http://www.philly.com/philly/news/homepage/20091008_Faith-healing_parents_charged_in_death_of_infant_son.html

Quote: "All it would have taken is a simple visit to a doctor for antibiotics or Tylenol, maybe, to keep this child alive," she said during the couple's preliminary hearing.

I'm confused and frustrated, another infant death in faith-based healing. I'm not well versed in The Bible (or even religious), so maybe someone can shed light on this situation? Where does The Bible say, not to treat your children, with modern medicine?

Crazy people can say that the bible tells them to do anything...

The article has a quote from the parent's lawyer though, which says that the parents just thought he had a cold (and would have seen a doctor if they thought it was serious).

So, they're denying that it's a case of "death by faith" -- they're just blaming common human stupidity, not religiously mandated stupidity.

Either way though, the cause of the stupidity is mostly irrelevant to the legal question of whether they failed in their duty of care...

Quote: Original post by Hodgman
Crazy people can say that the bible tells them to do anything...

The article has a quote from the parent's lawyer though, which says that the parents just thought he had a cold (and would have seen a doctor if they thought it was serious).

So, they're denying that it's a case of "death by faith" -- they're just blaming common human stupidity, not religiously mandated stupidity.

Either way though, the cause of the stupidity is mostly irrelevant to the legal question of whether they failed in their duty of care...

Good point. But based on age (two years old), length of the child's sickness(almost two weeks?), the statements parents gave before lawyer stepped in, and the fact they belong to a faith-based healing church.. I can't help to assume it's another "death by faith". It sounds lot like lawyer trying to get them 'off the hook'. Although I'm not an expert in criminal justice :)

Oh, and no other signs of neglect are mentioned, so they didn't sound incompetent.

Modern medicine didn't really exist at the time of the bible. I can't remember any passage that would speak against taking care of a person by "conventional" means.

They say the author of the gospel of Luke was a doctor by trade.

Abrahamic religions are unique in the irrationally high value they place on human life. In general, any rule that is given in the bible can be ignored if a life is at stake. That's the mainstream view.

Of course, there will always be radical fringes who interpret things otherwise.

I don't remember anything that suggest such a thing. I know plenty of avid Bible readers and none of them are afraid of the Doctor. Its one thing to say God can heal. It's quite another to say he's the only one allowed to do so. I'm not sure where a person takes that leap or what they use as an excuse not to preform basic duties of care and absolve themselves from responsibility.

People like to do strange things. There are those people that like to dance around with snakes to "prove" their faith. Even though when Satan asked Jesus to do such a thing he said it was written not to put God to the test. People are real good a making strange edits. Not real sure you can do anything about it though. People are weird and sometimes they hang out and do weird things together.

Quote: Its one thing to say God can heal. It's quite another to say he's the only one allowed to do so.

Quite true. I do believe in God; I'll state that now to make my opinion clearer.

I personally believe that God gave us knowledge to develop medicines so that we can cure ourselves. Why else would there be herbs and other medical ingredients? He gave us curiosity so that we could learn and develop. Yes, we can pray that He will heal a loved one's sickness, but I think it's ridiculous to only rely on that. While I do believe that prayer helps, I think one should also take advantage of the modern medical advances and medicines. They're here for a reason.

There was a story a while back that was more frightening than this. Mom of dead girl: Sickness was test of faith. I saw it when looking for show times, and it made me think that it was more ignorance than just religious beliefs. I'm hoping the legal system comes down hard on people that do these things. At least for the hope it educates others that might do the same thing.

Seems pretty straightforward to trust that God often answers prayers for healing the sick by having medical doctors around....

Quote: Seems pretty straightforward to trust that God often answers prayers for healing the sick by having medical doctors around

That's exactly what I think.