A woman strangles her fourteen-year-old daughter
to drive out the demons which possess the child.
Very efficient: demons are gone,
a fine demonstration of the role of religion
in everyday life     In fact, she had the assistance of her
sixteen-year-old daughter (who held her sister
down) so this can be considered an instance of
organized religion     If they had just dragged
the girl's body across, say, the Canadian border
they might have established international standing
and qualified themselves as "one of the world's
great religions," thus entitling them to destroy
as many school buses, mud villages, supermarkets,
workers' pubs, tent cities and prime ministers
as their fervor, good book and geography required.