Man Killed because He Didn’t Want to Watch Gospel Show

June 18, 2010 By 26 Comments

Even if you’re not a soccer fan, when the World Cup is being played in your home country and the games are on TV, it’s pretty damn fun to watch.

Definitely better than watching a religious program on TV.

61-year-old David Makoeya felt that way during the recent Germany/Australia match. He wanted to watch the game instead of hearing the gospel.

His family said no. And they meant it.

“He said, ‘No, I want to watch soccer,”’ police spokesman Mothemane Malefo said Thursday. “That is when the argument came about.

“In that argument, they started assaulting him.”

Malefo said Makoeya got up to change the channel by hand after being refused the remote control and was attacked by his 68-year-old wife Francina and two children, 36-year-old son Collin and 23-year-old daughter Lebogang.

They beat him to death.

So they could watch a religious program.

Does anyone else see the irony in the tragedy…?

(Maybe his family just didn’t want to hear the vuvuzelas…?)

Ok, no jokes. This is awful. It’s just more evidence that religion doesn’t make you a better, kinder, more decent human being. I’m not suggesting that religion was the direct cause of this death, but the people who killed the father were religious and they attacked him over a show that talked about Jesus…

That’s just messed up.

Filed Under: General, Sports 26 Comments
  • Aguz

    The World Cup is the most awesome thing ever, I guess his family was afraid he had actually found out that it was way better than religion (since, you know, you can actually see god: he’s Argentina’s DT! :D )

    Sorry, kidding aside, that’s awful.

  • http://secularshawshank.wordpress.com Andy

    If Carl Sagan’s “Cosmos” was on TV, and someone tried to make me watch soccer instead, I can’t promise I wouldn’t become violent.

  • MacKenzie Roberts

    Replace “gospel program” with “NASCAR” and one day, someone from my home town might wind up on the news for the exact same thing.

  • sc0tt

    Malefo said he was not sure what the family used to kill Makoeya.

    I think they used their moral compass.

  • Reginald Selkirk

    Ok, no jokes.

    That means you’re not making jokes, or you don’t want us to make jokes? Because if I can’t make jokes, the terrorists have already won.

  • Mike

    I really would have thought that someone who wanted to watch the World Cup would have beat up the guy who desperately had to hear a sermon on forgiveness for the fiftieth time. this doesn’t say much for the bright side of Christianity, assuming the most likely religious membership in that area.

  • Silent Service

    You won’t say it, but I will. Religion is 100% responsible for every act taken in its name, including this one.

  • Nicole

    As many horrific murder stories as I read regularly, including those with a religious aspect, I am having trouble pinpointing exactly why this is shaking me up as hard as it is. I can see it playing out in my head way, way too clearly.

    I’m not going to sleep very well tonight. This is weird. I’m usually pretty well jaded to the point of numbness by things like this.

  • Richard Wade

    From the Associated Press article:

    “It appears they banged his head against the wall,” Malefo said. “They phoned the police only after he was badly injured, but by the time the police arrived the man was already dead.”

    I can’t help but wonder if the three finished watching their gospel program while the father lay dying, before they called the police, or at least watched it while waiting for the police to arrive.

  • jcm

    Ah, the perils of religion.

  • Rarian Rakista

    My friend in grade school would have an option, go to Sunday Mass or be beaten by a belt when he got home, his father thought it wrong to beat a child before going to church. So one day he called the police who were waiting for his dad when he came home from Church, 30 days in Jail and he never touched or talked to him again.

  • Richard P.

    Messed up? Not at all. Easily explainable.

    god works in mysteries ways, he had been called, There was just no more expedient way to carry out the call.

    Sheesh, your all so judgmental.

  • Richard P.

    I can’t help but wonder if the three finished watching their gospel program while the father lay dying, before they called the police, or at least watched it while waiting for the police to arrive.

    Never mind watching the program, by the time the cops got there they already had forgiveness and the kids were signing up to become preachers.

  • http://religionsetspolitics.blogspot.com/ Joshua Zelinsky

    The choice in headlines is is interesting. The linked Yahoo article is headlined as “Police: man killed by family for watching soccer” rather than “Man killed for not watching gospel show.”

  • http://religiouscomics.net Jeff P

    Perhaps it was really just an unfortunate accident where the family members were affected by the holy spirit and starting flailing their arms (perhaps also speaking in tongues) and his face just kept repeatedly getting in the way….

  • Salmon of Doubt

    Hmmm… I’d imagine that he set himself up for this “tragedy”. After all, I’m sure that his wife and two children did not embark down the road of religious zealotry without him close behind.

    Most importantly, who won that match?

  • http://writtenmagic.ca Paige

    This…this freaks me out. His own bleepin’ family did this to him. Over a TV show.

    I want to make jokes about this, I really do. I am just way too freaked out to, though. This makes me sick.

  • dave

    Watching a ‘religious’ program doesn’t make you ‘religious’ any more than watching a soccer game make you a soccer player.

  • SickoftheUS

    This was in South Africa, so I’m assuming the family are Christian or a local religion. This wasn’t any less odious than a Muslim “honor killing”. Let’s remember this on the scoreboard.

  • Fundie Troll

    @ Silent Service

    You won’t say it, but I will. Religion is 100% responsible for every act taken in its name, including this one.

    Behold, an atheist indeed, in whom there is no deceit!

    BTW, does this apply just to religion, or does it apply to every other despicable act committed in the history of mankind?

  • Demonhype

    Watching a religious show is more likely to mark one as ‘religious’ as reading the God Delusion is likely to mark one as ‘atheist’. Sure, the non-religous might watch said show, and the non-atheistic might read said book, but those wouldn’t be the majority cases. It’s not unreasonable at all to think that these people were religious, considering it happened in a house where three people wanted to watch religious programming so badly that they were willing to brutally assault a loved one over it. We have plenty of precedents for this sort of violence happening with the religious, in fact.

    Sounds like the usual half-assed attempt to exonerate religiosity when it shows it’s true colors. Being religious makes you a better person and gives you a superior moral compass–until something like this happens (which happens a lot), at which point no amount of obvious religiosity can mark the assailant as a believer.

    Simple equation: Evil done by an apparant believer gets chalked up for unbelief (if not outright atheism). Good done by an apparant atheist gets chalked up for faith. And the mental twister required to make that stick is awe-inspiring indeed.

    What I’m saying is that if three people beat their husband/father to death because they wanted to watch an interview with Richard Dawkins (on a secular station/show, of course), it would be universally held up against atheism. Of course, that never seems to happen. I wonder why….

  • duhsciple

    Assuming that the assaulting family is “Christian,” I think they’ve missed the point of what Jesus is about. Shouting people down, telling them sit and listen, because we’re going to force the love of Jesus down their throats fails to realize that the “medium is the message.” Too often the “medium for delivering the message” destroys the “message.” This is the great problem for today. And, of course, it becomes obvious that “being religious” doesn’t not seem to confer greater ability to actually, concretely love others. Instead of trying to become dictators of belief, believers should work on being the message they hope the world to see.

  • Dan W

    According to article, this happened in… South Africa? I figured this would be in someplace like Somalia, where the authorites will kill people for watching the World Cup. But South Africa, of all places? Wow, that’s messed up.

    In any case, the World Cup happens once every four years. I assume this gospel show is on TV more often than that. What a horrible family he had.

  • http://how-to-blogg.blogspot.com/ Hubert

    When you think of the non-pious as non-humans anything is possible. This is a good example of that.

  • Angie

    Monstrous. I suspect that this family had serious problems even before the murder, but it’s still shocking that so-called Christians could do this. Over a FREAKIN’ television show!

  • William

    The curious thing about believers of Hell and Heaven; They appear to prove the existence of Hell on Earth everyday. Heaven, not so much.
    Where else but Hell could a father be beaten to death by his family over religious programing?