murderous text messages from god
helge fossmo, a swedish pentecostal minister in the town of knutby, north of stockholm, was jailed for life earlier this summer in sweden after being found guilty of inciting sara svensson, his childrens' twenty-seven-year old nanny, to kill his second wife and his next-door-neighbour, daniel linde. the case fascinated sweden with an intoxicating mix of sex, death, god, technology and the workings of an off-shoot of the lutheran church of sweden, controlled by a woman known as christ's bride after she got engaged to jesus in a ceremony. and for future reference, i'd think hollywood'd be all over this story... so if it ever becomes a screenplay and it's produced, if in whatever form a penny is to be made... IT'S MY IDEA and i'll be knocking... hahahaanyway, the pastor was having an affair with the nanny and with linde's wife. the nanny admitted to the january murder of alexandra fossmo and to shooting linde, who survived the attack. the court remanded her to a psychiatric institution and explained in the verdict that helge fossmo had ruthlessly made use of sara svensson's love for him and her dependency on him as religious leader to advance his nefarious plan of murder and betrayal. but how you reckon?
nanny svensson testified that she had been receiving text messages on her mobile phone, which she believed to be from god, urging her to kill. what reutrers simply calls a technology company, apparently traced erased messages on her phone to fossmo, who admitted sending them, but said they were intended only to guide the nanny in her faith and along a spiritual path. this man of god, this christian fool also preached to nanny svensson that killing his wife and neighbour was the only way she could please god.
the confessions of the nanny led the police to re-open an investigation into the death of fossmo's first wife. according to him, she had accidentally died in 1999 after apparently falling over in the bath and hitting her head against the tap. in the end, the court cleared him of any responsibility for her death... it had surely been the will o' the deity after all...
i just told the story to a friend who instead of experiencing immense amusement as i have done, wondered how a clergyman could behave so shamefully. i pointed out that the man's behaviour wasn't just shameful and reprehensibly criminal, just like it would be to vote for the bush-cheney ticket in november, but that it was typically hypocritical and contradictory. why oh why does anybody expect "bigger" and "better" things from a priest? i mean the man gets paid to believe he is intermediary between humans and a non-existent superior being they all worship and praise with the bonus of shagging every female faithful in sight. what else could anyone really expect of the man? just like the rabid, irrational anti-abortionists who unwaveringly support capital punishment. go figure.
source: simon johnson for reuters, 30 july 04
