Atheists cry foul after court overturns exorcism verdict

A prominent atheist group says a Texas Supreme Court decision dismissed a woman’s suit against her church for a botched exorcism “set a bad legal precedent for all of America.”

“If atheists had committed the exact same atrocities, then they’d go to jail for child abuse,” said Dave Silverman, national spokesman for American Atheists Inc. “Same crime, one gets punished for committing a crime, and one escapes punishment because they did it for religious reasons. That is the exact opposite of freedom of religion.”

A Texas woman, Laura Schubert, sued her former church, Pleasant Glade Assembly of God in Colleyville, claiming that a “laying of hands” during a 1996 exorcism when she was 17 inflicted carpet burns and bruises, as well as post-traumatic stress disorder and suicidal tendencies.

A lower court awarded her $188,000 in damages, but the Texas Supreme Court overturned that decision and dismissed her case.

“The case, as tried, presents an ecclesiastical dispute over religious conduct that would unconstitutionally entangle the court in matters of church doctrine,” the court ruled.

But Chief Justice Wallace Jefferson, in his dissent, wrote that “the First Amendment guards religious liberty; it does not sanction intentional abuse in religion’s name.”

— RNS