There is a new twist in the Arkansas adoption/sex abuse case. Demons!

So as all of you probably remember I reported yesterday on that incredibly troubling case in Arkansas having to do with Rep. Justin Harris and an adopted daughter that was sexually abused after he simply rehomed her without notifying the proper authorities.

Well as it turns out Harris has a perfectly reasonable excuse for getting those children out of their home.

Demonic possession.

Here is more from the Arkansas Times:

Chelsey Goldsborough, who regularly babysat for the Harrises, said Mary was kept isolated from Annie and from the rest of the family. She was often confined for hours to her room, where she was monitored by a video camera. The reason: The Harrises believed the girls were possessed by demons and could communicate telepathically, Goldsborough said. Harris and his wife once hired specialists to perform an "exorcism" on the two sisters while she waited outside the house with the boys, she said. 

Multiple sources who interacted with the family confirmed Goldsborough's account that the Harrises believed the children were possessed, and another source close to the family said that Marsha Harris spoke openly about the supposed demonic possession.

Of course through their attorney the Harrises deny these charges but let's face it right now they are denying any culpability whatsoever. 

Now I know that the rational part of you wants to dismiss this as an exaggeration or hogwash, but let me tell you that it is not as uncommon as you might wish it to be.

You see many years ago I worked with a family that had a very challenging adopted child as well.

They were VERY dedicated Christians, and came to believe that the boy was possessed by demons, and brought him to their church where a visiting minister administered an honest to goodness exorcism.

As you might imagine that exacerbated the child's problem a hundredfold, and he was soon deemed out of control and was removed from the home.

Though he had a rather complicated diagnosis he was responsive to therapeutic interventions combined with some psychotropic medications, and he eventually went on to lead a relatively normal life.

Now you might assume that the boy's parents were some backwater hillbillies, but in fact they were both college educated professionals, who simply allowed their ignorance of mental illness and their superstitious belief system to push them toward horrendously bad decision making.

So yes among certain fundamentalists this kind of lunacy still happens even today.

And from what I have read about the Harrises, they are prime candidates to believe that there is a primitive religious solution to a psychiatric problem.