When a Child Dies, Faith Is No Defense

[MountainLaurel]

"Suffer little children to come to me." So begins one of the most cited passages in the Bible. Yet, in cases involving the deaths of children in faith-healing families, the second half of Jesus's admonition from Luke 18:16 is at the heart of legal controversy: ". . . and forbid them not."

In the past 25 years, hundreds of children are believed to have died in the United States after faith-healing parents forbade medical attention to end their sickness or protect their lives. When minors die from a lack of parental care, it is usually a matter of criminal neglect and is often tried as murder. However, when parents say the neglect was an article of faith, courts routinely hand down lighter sentences. Faithful neglect has not been used as a criminal defense, but the claim is surprisingly effective in achieving more lenient sentencing, in which judges appear to render less unto Caesar and more unto God.

This disparate treatment was evident last month in Wisconsin, a state with an exemption for faith-based neglect under its child abuse laws. Leilani and Dale Neumann were sentenced for allowing their 11-year-old daughter, Madeline Kara Neumann, to die in 2008 from an undiagnosed but treatable form of diabetes. The Neumanns are affiliated with a faith-healing church called Unleavened Bread Ministries and continued to pray with other members while Madeline died. They could have received 25 years in prison. Instead, the court emphasized their religious rationale and gave them each six months in jail (to be served one month a year) and 10 years' probation.
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During their sentencing, Marathon County Circuit Court Judge Vincent Howard said the Neumanns are "very good people raising their family who made a bad decision, a reckless decision." He then gently encouraged them to remember that "God probably works through other people, some of them doctors."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/11/13/AR2009111302220.html

[alphafemale]

1. Jesus wept.

Because they let that child suffer and die in his name.

I'm actually not religious, but from what I've heard about the guy,I think he'd be pretty upset about that.

[KaoriMitsubishi]

9. I think he'd be pretty upset about that

Ah but what is an imaginary friend to do?

[Lydia Leftcoast]

11. Yes, he even refers to sick people needing physicians

:shrug:

[ZombieHorde]

2. "The Neumanns are affiliated with a faith-healing church called Unleavened Bread Ministries and

continued to pray with other members while Madeline died. They could have received 25 years in prison. Instead, the court emphasized their religious rationale and gave them each six months in jail (to be served one month a year) and 10 years' probation."

The Neumanns got a lighter sentence because they were religiously motivated. If the Neumanns were atheist, and did the same thing, they would have received a harsher sentence.

[laconicsax]

17. There's a good chance that if they were atheist, this never would have happened.

[ZombieHorde]

19. You are right, but the judge still seems to have a pro-religious bias in his ruling. nt

[izquierdista]

3. One sentence bothers me

"When minors die from a lack of parental care, it is usually a matter of criminal neglect and is often tried as murder."

Yet when the same minors die from lack of health insurance due to lack of politicians caring, it is a another day that the sun rises and sets.

[rd_kent]

4. They murdered that child, just as if they had cut her throat.

Despicable. What choice did that child have? None at all.

[laconicsax]

5. Cutting her throat would have caused her to suffer less.

[Odin2005]

6. More evidence of the stupidity of religion.

:puke:

[laconicsax]

7. This still makes me mad.

As I've posted before, they willfully let their daughter die while pretending to do something about it.
-When she first got sick and had labored breathing, they thought she was just going through puberty.
-When she was fatigued and turning blue, they thought it was just a spiritual problem.
-When she got to the point where she couldn't sit up, they sent an e-mail.
-When she couldn't communicate anymore or take water, they did nothing.
-When she became unconscious, they pretended she was just asleep.

The only (barely) sensible thing they did was invite another couple over. It was one of their guests who called 911. No doubt if the other couple hadn't been there, the only outgoing call would have been to a priest to arrange the funeral ceremony.

They should have been given the maximum sentence and had their other children taken from them and placed in the homes of people who would actually care about their well-being. Instead, they get a slap on the wrist and have to put up with random health checkups on their other kids.

This item on their sentencing shines light on the kind of depraved individual the judge is too. He told them to "think about Kara and what God wants you to learn from this" and said the parents were "very good people, raising their family, who made a bad decision, a reckless decision."

It is unconscionable to frame the death of a child as an educational experience. This 'God has a plan' nonsense condones torture and murder by making it is acceptable for someone to suffer or die to teach someone else a lesson. That's the mentality of 3rd world dictators and calling it a divine plan doesn't give it a pass.

The parents are not "very good people." "Very good people" don't stand around wishing on a star while someone is dying in the living room of their house. If I see someone fall from a modest height and crack their skull open, I wouldn't be considered a "very good person" if I walked on by while thinking "gee, I hope they're ok." Maybe the 20 or so people who stood around watching a 15 year old girl get gang raped for over 2 hours should say that they were praying for God to stop the attack--it would certainly improve their chances of getting a light or no sentence along with a commendation for being very good people. Hell, maybe the attackers could say that they were praying that someone would stop them. If they had this judge, they might get a small fine and probation.

I defy anyone to defend the Neumann's actions or the judge's comments. Prove me wrong and show that the Neumanns did nothing wrong or that the judge's comments don't condone torturing or murdering a person just to teach someone else a lesson.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

15. They wouldn't have called a "priest," because none of the religions that

actually have priests (Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Episcopal) object to modern medicine. I'm sure that a priest from any of those denominations would have told the parents in no uncertain terms to call an ambulance.

From the description, their church is another one of those free-lance fundamentalist outfits.

[laconicsax]

16. I apologize for my inadvertent misuse of "priest."

Please substitute "head of their church" or "religious figure" in future readings.

"From the description, their church is another one of those free-lance fundamentalist outfits."

Was this intended to make a point?

[Lydia Leftcoast]

18. My point was, blame the right people

It's not religion in general that's the problem, because the vast majority of religions accept modern medicine.

The problem is people who give up their sense of judgment to a cult that encourages harmful behavior, whether that cult is religious (as in this case) or political (the Weathermen, the right-wing militias), or pseudo-scientific (people following fad diets have starved their children, sometimes to death).

[laconicsax]

21. I blamed three specific people: the parents and the judge.

I didn't blame religion in general.

I said the Neumanns are despicable people who practically murdered their daughter and that the judge's mentality is reprehensible.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

22. No quarrel there

but some of the posters took their usual opportunity to bash religion in general.

[laconicsax]

24. Then make your point to them.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

25. Sorry, some times it's hard to keep track of who said what

:-)

[JoeyT]

26. Actually...

The point can be made that religion in general at least enables this sort of thing.
After all, I can't go a single day without hearing how "With prayer all things are possible." or "Faith moves mountains." or any of a hundred other things that, carried to their illogical conclusion, can easily mean "Prayer heals children.".
Ask *any* religious person if prayer works. What's the automatic response? "Yes!". Well if prayer works, then why not for this?

[Lydia Leftcoast]

27. Even Jesus referred approvingly to physicians

so the "pray for anything" types are typical fanatics.

And as anyone who has been involved with praying for something knows, sometimes the answer is "no."

[laconicsax]

28. Because the god of the gaps isn't terribly reliable.

He tends to only perform medical miracles in conjunction with trained professionals doing their job.

[DeSwiss]

8. ....

- K&R

[intheflow]

10. Excellent piece.

K&R

[ArbustoBuster]

12. These people prove Voltaire.

Voltaire said: "Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities."

I see a strong echo of that in the quote from Leilani Neumann in the article: "I do not regret trusting truly in the Lord for my daughter's health." And from Dale Neumann: "I am guilty of trusting my Lord's wisdom completely.... Guilty of asking for heavenly intervention. Guilty of following Jesus Christ when the whole world does not understand. Guilty of obeying my God."

These people are monsters, and they were made monsters by belief.

[laconicsax]

13. +1

[MountainLaurel]

14. In a nutshell n/t

[ZombieHorde]

20. Good, yet sad observation. nt

[MountainLaurel]

23. For those interested, here's a Q&A

With the author: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/discussion/2009/11/13/DI2009111303161.html