Posted by marina on March 26, 2002 at 20:35:11:
In Reply to: Andrea Yates subjected to Cult teachings? posted by Micron on March 24, 2002 at 12:12:16:
ABC13 Eyewitness News
(3/18/02) — Andrea's family knew Andrea and Russell Yates were private about their faith, but they say they didn't know the extent of the religious pressure Andrea Yates was under until it was too late.
The Kennedys say preacher Michael Peter Woroniecki was also a factor in Andrea's declining mental health.
Russell Yates followed preacher Michael Worneicki, a man who says most people are going to hell, a man who teaches women are inferior to men and sinful by their nature. Worneicki's wife wrote Andrea Yates letters questioning Yates' salvation. The Worneicki's would send the Yates disturbing newsletters, newsletters that talk of Satan, hell, and the sins of modern women and modern mothers.
Patrick Kennedy/Andrea's Brother: "I remember getting a mailer or a flyer, whatever you call that, that he sent out. And it came to my house and it caused quite a stir, I must say, in my household it did."
Cynthia Hunt/Eyewitness News: "What did you think of that?"
Patrick Kennedy/Andrea's Brother: "Well, I'm assuming that the gentleman who sent this to me, he knew my beliefs as a Christian, and what I saw in that, in that mailer was 80% truth, according to my belief, and 20% lies."
Cynthia Hunt/Eyewitness News: "Do you think those lies, as you call them, were dangerous?"
Patrick Kennedy/Andrea's Brother: "I know they were."
Cynthia Hunt/Eyewitness News: "And what impact, if any, do you think they had on your sister?"
Patrick Kennedy/Andrea's Brother: "You heard her testimony. Why did she say she killed those children?
Psychiatrist after psychiatrist testified Yates' schizophrenic delusion was that Satan was after her and her children's souls, and they said she drowned them to save them and send them to heaven.
Patrick Kennedy/Andrea's Brother: "Basically the guy's message was a message of condemnation, judgment, judging other people, from his perspective, and hatred, which is the opposite of what Christ asked us to live. He's a God of love. This man was -- he thought he was a god himself, I believe, of judgmentalism. And I believe Andrea was condemned by what she read of his. She thought she was. ... Yes, it was a tragic contribution to what happened, I believe."
Psychiatrists say religion like that is especially dangerous when mixed with a person like Andrea Yates who is schizophrenic.