Critical thinking, lack thereof

Joy Johnson, and her husband, Rev. Joseph Craig, were arrested in Durham NC recently, on charges of rape, torture and kidnapping. The rev was contacted by a couple who were interested in Satanism; he promptly instructed them in the finer points of Satan worship, with Ms. Johnson's consent.

Okay--so what?

Well, there is the obvious angle related to Mike Nifong, the disgraced ex-DA who was involved in the scandal involving false rape charges brought against some Duke lacrosse players. Ms. Johnson was a local Democratic party activist, and was closely involved with the Durham People's Alliance, a group which was a major supporter of Nifong. A headline which reads "Nifong supporter charged with sex crimes' certainly catches my eye.

That angle is too obvious and easy. Instead, I thought it was cool that the couple also ran Indigo Dawn, a New Age "resource for spiritual growth." Here's their website.

Wow. More woo than you can shake a stick at. "Our intent and purpose is to lead the way and help others rise to a higher level of existence, quality of life and increased spirituality in preparation for this coming age of enlightenment." Apparently, you can get increasingly enlightened by being shackled to a bed and kept in a dog cage. Who knew?

The Rev. Craig is described as a "devout student of magick"---that's magick with a "k", folks, so you know it's Crowley-good! Ms. Johnson "has devoted her life to peace activism and searching for proactive means to bring about world peace." By worshipping Satan--of course!


Got some politics too. Did you know that "Iraq did not have problems with cancer until about three or four years after the Gulf War"? It says so in her essay "Recollections of a visit to pre-war Iraq." She met with a Dr. Yacoub, dean of a medical college in Baghdad, who specializes in depleted uranium, a component of some of the weaponry that was used against Iraqi forces. Dr. Yacoub's investigations found that cancers had increased by "300%" since 1993 in Basra. No mention is made of Dr. Yacoub's research into the health problems among the Kurds exposed to nerve gas, or how all those people got into those mass graves--just to embarass Sadaam, no doubt. Apparently, Ms. Johnson (when she wasn't scrawling pentagrams on the floor and invoking Beelzebub) spent a few weeks in Iraq in early 2003, lapping up with great gusto whatever her Iraqi hosts spoon-fed her. Her article/essay is gripping in its total lack of critical thinking applied to a complex situation.

But then, the whole of Indigo Dawn is devoid of critical thinking. And in light of these charges, the question no longer is where is their ability to think logically, but just what the hell were they thinking at all.

I am trying to keep in mind that this is Durham County, after all, and a charge of rape in this locality becomes, let's say, suspect. Nifong has long since departed office in disgrace; one can only hope that the new prosecutor is honest and decent.
Rev. Craig might be a formidable opponent; as the website bio says, "Do not judge this young man by his age, for his soul goes far beyond this."

Oh, indeed it does.