Autistic Boy Dies During Wis. Service

[NNN0LHI]

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=519&ncid=716&e=6&u=/ap/20030824/ap_on_re_us/church_death

MILWAUKEE - An autistic 8-year-old boy died while being restrained during a church prayer service held in an attempt to cure him, and one man connected with the small storefront church was arrested, police and a church official said Sunday.

The boy's mother took him to the Faith Temple Apostolic Church for the prayer service Friday night. Several church members prayed over him for more than an hour until someone noticed he wasn't moving and called 911, said Bishop David Hemphill Sr.

Hemphill said the boy and his mother had been going to the prayer services for the past three weeks. Members of the church, made up of just six families, prayed for God to release the evil spirits that cause the boy's illness, he said.

"The boy just had a problem in his mind, and what we were doing was asking God to fix it," Hemphill said. "He chose to fix it by taking him back home to him."

"All I know is we're not guilty of anything," he said.

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[Az]

1. Speechless

The real tradgedy is this is not the first nor will it be the last time something like this will happen.

[Booberdawg]

2. OMFG!

:wow:

The ignorance people have about special children never ceases to amaze me. This DOES disgust me.:eyes:

[maveric]

3. Who has the REAL problem in their mind? n/t

[Rowdyboy]

4. Like the Colorado nutcase...

who, with the assistance of unlicensed psychtherapists, smothered a 10 year old in an attempt to make her re-experience the "birth-experience"

http://denver.rockymountainnews.com/candace/

Stupid people of all sorts hurt children.

[Az]

7. That one was particularly horrible

The parents reported struggling to keep the child under the pillows because they were told it was part of the process. Nothing like authority figures and suspending your own sense of reason to create a tradgedy.

[_NorCal_D_]

5. ........

How did it happen!?

Being restrained!?

This is just too sad...... :-(

[karlschneider]

6. He didn't have enough faith. Or his mom didn't. Or the motherfucking

preacher is an insane cancer on society. I vote for the 3rd choice.
:grr:
It is not the first and won't be the last time shit like this has/will happen(ed.)

[newsguyatl]

8. this is so tragic

and i can only cringe (and fight tears) at such utter hatred, ignorance and religious obsession.

having a 12-year-old autistic brother, this news is especially upsetting to me.

[U2Shark]

9. They should

They should throw every last one of those fuckers in jail. What the hell century is this? The poor kid was only autistic... ;(

[LWolf]

10. So now autism is

"evil spiritedness."

My heart goes out to the boy.

[oasis]

14. In a sense, they thought they were performing an exorcism.

[Az]

11. And more

http://www.wishtv.com/Global/story.asp?S=1413970&nav=0Ra7HcPZ

Baby Dies After Parents Fail to Call Doctor
Less than two days old, a Johnson County baby died in her home of a staph infection and her parents never called a doctor. Investigators have to decide whether those parents broke the law.

The parents of the little girl say their religious convictions kept them from getting their daughter medical care. Similar acts have landed parents in other states in court, but that may not happen here.

A report from the Johnson County sheriff's department says the church is called the General Assembly and Church of the First Born. It's located in Morgantown. Elders from the church gathered to pray for the infant when she got sick, but their prayers weren't enough to keep her alive.

[Clete]

12. This brings up a question.

When should the state intervene in a child's welfare when it appears the parents are not able to cope? I have some very bad memories of an acquaintance, who was an alcoholic, whose children should have been taken from her until she went through a sobriety program. Many tragedies have happened because there was no law to save children from their own parents.

On the other hand, the state is not a nanny and really doesn't have a right snooping in people's private lives and what they choose to teach their children or how they want to raise them.

I really don't know of a reasonable solution to this problem. On one hand society as a whole is responsible collectively for the most helpless of humanity, our children. On the other hand, shouldn't we let parents do their job until they are no longer able to before the state takes over? Where do we draw the line?

[Ilsa]

13. Shouldn't be allowed to "treat" stuff they know nothing about.

Self-absorbed perverts. I hope they all rot in hell.

I hope the parents, the church, etc. are all charged and fined and maybe sent to jail over this. This mother should have already known by her son's age that this isn't the "devil's work". Heavy fines will keep them from attempting this in the future and hurting another child.

I am the mother of a six year old autistic child and this burns me up and scares me that people would be so careless with a child, and then blame his death on God calling him home as a cure.

[salin]

15. Religious insanity - and the evidence is the Pastor's words.

"The boy just had a problem in his mind, and what we were doing was asking God to fix it," Hemphill said. "He chose to fix it by taking him back home to him."

"All I know is we're not guilty of anything," he said.

THis line of thinking is dangerous - can be used to rationalize just about anything.