Another Followers of Christ couple indicted in death of a child

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.oregonlive.com/oregon-city/index.ssf/2010/07/another_followers_of_christ_couple_indicted_in_death_of_a_child.html#incart_mce

Published: Saturday, July 31, 2010, 10:30 AM Updated: Saturday, July 31, 2010, 10:32 AM

OREGON CITY – An Oregon City couple will face charges of second-degree manslaughter in the faith-healing death of their newborn son, the third such fatality involving the Followers of Christ church in the past two years.

Dale R. Hickman and Shannon M. Hickman, both 25, were booked about 1 a.m. Friday at the Clackamas County Jail. Dale Hickman's father, Phillip Hickman, posted 10 percent of their $500,000 bail, and they were released about two hours later. They will be formally charged Aug. 30.

Their infant son was born in September, 2009, about six weeks premature. He weighed 3 pounds, 5 ounces and lived nine hours.

No one with medical training attended the birth, and no one called a doctor or ambulance. An autopsy determined the infant died of staph pneumonia and complications from a premature birth, including underdeveloped lungs.

[underpants]

1. and soooo the Lord wanted it

Helen Lovejoy: You are so blind, even Jesus couldn't heal you.
Reverend Lovejoy: Helen, please. Don't drop the J-bomb.

[Initech]

11. Ha!

"This new religion, the movementarians is a strange and evil sect dedicated to taking away the money of fools. Let's say the Lord's Prayer 40 times but first let's pass the collection plate!"

[malaise]

2. Lock up these lunatics

Please

[AnArmyVeteran]

3. Remember Andrea Yates drowning her 5 kids in the name of god?

I live ten miles from where a Christian mother killed all five of her young children in her bathtub.

Andrea Yates of Clear Lake, Texas, across from the Johnson Space Center in Houston, killed her five young children by drowning them in a bathtub on June 20, 2001. Andrea Yates and her husband, Russell Yates fell victim to a traveling preacher who used 'fire and brimstone' rants to manipulate people.

Andrea Yates was a prime example of the kind of people who fall for predatory 'Christian' fundamentalist religions. She had a lot of delusion in her life and when you mix that with a hell and damnation belief system it overwhelms them and causes them to do a lot of strange and evil things, in the name of god of course.

The killer was quoted as saying 'god' wanted her to kill her children. Ironically, Andrea Yates ended up as a roommate in a mental hospital with another woman who killed her daughter. I'm not sure if 'god' played a role in that killing.

I wonder how much psychological or physical damage children are subjected to due to people's warped religious beliefs.

A side story: I had a dear friend who had constant emotional distress because she was brought up by two religious fanatic parents. My friend constantly felt a war was going on in her head. If she had a good thought she attributed it to 'god' speaking to her, and if she had any negative thought at all she attributed it to 'satan' trying to take over her mind. Because of the constant war going on in her head she attempted suicide by slashing both of her wrists. She ended up in several state hospitals until she was eventually released a couple of years later. I drove 225 miles to see her every week during those two years at the Austin State Mental Hospital. I would take her out on day passes and go sit in the park and talk or take her to eat at restaurants. None of her right wing 'christian' family members ever visited her. So much for their empathy and compassion for their own daughter. She was finally able to break free of the religious chains that kept her prisoner all of her life and she ended up getting married and having children.

It's so sad how religion can be so deadly and destructive to so many people. Because of all the instances in my life where religion has destroyed people or caused them great harm I look at it as a disease born of absolute ignorance and fueled by hatred, fear and all the other things religions use to manipulate and control their flocks. The more fundamentalist a person is the higher the tendency of serious damage occurring.

[Odin2005]

4. IMO people with underlying mental problems are predisposed to religious nuttiness.

The religion doesn't cause the insanity, the insanity causes the religiousness.

[AnArmyVeteran]

5. I disagree. In my friend's situation religion almost killed her.

She was directly abused by religious fanatic parents who taught her if she thought anything negative it was evil. Religious abuse begets more religious abuse. Mental illness and religious fanaticism can go hand in hand. It's almost a chicken or the egg story. I do agree with you that people who are mentally ill are prime candidates for becoming religious fanatics though.

I am also referring primarily to the religious fundamentalists who believe in fire and brimstone. I went to church with that same friend once. It was a Baptist church and we went on a Wednesday night. About ten minutes into it the preacher kept yelling at all the people saying they are worthless sinners and they are all going to hell. He kept up his verbal abuse until I couldn't take it any longer. I nudged my friend and told her I have to go outside. When I got outside of the 'church' and looked up at the crystal clear sky full of stars I thought I was closer to 'god' than that preacher will ever be. He was absolute evil. I thought of how the same kind of preachers are all around our country spewing the same hate-filled messages to their congregations and how much damage they were causing to so many people. I knew when I walked out of that 'church' I walked out of the presence of pure evil. It was just a few months later when my friend tried to commit suicide. I wonder how many other vulnerable people are victimized by such vile hatred. When children are forced to attend services filled with messages of condemnation and hatred they grow up with a distorted view of the world and then they perpetuate the same abuses they learned in church.

I know most churches aren't like the one I described above. But it's sad to think there is even one. But in reality, there are tens of thousands of them exactly like the evil church I walked out of. Religions which do that to their congregations are abusing not only the adults, but also the vulnerable children and causing unspeakable damage that will live with people throughout their lives, and perpetuate it by forcing their own children to suffer the same abuses, for generations.


Edited for misspelling and an extra line for clarity...

[Odin2005]

6. Good Dog, that is horrible!

:grr:

[WinkyDink]

7. 180 degrees incorrect:

HOUSTON — A mentally ill person who believes God is ordering him to commit a crime is insane "if a person is of a faith that God is good and infallible," a forensic psychiatrist testified Friday during Andrea Yates' second murder trial.

But Yates, who believed Satan wanted her to drown her five children in the bathtub, knew that her actions were wrong and therefore is not legally insane, Dr. Park Dietz said.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,203516,00.html

Ringholz said Yates was delusional the day of the drownings and did not know her actions were wrong, even though she called 911 and knew she would be arrested. Her delusion was that Satan had entered her and that she had to be executed in order to kill Satan, he said.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,202924,00.html

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Satan is not normally construed as "God."

[msanthrope]

8. You might wanna look up Park Dietz's history with the Yates

case and refrain from quoting him.

Particularly since that asshole's skullduggery won her a new trial.

[Pithlet]

9. That conviction was overturned on appeal. She was indeed found not guilty by reason of insanity. n/

[stevedeshazer]

10. These freaks have screwed up so many children

The rest of the story: http://www.oregonlive.com/oregon-city/index.ssf/2010/07/faith_healers_plead_not_guilty_to_criminal_mistreatment_of_their_infant_daughter.html

Two members of an Oregon City faith-healing church were charged Thursday with first-degree criminal mistreatment for failing to provide medical care for their infant daughter.

Timothy and Rebecca Wyland pleaded not guilty during a brief appearance before Clackamas County Circuit Judge Robert D. Herndon and were released without bail.

The charges were expected. During a custody hearing last week, a prosecutor disclosed that the Wylands had been indicted by a grand jury.

Child-protection authorities took custody of the couple's 7-month-old daughter, Alayna, after she developed a growth over her left eye that ballooned over several months to the size of a tennis ball and threatens her vision.

The Wylands did not speak in Thursday's hearing. Rebecca Wyland previously testified that she anointed Alayna with oil but never considered taking her daughter to a doctor.




They should be in jail for child abuse. People have a right to adhere to their religious beliefs in the US, but this stuff is sick.