06.040 Hello, fellow nonprofits and skeptics. Six individuals self identified as members of a 2 00:00:06.120 --> 00:00:11.599 religious group called Soldiers of Christ have been arrested on murder charges in George's Gwyneth 3 00:00:11.640 --> 00:00:16.120 County after a male, nourished woman was found dead in a cow trunk outside 4 00:00:16.160 --> 00:00:19.800 of a spa. The victim, who had suffered weeks of abuse, was 5 00:00:19.839 --> 00:00:24.960 discovered in distressing conditions. The suspects, including a fifteen year old, face 6 00:00:25.120 --> 00:00:29.879 charges of felony murder, false imprisonment, tampering with evidence, and concealing a 7 00:00:29.960 --> 00:00:34.679 death. Authorities believe the crime took place in the basement of a nearby home, 8 00:00:34.920 --> 00:00:39.439 and the victim probably just moved here recently from South Korea to join the 9 00:00:39.479 --> 00:00:45.600 religious organization. The investigation is ongoing and the victim's identity has not been disclosed. 10 00:00:45.679 --> 00:00:50.320 This article is from CBS News and was published September sixth, twenty twenty 11 00:00:50.359 --> 00:00:53.520 three. Infidel, Let's start with you. What do you got to say? 12 00:00:53.679 --> 00:00:56.640 When I read this story, one of the first things that I thought 13 00:00:56.960 --> 00:00:59.439 was, you know, I'm sure I'm not the only one on this panel 14 00:00:59.479 --> 00:01:03.920 has been asked why you spend so much time talking about religions and gods? 15 00:01:03.920 --> 00:01:07.319 You don't believe in But you know, out of the many reasons that I've 16 00:01:07.359 --> 00:01:11.120 been given, this has demonstrated another one. I don't think a young person 17 00:01:11.159 --> 00:01:15.280 deserves to be starved and killed and then left callously to decay in the in 18 00:01:15.319 --> 00:01:19.400 the trunk of a car. I see this as a as an indicative of 19 00:01:19.400 --> 00:01:23.040 religion dehumanizing its enemies. You know, the Bible and the Koran are just 20 00:01:23.280 --> 00:01:27.200 two examples of how enemies are treated, and history is littered with these examples, 21 00:01:27.200 --> 00:01:32.120 and I think that what we're seeing here with this group is just another 22 00:01:32.239 --> 00:01:36.519 example of treating people's less than human. You know, I'm sure that most 23 00:01:36.599 --> 00:01:40.879 Christians will react with you know, shock and horror, but they dehumanize people 24 00:01:40.959 --> 00:01:45.120 every day. They talk about woke and LGBTQ plus community and other groups that 25 00:01:45.200 --> 00:01:49.200 they deem unacceptable in a way that's really nothing less than demonization. You know, 26 00:01:49.239 --> 00:01:52.840 they devalue people, they make them it's okay to not treat people like 27 00:01:52.959 --> 00:01:57.719 humans. And sometimes they literally use religious rhetoric like demon possession or that other 28 00:01:57.760 --> 00:02:01.359 people are devils. QAnon goes as as they call their enemies not human at 29 00:02:01.359 --> 00:02:06.920 all. So this kind of hate, this kind of disregard for human life 30 00:02:07.040 --> 00:02:12.240 is I think exactly what we're seeing come to the forefront with why are a 31 00:02:12.280 --> 00:02:15.560 young woman who was found dead on a trunk of a car so callously Christian 32 00:02:15.599 --> 00:02:19.520 shut n act shocked? What do they think is going to happen when they 33 00:02:19.599 --> 00:02:23.319 treat other people like they shouldn't exist and they don't deserve things? You know, 34 00:02:23.360 --> 00:02:24.560 what do they think this is going to end up as a sing along? 35 00:02:24.800 --> 00:02:29.919 You know? To me, I just don't understand whether why this would 36 00:02:30.000 --> 00:02:34.000 happen, but I can't be surprised. This is really what religion does. 37 00:02:34.080 --> 00:02:37.599 It hurts and damages people. And Phoebea, I was wondering what your take 38 00:02:37.639 --> 00:02:40.199 on this was. So it's alt to be fishy here. So they're identifying 39 00:02:40.199 --> 00:02:45.520 the victim as Midsummer here, And if you're British or a fan of the 40 00:02:45.599 --> 00:02:50.439 crimes of this world on dramatic television, we all know of Midsummer murders. 41 00:02:50.439 --> 00:02:53.520 So for the purposes of this, imagine that I'm Dci Tombak and I'm here 42 00:02:53.520 --> 00:02:58.319 with Gavin Troy sat next to me, and then George Bullard won further over, 43 00:02:58.439 --> 00:03:01.759 and then Benjamin Jones Benjamin Jones in the corner and we're here to investigate 44 00:03:01.879 --> 00:03:07.560 this murder in Georgia, and it's all a bit well fishy, it's weird 45 00:03:07.919 --> 00:03:14.840 and just a bit unexplained. So much of this story is left out in 46 00:03:14.879 --> 00:03:17.280 the open. Why was the woman here in the first place, Why are 47 00:03:17.319 --> 00:03:23.520 the victim? Why they was the victim even in the United States at all? 48 00:03:23.840 --> 00:03:28.599 And why is the age range of the people who have been arrested so 49 00:03:29.159 --> 00:03:32.280 young. The youngest is fifty and the oldest is twenty six, and there 50 00:03:32.319 --> 00:03:38.360 are six of them. This is an incredibly narrow range of ages, and 51 00:03:38.400 --> 00:03:43.719 they're all South Korean men. And then it's all just a bit strange and 52 00:03:43.800 --> 00:03:49.759 goes what because so much of this is just compounded and compounded and compounded on 53 00:03:49.800 --> 00:03:53.039 top of itself that it just doesn't make any sense. Where was there this 54 00:03:53.360 --> 00:03:57.479 done to her? Why was she in the back of a car? Why 55 00:03:57.879 --> 00:04:00.919 was she so malnourished? And Jonathan, oh sorry, des Gavin Troy, 56 00:04:01.120 --> 00:04:09.719 please take over. Gee. This is more than just a distressing story and 57 00:04:09.800 --> 00:04:14.520 a horrible story. It kind of breaks my heart that somebody would be subjected 58 00:04:14.560 --> 00:04:19.279 to this. But obviously something happened to entice her to come to this cult, 59 00:04:20.160 --> 00:04:26.560 and you know, she was starved and beaten for weeks. How could 60 00:04:26.600 --> 00:04:30.720 any human being do that to another human? I know we're not supposed to 61 00:04:30.720 --> 00:04:33.480 dehumanize people, but this, you know, you know, after the search, 62 00:04:33.519 --> 00:04:39.120 warmth was issued for the house where the suspect, one of the suspects, 63 00:04:39.160 --> 00:04:43.079 I guess had. The place where this happened was in the basement of 64 00:04:43.120 --> 00:04:47.000 his house. And I can't wrap my mind around, much less my emotions 65 00:04:47.079 --> 00:04:51.079 around how this could happen and a neighbor didn't know. And I guess they 66 00:04:51.120 --> 00:04:55.720 did talk to some neighbors and they said that, you know, the only 67 00:04:55.759 --> 00:04:58.959 thing they knew about the people is they were very insular, and they would 68 00:04:59.079 --> 00:05:02.759 occasionally and outside in the circle and talk to each other. But that's all 69 00:05:02.800 --> 00:05:05.680 that he knew about them. He never heard or saw anything. Hang on 70 00:05:05.720 --> 00:05:09.439 a minute, I'm going to jump in here. People always say this, 71 00:05:09.959 --> 00:05:13.120 how did the neighbors not know? But to the panel here, do you 72 00:05:13.199 --> 00:05:15.040 all know the names of your next door neighbors on both sides? Yes, 73 00:05:15.240 --> 00:05:18.040 I do, and the ones across the word yes, and one across the 74 00:05:18.079 --> 00:05:21.560 street yes? And how quickly did you know those names when you moved in? 75 00:05:23.439 --> 00:05:26.879 Within three days? A couple of weeks at the most, I'm pretty 76 00:05:26.920 --> 00:05:33.160 nosy. I want to point out that there is a sense of privacy in 77 00:05:33.199 --> 00:05:36.000 the US in many places, and a lot of people don't know who their 78 00:05:36.040 --> 00:05:41.120 neighbors are. That's pretty common here, and just the time I hear that, 79 00:05:41.279 --> 00:05:44.040 I just go. But it's one of these things that harks back to 80 00:05:44.199 --> 00:05:48.639 nineteen fifty's white picket fences, where everybody was a nosy neighbor and everybody had 81 00:05:48.639 --> 00:05:51.759 a housewife that stayed at home, and everyone knew what was going on and 82 00:05:51.759 --> 00:05:56.399 everyone else's business. Today, everyone does not know what's going on else everyone 83 00:05:56.399 --> 00:05:59.879 else's business. And it's one of these things where, oh my god, 84 00:06:00.040 --> 00:06:02.839 how should I should have known something? No, you shouldn't have known something, 85 00:06:02.879 --> 00:06:06.600 because I value my privacy and my neighbors value their privacy. Yeah, 86 00:06:06.600 --> 00:06:10.560 I know, I know their names. I don't know their occupations. I 87 00:06:10.560 --> 00:06:13.800 don't know their ages, I don't know their middle names, I don't know 88 00:06:14.000 --> 00:06:16.959 how long they've lived in the neighborhood. And well, I can understand not 89 00:06:17.040 --> 00:06:20.759 only knowing their occupations because the guy who lives across from me, he's been 90 00:06:20.839 --> 00:06:25.800 in and out of jobs, you know, about every three weeks since I've 91 00:06:25.879 --> 00:06:30.959 known him the more a jack of all trades then than some of with you 92 00:06:30.000 --> 00:06:35.720 know, jumping between trades. I don't know. But on that point though, 93 00:06:36.000 --> 00:06:43.360 is that something we should be concerned about in society at large that allows 94 00:06:43.399 --> 00:06:46.959 things like this to happen in suburbia. I think it is something that we 95 00:06:47.000 --> 00:06:50.639 need to be concerned about. I don't think people need to be nosy neighbors 96 00:06:50.720 --> 00:07:02.480 like Gladys on Bewitched. Sorry, you're really sure, Gladys Kravitz, I'm 97 00:07:02.519 --> 00:07:05.600 all about it. I don't even know that even if you knew what was 98 00:07:05.600 --> 00:07:10.720 going on, and some people would say something if anybody knows the story of 99 00:07:10.800 --> 00:07:15.000 Kitty Genoviz that everybody learns that story in psychlee on one when you go to 100 00:07:15.079 --> 00:07:17.439 college. But I mean there was people knew what was happening, and nobody 101 00:07:17.439 --> 00:07:20.360 called the police. So I'm not even sure that even if people knew what 102 00:07:20.439 --> 00:07:24.720 was happening, it would be reported. I mean, in Europe, some 103 00:07:24.839 --> 00:07:30.000 prolific pedophiles have kept children in basements in suburban streets. Mm hmmm. And 104 00:07:30.560 --> 00:07:33.120 I won't mention that happened in Belgium here because I don't want to give them 105 00:07:33.120 --> 00:07:38.959 any any infamy here. But in countries like Belgium and in the Netherlands, 106 00:07:39.639 --> 00:07:45.959 large pedophile rings have occurred in basements of middle class suburbia. Yeah, how 107 00:07:46.439 --> 00:07:50.199 how do we as a society at large, where there are churches that are 108 00:07:50.199 --> 00:07:55.920 behaving like this, there are the various individuals behaving like those described in the 109 00:07:55.920 --> 00:08:00.360 low countries in Europe? What do we do to replace that sense of that 110 00:08:00.480 --> 00:08:07.240 some people show to have been lost by the reduction in religiosity that used to 111 00:08:07.240 --> 00:08:09.560 be Kelly, You know that that's a good question, and it's something that 112 00:08:09.600 --> 00:08:16.959 I've talked about before. We we need to build a support network for atheists, 113 00:08:16.040 --> 00:08:20.040 just like a church is a support network for theists. We when atheists 114 00:08:20.040 --> 00:08:26.040 have a problem, they're suffering from an emotional or sometimes financial or you know, 115 00:08:26.120 --> 00:08:28.600 any kind of mental problem, they don't have anybody to turn to, 116 00:08:28.759 --> 00:08:31.799 and we really need to build that community. That's one of the things that 117 00:08:31.840 --> 00:08:35.480 I'm really thankful of the ACA for is that it's helping to build that community. 118 00:08:35.639 --> 00:08:41.360 We try to do that over on the discord server too, So I 119 00:08:41.360 --> 00:08:45.879 think you're right, we need to we need to have that for our community. 120 00:08:46.320 --> 00:08:50.279 It seems to me that Korea is like a hotbed for weird religious Christian 121 00:08:50.399 --> 00:08:54.679 cults, and I wanted to look into that because I thought it was weird 122 00:08:54.759 --> 00:08:58.639 that all these weird place things were coming out of South Korea. And I 123 00:08:58.720 --> 00:09:05.879 found that Christianity has really been expanding rapidly and pretty quickly in South Korea ever 124 00:09:05.960 --> 00:09:07.559 since World War Two. Well, I have to at the end of World 125 00:09:07.600 --> 00:09:11.399 War two, about two percent of the population was Christian, and in twenty 126 00:09:11.519 --> 00:09:16.519 fifteen it was nearly thirty percent. And there's a and this might help you 127 00:09:16.639 --> 00:09:20.480 understand some of what was going on here. There's a movement there called min 128 00:09:20.639 --> 00:09:26.840 Jung theology, which these moonees pardon, are these moonies? No, no, 129 00:09:26.840 --> 00:09:31.240 no, this is not Mooney's. But it's something that it's not it's 130 00:09:31.279 --> 00:09:35.480 something that's even picked up by the Catholic Church in Korea. It combines the 131 00:09:35.559 --> 00:09:41.120 idea that God made men in his image with this Korean ideal of what they 132 00:09:41.200 --> 00:09:45.879 call han and it doesn't translate well into English, but it denotes a feeling 133 00:09:46.039 --> 00:09:52.279 of inconsolable pain and hopelessness. So it's it's basically, it's the acceptance of 134 00:09:52.360 --> 00:09:54.840 God. And since you are the image of God, you will no longer 135 00:09:54.919 --> 00:10:00.000 have to suffer with Han. So that's that's the attractiveness to this people, 136 00:10:00.000 --> 00:10:03.799 people who are living still in a negrarian society within a second World nation, 137 00:10:05.240 --> 00:10:09.840 and they've suffered their whole lives like their parents did and their grandparents. The 138 00:10:09.919 --> 00:10:13.480 history of Korea in the last hundred years is not pretty. So there is 139 00:10:13.519 --> 00:10:20.879 this desperation there and this this idea that Christianity is going to solve that desperation. 140 00:10:20.320 --> 00:10:22.720 Infidel, you want to add to it, you know, when it 141 00:10:22.759 --> 00:10:30.879 comes down to creating community and removing this privacy problem, because it is beyond 142 00:10:30.919 --> 00:10:33.639 privacy. And I understand and appreciate privacy at least to a sense, but 143 00:10:35.480 --> 00:10:39.919 mister exactly. But at the same time, there it is important to know 144 00:10:41.000 --> 00:10:43.679 what's going on around you, and I think that we've kind of gotten away 145 00:10:43.720 --> 00:10:46.840 from that and to a point of we've run from one bubble to the other. 146 00:10:48.000 --> 00:10:50.600 We run from our vehicle to inside to work. You know, it's 147 00:10:50.639 --> 00:10:54.840 always we're not really interacting, and I do think that's a loss overall. 148 00:10:56.120 --> 00:11:00.679 I think that that only enables people with the worst intentions. We're seeing here 149 00:11:00.759 --> 00:11:03.320 obviously as people who the kids and for the lack of a better way to 150 00:11:03.320 --> 00:11:07.159 put it, the young, young, young people who were charged with this. 151 00:11:07.399 --> 00:11:11.320 I mean, they didn't just wake up one day and end up here. 152 00:11:11.399 --> 00:11:15.919 There's a path that led this, and there's a path of belief in 153 00:11:16.000 --> 00:11:18.919 somebody who led them in a very wrong direction and they ran with it. 154 00:11:18.919 --> 00:11:24.759 It doesn't remove their their responsibility from it, it doesn't take away their their 155 00:11:24.000 --> 00:11:28.440 part in this. But I think that South Korea is one of those places 156 00:11:28.440 --> 00:11:33.799 that is not well inoculated as well as some places are against some of the 157 00:11:33.080 --> 00:11:37.960 Christian doctrines that they they're new to them. There's something different, and I 158 00:11:37.000 --> 00:11:41.440 think that that's unfortunately one of the things that's caused that appeal. But as 159 00:11:41.440 --> 00:11:43.240 far as how do we get around it, I've got to be straightforward. 160 00:11:43.320 --> 00:11:48.320 I don't know. But one thing I do know is that it's important for 161 00:11:48.399 --> 00:11:52.120 Christians to understand that they can't look at this as just something isolated. This 162 00:11:52.200 --> 00:11:58.159 is an operating procedure that we see time and time again of people making really 163 00:11:58.440 --> 00:12:03.200 bad choices inside of religious groups. And until they own it, they're going 164 00:12:03.240 --> 00:12:05.159 to continue to run from it, deny it, and it's going to keep 165 00:12:05.200 --> 00:12:09.440 happening. It's not going to just disappear. And if they you know, 166 00:12:09.799 --> 00:12:11.879 as many things as they throw under that rug and pretend it's not there, 167 00:12:13.120 --> 00:12:16.799 It's still there. They can pretend it's not there. But the bigger that 168 00:12:16.840 --> 00:12:18.799 mountain gets, the harder and harder it gets to ignore. And that's what 169 00:12:18.879 --> 00:12:22.039 I'm really hoping that some of these things, it's really nothing to be gained 170 00:12:22.080 --> 00:12:26.639 from some young woman being dead in the back of a car. And I 171 00:12:26.639 --> 00:12:31.039 hope that one thing that people can take from this, though, is maybe 172 00:12:31.080 --> 00:12:35.240 we should step back and not be so easy to excuse people when they have 173 00:12:35.440 --> 00:12:39.120 bad behaviors, being oh, they were just under the influence of brainwash, 174 00:12:39.519 --> 00:12:45.440 Jonathan, you had anything else to say about that might take cults make monsters 175 00:12:45.440 --> 00:12:50.159 out of people. They probably didn't start wanting to be this way at all. 176 00:12:50.399 --> 00:12:54.720 Most people, I believe tend to want to be good, or at 177 00:12:54.759 --> 00:12:58.480 least want to be the hero of their own personal movie. That's what their 178 00:12:58.480 --> 00:13:03.840 internal dialogues tell anyway, I know mine does. But they're not originally willing 179 00:13:03.919 --> 00:13:09.320 to do unspeakable acts against people who no longer with no regard to the law, 180 00:13:09.759 --> 00:13:15.720 with no compassion at all, basically almost psychopathic lack of caring or feeling 181 00:13:15.840 --> 00:13:20.120 for another human being. In the name of some religious principle. And I 182 00:13:20.159 --> 00:13:24.639 can think of a lot of instances of this, especially most recently in various 183 00:13:24.679 --> 00:13:31.120 countries around the world, from various religions, of doing pretty unspeakable, horrible 184 00:13:31.200 --> 00:13:37.440 things to a person just for a religious or a traditional belief. And these 185 00:13:37.440 --> 00:13:43.399 things make people this way. They take their inbred need for belonging and compassion 186 00:13:43.519 --> 00:13:48.240 for other people and strip it down and then create a monster. That's what 187 00:13:48.360 --> 00:13:54.600 happened here. Six young people whose brains weren't even fully formed are now encoded 188 00:13:54.840 --> 00:13:58.200 with this kind of bs. It's going to be very long road if they 189 00:13:58.279 --> 00:14:03.480 ever climb out from under it, but you know, hopefully a very long 190 00:14:03.600 --> 00:14:09.039 jail sentence will do it. But this kind of thing makes me reconsider my 191 00:14:09.320 --> 00:14:15.039 opposition to the death penal. And so I just have to use a mantra 192 00:14:15.639 --> 00:14:18.039 that a friend of mine when I was in high school gave me, Why 193 00:14:18.039 --> 00:14:20.679 do we kill people? Who kill people? Prove killing people is wrong? 194 00:14:20.879 --> 00:14:26.000 I just say that over and over again. Maybe somebody can tell me why 195 00:14:26.039 --> 00:14:31.519 people like this have the right to live. People who would throw somebody that 196 00:14:31.600 --> 00:14:39.519 question because the state does not have the right to engage in the killing of 197 00:14:39.559 --> 00:14:43.000 its citizens. Full stop. The state does not have that right. And 198 00:14:43.240 --> 00:14:48.440 just because somebody has killed somebody does not entitle somebody else to kill them. 199 00:14:50.000 --> 00:14:52.960 Just like if somebody steals my car, I do not have a right to 200 00:14:54.000 --> 00:14:56.000 go and steal their car. I don't know if their car is a better 201 00:14:56.039 --> 00:15:03.960 car. So I agree with you. I agree with you. But you 202 00:15:03.960 --> 00:15:07.960 know, when I when I read things like this, it just it puts 203 00:15:07.000 --> 00:15:11.279 me in a little bit of a bad, bad attitude, you know, 204 00:15:11.440 --> 00:15:13.879 and be the bigger person. Oh, you have to get into that base 205 00:15:13.960 --> 00:15:18.960 instinct of revenge. That's why I keep chanting to myself, why do we 206 00:15:18.039 --> 00:15:22.759 kill people who kill people to show that killing people is wrong? And that's 207 00:15:22.799 --> 00:15:24.840 basically where I'm at. We shouldn't be doing that, and I don't think 208 00:15:24.919 --> 00:15:28.480 under any certain stance, you know. So it's uh, the state should 209 00:15:28.519 --> 00:15:31.960 never have the ability to do that. But Kelly, and I agree with 210 00:15:33.000 --> 00:15:37.120 you. Still, Kelly, what did you go to say? I wanted 211 00:15:37.200 --> 00:15:39.919 to check out the Soldiers of Christ a little bit because I wanted to find 212 00:15:39.960 --> 00:15:43.200 out who they were. They do have a website out of Columbia. It's 213 00:15:43.240 --> 00:15:46.320 completely down right now. It says they're going public on October first, I 214 00:15:46.320 --> 00:15:50.879 don't know if that's had anything to do with what's going on with this case, 215 00:15:50.960 --> 00:15:54.120 but I suspected might. One thing I have to wonder about too, 216 00:15:54.120 --> 00:15:58.480 and it was something that nobody brought up. This look, this was we 217 00:15:58.559 --> 00:16:03.000 all meant into how young these guys were, and it made me wonder if 218 00:16:03.039 --> 00:16:07.279 this was just like a gang of villains who were just using the soldiers and 219 00:16:07.360 --> 00:16:11.360 crisis upfront to lure this young woman over here. And did they have plans 220 00:16:11.399 --> 00:16:14.960 to do this more more had they already done it? That's something that I 221 00:16:15.039 --> 00:16:18.440 want to know. History has shown us that people have used religion to take 222 00:16:18.480 --> 00:16:22.559 advantage of and hurt people throughout I mean, it's been going on for thousands 223 00:16:22.600 --> 00:16:26.879 of years, and so I got it, and I have to wonder if 224 00:16:26.919 --> 00:16:30.639 that if them using the religion was just the front A little bit of trivia 225 00:16:30.679 --> 00:16:33.519 though. I was talking to a member of the ACA and they told me 226 00:16:33.600 --> 00:16:37.679 that not only do they live right near this spot, but it's also right 227 00:16:37.720 --> 00:16:41.919 next to the mall where the show of Stranger Things was filmed. It doesn't 228 00:16:41.919 --> 00:16:44.639 really mean anything to your story, but it was a cool bit of trivia. 229 00:16:44.840 --> 00:16:51.080 Fidi well Dci Tom Barnaby here looking out all of the evidence. I've 230 00:16:51.120 --> 00:16:55.399 got absolutely no bloody idea what's going on here. If you have any idea, 231 00:16:55.480 --> 00:16:59.279 please let us know. But for more from the nonprofits click here.