This is a tough diary to write. There is no internal conflict about this subject, for me, just a seething anger towards narcissistic people hiding behind an obsolete and barbaric belief system. Welcome to Idaho. KATU's Dan Tilkin went into Idaho to look for two children's burial sites and came up with more:
[all bold usage in blockquotes are my emphasis]
A former member of the Followers of Christ advised him to go to Peaceful Valley and look for two specific names.
He found them. He found many more.
Garrett Dean Eells.
The coroner?s report says Garrett was a 6-day-old baby who died of interstitial pneumonitis. That?s pneumonia, untreated.
Followers of Christ is a "faith-healing" sect of Christianity that believes in "laying hands on" and prayer instead of hocus pocus like science and medicine and doctors. This is a problem because people die as a result of this. Specifically children die. Here's a listing of Dan Tilkin's findings:
Jackson Scott Porter?20-minute-old girl
Preston Bowers?2-year-old boy
Rockwell Sevy?14-year-old boy
Arrian Jade Granden?15-year-old girl
Micah Taylor Eells?4-days-old boy
Pamela Jade Eells?16-year-old girl
Jerry Gardener?11-year-old boy
Syble Rossiter?12-year-old girl
Each one of these children died, in all likelihood, as a result of their parents' and community's negligence. You will not convince me that a belief system which allows you to watch your teenage daughter die in front of you from pneumonia has anything to do with God. It's about you and a belief that your "faith" is so important that you will watch your daughter's lungs drown in fluid while you put your powerless hands on her.
Pamela Jade Eells.
Doctor Charles Garrison performed the autopsy on 16-year-old Pamela. She died of pneumonia.
"If you?ve ever been in a situation where you can?t breathe, it?s pretty desperate.
"You?re drowning in your own fluids.?
Unfortunately, many of these cases can't be investigated because THIS IS NOT AGAINST THE LAW.
DeGues-Morris says she hasn't done an autopsy on a Followers of Christ child in years, because in Idaho it's not illegal for a parent or guardian to choose prayer over medicine as treatment for a sick child.
Idaho statute 18-1501 outlines the law that a parent who "chooses...treatment by prayer...shall not...have violated the duty of care to such child."
Canyon County Prosecutor Bryan Taylor says his hands are tied when it comes to punishing parents who choose faith healing over medicine, even to the very end.
"If they don't want to have their children go to a doctor, as long as they haven't caused the injuries, then we don't really have a leg to stand on in exploring criminal charges," says Taylor.
Here's an example of deadly hubris.
Jackson Scott Porter.
Jackson was a baby girl. She lived only 20 minutes. The coroner?s report said she received no pre-natal care.
Her grandfather, Mark Jerome, says she died in his house three months ago after his daughter went into labor.
?Well, when she came over, she was just sick - like a kidney infection or something like that,? Jerome said. ?So she just wanted to come to the house for a couple days. And when she had the baby no one expected it, it just happened that quick."
The coroner used the words ?extreme prematurity? to describe the labor.
Jerome said he doesn?t regret the lack of pre-natal care. That gets to the heart of faith-healing.
?That's the way we believe,? he said. ?We believe in God and the way God handles the situation, the way we do things."
That's what guys in ISIS say to justify cutting people's heads off.
There's more below the fold.
Preston Bowers and Rockwell Sevy.
The Canyon County coroner believes Preston had Down?s Syndrome, and that the 2-year-old died of pneumonia.
KATU reported on his death in 2011, along with that of 14-year-old Rocky.
Rocky isn?t buried in the cemetery, but he lived nearby with his parents, Sally and Dan.
They didn?t want to talk about not getting him treatment.
"What I will talk to you about is the law,? Dan Sevy said. ?I would like to remind you this country was founded on religious freedom, and on freedom in general. I would like to say, I picture freedom as a full object. It's not like you take "a" freedom away. It's that you chip at the entire thing. Freedom is freedom. Whenever you try to restrict any one person, then you're chipping away at freedom. Yours and mine."
That was that. Sevy didn?t want to talk any more about it.
?I told you I'm not going to do that,? he said. ?You don't understand the full story, and I'm not going to stand in front of a camera and give you the whole story. It's just not going to happen. I see the way these things get edited out.
?All I see is an aggressive campaign against Christianity in general, it?s amazing to me in this day and age where Muslims get soft pedaled and Christians are under attack. It just blows my mind.?
There is little movement in getting many of these "exemptions" changed. However, not every state is stuck in a barbaric quicksand:
Earlier this year, the Oregon House voted unanimously, 59-0, to remove legal protection for parents who decline medical intervention in the case of a sick child based on religious reasons.
Discussion in the Oregon Senate started Thursday.
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Originally Posted by of_corpse_not
