Every now and then a story comes along which exemplifies America’s plain-vanilla lunacy when it comes to religion.
Manhattan psychic released from jail after $700G ripoff
A Manhattan psychic had a bit of good fortune on Monday — she was sprung from jail after a $700,000 ripoff.
Pricilla Delmaro, 26, was sentenced to probation and released from Manhattan Supreme Court. She had pleaded guilty to grand larceny in November.
She got hundreds of thousands in cash and jewelry from a man who believed she could “remove a curse” from him, according to court papers.
Most of us can agree, I’m sure, that Ms. Delmaro belonged in jail; it takes an outright sociopath to rip-off a mentally ill man who believes he is cursed.
But how different is what she did from the goings-on in churches all across the country?
Does Ms. Delmaro claim to have access to special occult knowledge? She does — and so does the pastor of the little white church on the corner.
Does Ms. Delmaro coerce money from her victim with promises of misfortune if he doesn’t fork it over? She does — and so does the pastor of the little white church on the corner.
Can Ms. Delmaro offer a scintilla of objective justification for her claims? She cannot — and neither can the pastor of the little white church on the corner.
As a matter of fact, the only quantitative difference between Ms. Delmaro and the average pastor that I can see is that the pastor has somehow succeeded in bamboozling people into believing he deserves a public subsidy (via tax credits) for the exact same scam that put Ms. Delmaro in jail. Nuts. It’s just … nuts.