Faith Healer Parents Guilty of Criminal Mistreatment - Daughter Saved

I usually try to write with a bit of humor, but the latest case of faith healing in the news is just disgusting. There's no humor in it.

Timothy and Rebecca Wyland's infant girl was born with a large birthmark near one eye that turned into an abnormal growth of blood vessels. It swelled and grew into a huge hemangioma that covered her eye completely. Without treatment, it was certain that their baby would lose her eye, and she would have been disfigured.

Normal parents, that is to say parents not infected with crazy and immoral religious ideas, would have taken their beautiful little girl to a doctor and had the hemangioma fixed. But the Wylands are members of the Followers of Christ church, a radical sect that believes in faith healing. Their idea of medical treatment is prayer, anointment with oil and laying on of hands. They believe that if you seek medical treatment, you are rejecting faith.

In spite of their daughter's huge hemangioma that continued to grow and produce a nasty discharge, the Wylands chose faith healing over proper medical care. They put their faith in God. (Wasn't that the same God who disfigured their daughter in the first place?)

Luckily, the State of Oregon has a law protecting children from this sort of neglect. A jury took only one hour to

Child Killer gets just Sixty Days in Jail: Christian Immunity

One couple punishes a misbehaving child by withholding food, and she dies. They go to prison for murder. Another couple withholds medical treatment from their child and she dies. The wife gets off scot-free, and the husband goes to jail (not prison) for just sixty days. Why no prison? Because they're Christians.

Was it lack of intent? No, in fact, the parents, Carl and Raylene Worthington, knew exactly what they were doing, and did it deliberately.

Were they ignorant? No, in fact the Christ Church to which they belong has a long history of children dying from medical neglect. Christ Church is such a problem that the Oregon Legislature has passed laws specifically aimed at the church's practices. The Worthingtons knew their daughter might die from their neglect.

The simple fact is that the Worthingtons knew exactly what they were doing. They knew full well their daughter could die, because other children in their church have died from easily cured illnesses. The Worthingtons killed their daughter, deliberately and with forethought. Their only excuse is that they believe God told them to do it.

So as far as I can tell, the only difference between the Worthingtons' murder of their daughter, and the couple convicted of murder for withholding food, is that one couple claims God is on their side, and the other couple claims the child was being punished. Both couples thought they were doing the right thing. Both couples were grossly, horrifyingly wrong.

What difference does that make to the dead children? Both suffered, both died for no reason, and either could have been saved by their parents.

The only argument you can make that would get the Worthingtons off the hook is if you believe that parents have a right to kill their children, so long as God says it's OK. That's what Abraham tried to do to his son Isaac, so some Christians might see why it's OK to kill your children: If God says it's OK, then it's OK.

As for me, if God told me to kill my children, I'd tell him to go to Hell where he belongs.