Faith Healing Fails AGAIN

oliverlang
oliverlang Members Posts: 593
edited February 2010 in R & R (Religion and Race)
Prayer proves to be ineffective AGAIN. So, what makes ? choose to deny their prayers. A group of people that do nothing but worship him? However, he will heal someone who has no faith and does more bad than good, and will never correct his ways. Where was ? ?

http://www.oregonlive.com/clackamascounty/index.ssf/2009/07/jury_hears_father_recount_fait.html

Parents in faith-healing case never considered calling a doctor
By Tom Wolfe, The Oregonian

Updates from the courtroom, court documents and past stories on the case.

OREGON CITY -- Carl and Raylene Worthington told detectives that they never considered calling a doctor, even as their 15-month-old daughter deteriorated and died.

"I don't believe in them," Carl Worthington said of doctors. "I believe in faith healing."

Raylene Worthington said that her religious beliefs do not encompass medical care and that she would not have done anything different for her - daughter, who died at home of pneumonia, a blood infection and other complications.

In Clackamas County Circuit Court on Wednesday, prosecutors played videotaped police interviews with the Worthingtons, who are accused of criminal mistreatment and manslaughter for failing to provide medical care for their daughter. Ava Worthington died March 2, 2008, after her parents and other members of the Followers of Christ tried to treat her with faith healing.

Ava's father, who goes by Brent, his middle name, described what happened:

Ava came down with what appeared to be a cold or the flu on a Tuesday. By Saturday, her breathing became labored and the family turned to its traditional faith-healing rituals, praying, fasting, anointing the body with oil, administering diluted wine and laying on of hands.

By Sunday, Brent Worthington said he thought there was "a possibility" his daughter was so sick she could die. Then, after a final session of laying on of hands at about 5 p.m., "she perked up," he said. She grabbed her bottle and "took some food."

"She was peaceful; she was rested," Worthington said.

Two hours later Ava was dead.

The interviewers, Detectives Michelle Finn and James Rhodes of the Clackamas County Sheriff Office's child-abuse unit, asked pointed questions, and Brent Worthington provided details about his, his family's and his church's beliefs and practices.

He said no one in his immediate family has ever been to a doctor or used prescription or over-the-counter medicine. "It's not something we believe in."

The detectives also asked about the growth on Ava's neck, which swelled during the last days of her life. Prosecutors allege the lump -- a benign cystic hygroma -- impeded her breathing.

The soft lump became more noticeable two months before Ava died and started to get "tight" the day before her death, according to the Worthingtons.

Brent Worthington said he had ultimate responsibility for Ava's care. "I'm the head of the house; it falls to me. The wife follows the husband."

He said he confers with his wife but did not consult with anyone else about treating Ava's illness. Raylene Worthington did not dispute the decision to rely on spiritual healing, he said.

Asked if she would have taken Ava to a doctor if she knew her child was dying, Raylene Worthington said, "I don't know."

Brent Worthington said that forgoing medical treatment is probably difficult for outsiders to understand. For him, medical treatment "is not a question. It's not even thought."

When the detectives told Worthington that the law requires a parent to provide adequate medical care, he said he had provided care.

"I did everything I could do for her," Worthington said. "What I was doing was working," he said. "She was getting relief."

Dr. Christopher Young, the deputy state medical examiner who conducted the girl's autopsy, disagreed. "The absence of action led to her death," said Young, who testified after the jury saw the interviews.

Ava's cyst first appeared when she was a few months old.

By Christmas, the cyst was swollen and likely interfered Ava's with breathing, Young said. "That's the time when a reasonable parent" would have taken a child to a doctor, he said.

Ava's various medical conditions were easily treated, and antibiotics and a simple medical procedure could have saved her right up to the day she died, Young said.

The cyst could have been drained with a needle, providing temporary but instant relief, Young said, and antibiotics could have dampened the infections.

Comments

  • alissowack
    alissowack Members Posts: 1,930 ✭✭✭
    edited February 2010
    It is a very sad case. However, I believe the faith healing would still fail even if it did "work".
  • TX_Made713
    TX_Made713 Members Posts: 3,954 ✭✭
    edited February 2010
    ? says, “I am the Lord who heals you.” Exodus 15:26

    “I will take away sickness from among you. . .” Exodus 23:25,26

    “He forgives all my sins and heals ALL my Diseases.” Psalm 103:3

    “I will give you back your health again and heal your wounds.” Jeremiah 30:17

    “The Lord will remove from you all sickness. . .” Deuteronomy 7:15

    “My counsel shall stand, and I WILL do ALL my pleasure.: Isaiah 46:10

    “Yes, I have spoken it. I will also bring it to Pass. I have purposed it. I will also do it.” Isaiah 46:11

    “? cannot lie.” Titus 1:2

    “I am the Lord: I will speak, and the word that I shall speak shall come to pass. Ezekiel 12:25



    that child was screwed
  • alissowack
    alissowack Members Posts: 1,930 ✭✭✭
    edited February 2010
    And like the Israelites who were heading to the Promise Land with Moses, they put ? to the test and they lost their child.
  • alissowack
    alissowack Members Posts: 1,930 ✭✭✭
    edited February 2010
    ether-i-am wrote: »
    So what I'm confused. We are suppose to put our faith in ? , but to rely on his help is putting him to the test, therefore we will not help us when we most need it?

    I don't want to read too much into it, but I doubt that they were trusting in ? so that they would know the truth about Him. ? could have just healed the kid, but would the parents believe that He is ? ? The Israelites did end up getting the things they asked for but their hearts were far from ? . All the Israelites wanted ? for is to do tricks.

    I would be little worried if ? started giving me what I wanted. Maybe ? would be giving my soul over to Satan in the process.
  • DarcSkies777
    DarcSkies777 Members Posts: 5,600 ✭✭✭
    edited February 2010
    TX_Made713 wrote: »


    ? cannot lie.” Titus 1:2

    Bet you see nothing wrong with those two words being in the same sentence do you lol
  • alissowack
    alissowack Members Posts: 1,930 ✭✭✭
    edited February 2010
    Bet you see nothing wrong with those two words being in the same sentence do you lol

    I see nothing wrong with it. For ? to not lie not only suggests that He knows the truth, but He also knows who is telling the truth; or who is sincere in what they ask for beyond what we know the truth to be.