This is one of the worst news stories I’ve ever, ever heard.

Two young boys in the Czech Republic were kept for months in a basement dungeon by their mother. Not only were they sexually and physically abused, naked in their own urine and chained up, they were also forced to cut themselves. Why? So that their mother could feed their raw flesh to their relatives.

The entire torture was conducted in accordance with text messages from the leader of their “religious” group, the Grail Movement. This leader is referred to only as “The Doctor.”

And this is a true story.

The mother, who is currently on trial, now claims that she was brainwashed. She says she’s sorry and doesn’t know how she could have done such things.

I don’t buy it for one second. You know how this was discovered? A neighbor caught it on his baby TV monitor. According to various articles, that is because the mother had her own TV monitor hooked up so that she could watch the boys while they were in agony whenever she felt like it. To me, there is no coming back from that.

Now the questions seem to be (1) will the court buy the “brainwashed” excuse, and (2) how far is a religious organization allowed to go in the name of their beliefs?

Here in America, we are very careful to be 100% PC about religion. We want everyone to think we have tolerance coming out the wazoo.

But in this blogger’s humble opinion, the need to be PC often comes out of an inherent bigotry. The need to be so careful of a group’s supposed collective feelings stems from a discomfort with the person’s own feelings toward that group.

So when honor killings happen in Syria or Haiti (where honor killings are legal), we say, oh, that’s just a part of their culture. When civil wars break out in the Democratic Republic of the Congo or Rwanda and thousands of civilians are brutally murdered, we say, we should let them work that out for themselves.

I do not believe that the United States should waltz in and save the world. I think we should solve our own problems first. I am not advocating US-as-protector-of-the-world.

What I am saying is that we should not pardon atrocious acts because they are “cultural” or “religious.” When harm comes to helpless people, we all have the responsibility to stand up for them and not hide behind the dubious veil of supposed “cultural differences.”

I hope this woman who tortured and cannibalized her children in the name of religion is locked up for the rest of her life. And, more importantly, I hope the two children are placed into stable homes with people who will love them and care for them and nurse them back into some semblance of mental health.