By Reverend William H. “Bill” Sinewski
Originally published in “Church & State,” April 1999
THESIS: The act of committing an extraordinary sin within twelve months
prior to conception can directly cause the congenital disorder of Down
Syndrome in the progeny.
Recently, a member of my congregation, whom I’ll call Travis*,
approached me in a state of distress. His wife Nancy had just given
birth and the infant had Down Syndrome, a condition of mental
retardation** also known as trisomy 21. For the first time in his
twenty-eight years, Travis doubted the existence of God. He collapsed
onto my leather sofa, and wept:
“What kind of deity infects a beautiful newborn life with this
horrible disease?” Travis asked.
Travis admitted to me that he was perhaps unable to love this
baby, because 1) he found the child’s appearance unpleasant, and 2)
every time he gazed at the child he was reminded of the world’s cruel
essence***.
Our discussion grew in intimacy, until Travis admitted that he
had had an extramarital affair with a female coworker ten months prior
to the birth. It was a sordid moment, brief, on a copy machine.
Travis KNEW, he claimed, that his Mongoloid child was a punishment from
God for having sinned. He knew the moment that the little creature
emerged from his wife that it would not have contracted Down Syndrome
had Travis not had sex with his coworker, Julie.
I told Travis this was a ridiculous notion. God does not
utilize Tragedy to punish us. Travis left my office feeling relieved.
He said he would attempt to love the baby. And maybe, just maybe,
Travis would discover within himself the strength to be a better man.
After Travis departed, I realized his words had struck me to the core.
In the modern world – the POSTmodern world, I might even say – isn’t it
true that we aren’t open to the possibility of the repercussions of
sin? Are we in no way culpable for our transgressions beneath God? Is
it not possible that life IS fair, that the eastern concept of Karma
has some reality, and that we are punished for our unrighteous acts and
rewarded for our good deeds?
This type of thinking is not conventional; not, at least, in
1999. But I have tried to approach life in a fearless fashion, open to
all ideas no matter how outlandish they might at first appear to be.
Perhaps God did punish Travis for his sin by bestowing upon him
a Mongoloid child.
I became obsessed with this notion and started upon my journey.
1. GATHERING THE PARENTS OF MONGOLOIDS & THE CONTROL GROUP
In my North Carolina congregation, we have six families with children
who have Down Syndrome, aging in range from infancy to thirteen.
FAMILY A – NICK AND DONNA
FAMILY B – ED AND THERESA
FAMILY C – CRAIG AND NANCY (SR.)
FAMILY D – TRAVIS AND NANCY (JR.)
FAMILY E – JAMES AND LEE
FAMILY F – GARY AND MARY
As a control group, I gathered six other married couples at random
(FAMILIES G-L) who DID NOT have Mongoloid children.
2. TESTING THE MONGOLOIDS
Each of the Down Syndrome children were administered an IQ test I had
designed myself. This is how the children scored:
FAMILY A – BRITTANY – 52
FAMILY B – KELVIN – 62
FAMILY C – CHINA – 39
FAMILY D – JO ANNE – 62
FAMILY E – JAMES JR. – 44
FAMILY F – DUCKY – 49
3. THE INTERVIEWS
I interviewed each parent individually, from all the families, A
through L. These interviews were rigorous and thorough. At times the
couples would become angry and defensive; but I did my best to stay on
track despite their protestations, sobs, or even, at times, violence.
SAMPLE QUESTIONS(out of about three hundred):
-- “Were there any ways you did not follow God’s Ten
Commandments in the year preceding your Down Syndrome child’s
conception?”
-- “Have you felt guilt over your Down Syndrome child’s Down
Syndrome?”
-- “Name some examples of lies you told in the year preceding
the birth of your Down Syndrome child.”
-- “Which parent do you love more, your father or your mother?”
-- “Why?”
-- “Have you ever had a homosexual encounter?”
-- “How often do you masturbate?”
-- “What do you fantasize about when you masturbate?”
-- “Do you ever imagine hurting women, either while you
masturbate, or just for fun?”
-- “Do you have any pets, and, if so, what are their names?”
-- “Has there been a history of Down Syndrome in your family?”
-- “If you had a Down Syndrome sibling yourself, did your
father, to your knowledge, ever cheat on your mother?”
4. THE RESULTS
All of the parents answered these questions differently. In the
control group of married couples who did not have children with Down
Syndrome, there seemed to be no connecting thread.
However, within the families with Mongoloid children, there was
one factor common to all of them:
EACH INDIVIDUAL IN THE COUPLE HAD SINNED IN AN EXTRAORDINARY
WAY IN THE YEAR PRECEDING THE CONCEPTION OF THE DOWN SYNDROME CHILD.
These sins are recorded as follows:
FAMILY A
NICK – ADULTERY: Nick had cheated on Donna with another married woman
down the street.
DONNA – ADULTERY/INCEST: Donna had had sex with her cousin on a hiking
trip through the Colorado mountains.
FAMILY B
ED – ADULTERY: Ed had paid a string of street prostitutes money to
provide him with oral sex.
THERESA – THEFT: Theresa had been arrested at a Circle K for pocketing
a can of tuna. Later in that same year she was arrested for
shoplifting again at a May’s department store (she cannot remember what
she was attempting to steal the second time – she believes it was some
type of electronic appliance).
FAMILY C
CRAIG – HOMOSEXUALITY: Craig would masturbate regularly, always
imagining himself with muscular men.
NANCY (SR.) – CRUELTY: In December a year before China was born, Nancy
hit a deer off a little-used country road. She drove back to the
animal, and saw that it was dragging itself along the pavement,
although all four of its legs were broken. It looked at Nancy (Sr.)
with its black eyes as if it needed help, to put it out of its misery.
Nancy put her own squeamishness ahead of the animal’s needs and drove
on, leaving it there. It’s likely the animal suffered for hours before
it died, or someone else hit it again.
FAMILY D
TRAVIS – ADULTERY: Julie (see above).
NANCY (JR.) – FALSE IDOLATRY: For a short while before her pregnancy,
Nancy turned her back on her Christian faith and attended numerous
Eckankar ceremonies. Eckankar is a New Age, pagan, cult religion.
FAMILY E
JAMES – PERVERSION: James could only achieve orgasm while having sex
with his wife if he closed his eyes and imagined other men torturing
her.
LEE – DISHONESTY, THEFT: At a church bake sale/contest, Lee’s delicious
key lime pie vied with other desserts for the title of “Foundation of
Heaven’s Best Dessert.” The other parishioners tasted the various
offerings, and voted. Lee stole votes out of the basket of one of the
other contestants, and ended up winning the contest due to dishonesty
(which is also theft – the winner received fifty dollars and a gift
certificate to the Gap). Lee, at first, didn’t admit that this was
true: I, however, had suspected it for three years because her pie,
though delicious, simply wasn’t as good as another contestant’s layer
cake.
FAMILY F
GARY – ADULTERY: Gary had sex with his daughter’s friend.
MARY – ADULTERY: Mary French-kissed one of her fellow schoolteachers
while drunk at a Christmas party.
5. THE CORRELATION
It can be said with absolute certainty that this correlation of sin and
Down Syndrome children is beyond coincidence. And because of the
strength of these results, I believe that it is possible to infer
causation:
DOWN SYNDROME PROGENY IS THE RESULT OF AN EXTRAORDINARY SIN A
YEAR OR LESS BEFORE THE CONCEPTION OF THE CHILD, BY BOTH OF THE PARENTS.
I realize, from the reactions of my subjects, this is not an
easy conclusion to accept. Most of them fought these results, even
while they were faced with them point blank****. But, eventually, all
of the parents essentially accepted the reliability of my conclusions.
6. REPENTING
We had a ceremony in front of our congregation featuring the twelve
parents, in which each of them individually recited the following
before all:
“I am sorry before God and my fellow Christians for [state sin
here], a sin which makes me solely responsible for the Down Syndrome
affliction of my child.”
7. A SECOND TEST
After each of the parents had repented, I once again administered the
IQ test to their children. These were the (astounding) results:
FAMILY A – BRITTANY – 58
FAMILY B – KELVIN – 75
FAMILY C – CHINA – 40
FAMILY D – JO ANNE – 43
FAMILY E – JAMES JR. – 49
FAMILY F – DUCKY – 41
To my joy, I discovered that ALL OF THE CHILDREN SCORED BETTER after
their parents had repented for the sin that caused the children to have
Down Syndrome in the first place*****.
8. CONCLUSIONS
My results are groundbreaking:
A) Undoubtedly, children with Down Syndrome around the world
would be more intelligent if their parents would repent and live a
Christian lifestyle.
B) Down Syndrome children would cease to exist once people
stopped sinning in extraordinary ways.
*All names herein are changed for legal purposes.
** The author notes that “retardation” is sometimes considered
politically incorrect terminology; however, I believe this is an
appropriate and specific term, and to believe otherwise is unnecessary
prudery bordering on dishonesty.
***Travis went so far as to concoct elaborate fantasies of time travel,
where he would buy a time machine and go back to the night he and his
wife Nancy made love. They would not make love on that night but
instead on another, an evening when his sperm would produce a child
that wasn’t a Mongoloid. I smiled as kindly as I could and told him I
didn’t really think that buying a time machine was an option.
****In one situation, one of the parents, James (E), threw me over a
divan and broke my arm after I told him that his Down Syndrome son,
James Jr., would not have had Down Syndrome had James Sr. not imagined
men torturing his wife while having sex with her. One of the other
parents, Craig (C), also became furious when I was reading a paper on
the subject, and revealed in front of our church his predilection for
thinking about men while he masturbated. He was also angry that I
revealed the fact that his child scored the lowest on the IQ test.
*****Note: Two of the children, Jo Anne and Ducky, scored slightly
lower. This came as no surprise to me, considering that neither Jo
Anne’s mother nor Ducky’s father seemed all that sorry about the sins
that they had committed. After being in this profession for twenty-
eight years, you gain the ability to spot a “faker” where one occurs.
AFTERWARD (1)
Being a man of God, I have portrayed these findings in a spiritual
light. However, my brother-in-law in the biology department at NCU had
a different perspective. I feel it’s only fair to portray John’s more
secular viewpoint here. I present John’s viewpoint not because it’s
valid, but simply because there is little difference in the practical
results gained from my thoughts or from John’s thoughts. Believing
either leads to a reduction of sin on this planet. And that is,
without a doubt, with all my heart, my ultimate goal.
JOHN’S VIEW:
John believed that my methodology was beyond reproach. He
concurred that I had without a doubt found a correlation between Down
Syndrome in children and what I called the “sin” of their parents. But
John believed that it was not actually the sin itself that caused the
Down Syndrome. Instead, it was the guilt associated with the sin. It
is possible, John believes, for extreme emotional states to impact the
DNA in a negative fashion. As John describes it, the extreme guilt of
the two parents would somehow trigger deficient spermatozoa and eggs,
which in turn would trigger the presence of an extra 21st chromosome in
the fetus, which is, of course, the congenital disorder known as Down
Syndrome.
AFTERWARD (2)
I have been oft-maligned since publishing the first draft of this
article in “Church & State,” mostly from people who have Down Syndrome
children in their families (ironically, the very people whom I’m trying
to assist).
I do not ask that people look at my words as fact. All I ask
is that they look at the evidence with an open mind and draw their own
conclusions. All I ask is that they remain open to the possibility of
their own defensiveness, which is the only way that their children can
have better lives.
It’s interesting, I think often, how it’s not taboo to talk
about this or that as “bad karma.” “Don’t steal; it’s bad karma,”
or, “What comes around goes around.” Yet to actually infer that there
are RESULTS of sin (or, if you’d rather, “bad karma”) is almost
unconscionable. No one wants to say that congenital disorders or
retardation or handicaps or dwarfism are the result of a parents’
selfish deeds. Why?
Because we as a nation are afraid of responsibility.
THE REVEREND WILLIAN H. SINEWSKI is a world-renowned philosopher,
writer, and preacher. He is the founder of the Foundation of Heaven
Church in Kinston, North Carolina, and he has published articles
in “Church & State,” “The National Review,” “Horse Racing Digest,”
and “Trade.”
Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/
Share what you know. Learn what you don't.
In article <7jcde0$ht8$1...@nnrp1.deja.com>, sine...@my-deja.com writes
--
Annabel Tall
Susan Thomas
sine...@my-deja.com wrote in article <7jcde0$ht8$1...@nnrp1.deja.com>...
The more obvious thing these folks have in common is the fact that they are
all members of your congregation. Pesticide on the church lawn, perhaps?
And what of that control group you mentioned? Are you saying that they are
without sin and their children are perfect? Isn't it remotely possible that
the guilt you are stirring up is causing the parents of the children with DS
to confess to things that the "control group" feels no need to give a hint
of?
This is the most utterly ridiculous, nonscientific and judgmental piece of
garbage I have seen to date on the subject of Down syndrome. I hope God has
a special place in hell for people who do this to parents coping with their
children's disabilities.
Susan Thomas
mom to a 3 year old blessing
(DS list: forgive me for posting twice on this subject. The more I thought
about it, the angrier I got.)
sine...@my-deja.com wrote in message <7jcde0$ht8$1...@nnrp1.deja.com>...
Debbie in Alabama!
It seems funny that this paper which claims to give the spiritual reasons
that a child is born with Down syndrome does not once cite any Bible
passage. If someone was really looking for the reason that God did
something, it would seem reasonable to at least check into the Bible to see
what it says on the subject.
A few years back I did some extensive research into the Bible to answer my
own questions of "Why, God?" I don't pretend that my research is
exhaustive, or that I have uncovered everything the Bible says on the
subject, but I think I found several passages that speak to the
issue of why (from God's perspective) a child might be born with a
disability. As a parent, I found the relevant passages full of love and
hope, not of condemnation.
I have written up the results of my own personal study, and would be happy
to send that to anyone who requests it. Write to me privately at
mir...@integrityonline30.com and put "Bible" (without the quotes) into your
subject line.
Miriam
This article was NOT published in Church and State -- their April issue is
online. No one has seen anything yet about an actual church affiliation.
Just another heart-pounding reminder of the very public nature of the
Internet.
Susan Thomas
Karla
Nina
I cannot believe if God is out there he would punish anyone, I am a
different person since having my daughter, I see things better, my daughter
has shown me things I would have missed and no doubt she will go on doing
that. From the other replies I have glanced at it would seem we all feel
the same. I am sure the originator of this discussion must get his
"jollies" by asking very personal questions of his congregation, he needs
locking up.
Why don't these cranks defame Islam or Bhuddism instead of Christianity?
There is a story about Jesus' disciples coming to him and asking about a man
who was born disabled (blind I believe, but I can't find the reference.)
"Master, who sinned, that this man should be born like this, him or his
parents?"
"Neither", was Jesus' reply. "He was born that way that the works of God may
be manifest." Jesus then healed the man.
Gwen
Suzanne (mother of Jason 9)
<sine...@my-deja.com> wrote in message news:7jcde0$ht8$1...@nnrp1.deja.com...
> In the modern world - the POSTmodern world, I might even say - isn't it
> true that we aren't open to the possibility of the repercussions of
> sin? Are we in no way culpable for our transgressions beneath God? Is
> it not possible that life IS fair, that the eastern concept of Karma
> has some reality, and that we are punished for our unrighteous acts and
> rewarded for our good deeds?
> This type of thinking is not conventional; not, at least, in
> 1999. But I have tried to approach life in a fearless fashion, open to
> all ideas no matter how outlandish they might at first appear to be.
> Perhaps God did punish Travis for his sin by bestowing upon him
> a Mongoloid child.
> I became obsessed with this notion and started upon my journey.
>
> 1. GATHERING THE PARENTS OF MONGOLOIDS & THE CONTROL GROUP
>
> In my North Carolina congregation, we have six families with children
> who have Down Syndrome, aging in range from infancy to thirteen.
> FAMILY A - NICK AND DONNA
> FAMILY B - ED AND THERESA
> FAMILY C - CRAIG AND NANCY (SR.)
> FAMILY D - TRAVIS AND NANCY (JR.)
> FAMILY E - JAMES AND LEE
> FAMILY F - GARY AND MARY
> As a control group, I gathered six other married couples at random
> (FAMILIES G-L) who DID NOT have Mongoloid children.
>
> 2. TESTING THE MONGOLOIDS
>
> Each of the Down Syndrome children were administered an IQ test I had
> designed myself. This is how the children scored:
> FAMILY A - BRITTANY - 52
> FAMILY B - KELVIN - 62
> FAMILY C - CHINA - 39
> FAMILY D - JO ANNE - 62
> FAMILY E - JAMES JR. - 44
> FAMILY F - DUCKY - 49
> NICK - ADULTERY: Nick had cheated on Donna with another married woman
> down the street.
> DONNA - ADULTERY/INCEST: Donna had had sex with her cousin on a hiking
> trip through the Colorado mountains.
> FAMILY B
> ED - ADULTERY: Ed had paid a string of street prostitutes money to
> provide him with oral sex.
> THERESA - THEFT: Theresa had been arrested at a Circle K for pocketing
> a can of tuna. Later in that same year she was arrested for
> shoplifting again at a May's department store (she cannot remember what
> she was attempting to steal the second time - she believes it was some
> type of electronic appliance).
> FAMILY C
> CRAIG - HOMOSEXUALITY: Craig would masturbate regularly, always
> imagining himself with muscular men.
> NANCY (SR.) - CRUELTY: In December a year before China was born, Nancy
> hit a deer off a little-used country road. She drove back to the
> animal, and saw that it was dragging itself along the pavement,
> although all four of its legs were broken. It looked at Nancy (Sr.)
> with its black eyes as if it needed help, to put it out of its misery.
> Nancy put her own squeamishness ahead of the animal's needs and drove
> on, leaving it there. It's likely the animal suffered for hours before
> it died, or someone else hit it again.
> FAMILY D
> TRAVIS - ADULTERY: Julie (see above).
> NANCY (JR.) - FALSE IDOLATRY: For a short while before her pregnancy,
> Nancy turned her back on her Christian faith and attended numerous
> Eckankar ceremonies. Eckankar is a New Age, pagan, cult religion.
> FAMILY E
> JAMES - PERVERSION: James could only achieve orgasm while having sex
> with his wife if he closed his eyes and imagined other men torturing
> her.
> LEE - DISHONESTY, THEFT: At a church bake sale/contest, Lee's delicious
> key lime pie vied with other desserts for the title of "Foundation of
> Heaven's Best Dessert." The other parishioners tasted the various
> offerings, and voted. Lee stole votes out of the basket of one of the
> other contestants, and ended up winning the contest due to dishonesty
> (which is also theft - the winner received fifty dollars and a gift
> certificate to the Gap). Lee, at first, didn't admit that this was
> true: I, however, had suspected it for three years because her pie,
> though delicious, simply wasn't as good as another contestant's layer
> cake.
> FAMILY F
> GARY - ADULTERY: Gary had sex with his daughter's friend.
> MARY - ADULTERY: Mary French-kissed one of her fellow schoolteachers
> while drunk at a Christmas party.
>
> 5. THE CORRELATION
>
> It can be said with absolute certainty that this correlation of sin and
> Down Syndrome children is beyond coincidence. And because of the
> strength of these results, I believe that it is possible to infer
> causation:
> DOWN SYNDROME PROGENY IS THE RESULT OF AN EXTRAORDINARY SIN A
> YEAR OR LESS BEFORE THE CONCEPTION OF THE CHILD, BY BOTH OF THE PARENTS.
> I realize, from the reactions of my subjects, this is not an
> easy conclusion to accept. Most of them fought these results, even
> while they were faced with them point blank****. But, eventually, all
> of the parents essentially accepted the reliability of my conclusions.
>
> 6. REPENTING
>
> We had a ceremony in front of our congregation featuring the twelve
> parents, in which each of them individually recited the following
> before all:
> "I am sorry before God and my fellow Christians for [state sin
> here], a sin which makes me solely responsible for the Down Syndrome
> affliction of my child."
>
> 7. A SECOND TEST
>
> After each of the parents had repented, I once again administered the
> IQ test to their children. These were the (astounding) results:
> FAMILY A - BRITTANY - 58
> FAMILY B - KELVIN - 75
> FAMILY C - CHINA - 40
> FAMILY D - JO ANNE - 43
> FAMILY E - JAMES JR. - 49
> FAMILY F - DUCKY - 41
>I, however, had suspected it for three years because her pie,
>though delicious, simply wasn’t as good as another contestant’s
>layer cake.
no matter how much his brother in law likes the methodology
of his home made IQ tests and imaginary research.
I did feel good reading the wonderful responses to the
ridiculous original message, though.
And now, back to gardening, N64 Superman, baseball,
and other topics of interest to actual people with DS
(or at least to the one we are enjoying here).
Pam W
SE of Seattle
Go get em!
Also notice how the beginning of his e-mail name is sin!
He's a weird one allright!
Dee, mom to Devon Alexandra, DS, our precious little angel, 3-24-91 to
7-17-91
sine...@my-deja.com wrote:
> DOWN SYNDROME & SIN: A SPIRITUAL CONNECTION
>
> By Reverend William H. “Bill” Sinewski
>
I can't help wondering if the guys at CERN who developed the www realized at
the time that it would become the microphone of 10 year-olds and obsessed
paranoid schizophrenics like this bozo. I realize some (misguided) people
think playing around on the Internet may somehow be therapeutic for someone
in the middle of an episode like the "Rev. Bill", but do they realize how
much they annoy other people ? Bring on the psychotropics, I say !
- Mary Ritchie