Autistic boy dies at faith healing service

Faram · Post by **Faram** » 2003-08-25 07:03am

cnn.com

So much for faith healing...

Hope the "healer" gets life.

Hamel · Post by **Hamel** » 2003-08-25 07:41am

As long as religion is a sacred cow, never to be touched, this kind of bullshit will continue.

Hamel · Post by **Hamel** » 2003-08-25 07:44am

Hamel wrote:As long as religion is a sacred cow, never to be touched, this kind of bullshit will continue.

Speak of the devil!

To: knak

"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."

Before anyone decides how outrageous is, let me tell you a true story.

I became very close with a girl who has bipolar disorder. When she
stops taking her meds, she gets manic, then depressive. She decided to
stop taking the medications. The woman is a very devout Catholic.

She began having such problems that she went to Confession and told
the priest of her mood extremes and the bad things they caused her
to think or do. The priest told her she was under spiritual attack and prescribed
a bunch of Hail Marys.

The only difference between a cult and a denomination is size.

3 posted on 08/24/2003 8:54 PM PDT by gcruse (http://gcruse.typepad.com/)
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To: knak

Creepy.

4 posted on 08/24/2003 9:09 PM PDT by Prodigal Son
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To: gcruse

The only difference between a cult and a denomination is size.

That's the way bigots operate. Take a second-hand antecdote and apply it to an entire group. I'll bet you have similar "stories" for blacks, Jews, etc..

Anti-Christian bigot.

5 posted on 08/24/2003 9:26 PM PDT by moyden2000
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TrailerParkJawa · Post by **TrailerParkJawa** » 2003-08-25 12:47pm

Well assuming it was not a freak thing where the boy just died, I hope these people get life. Im fucking tired of neglectful parents.

Shinova · Post by **Shinova** » 2003-08-25 01:06pm

Wait, autism does not kill, unlike bipolar or clinical depression, which can drive one nuts and get them to get violent or suicidal. Autism doesn't do that, it just makes one very isolated, so to speak.

So, according to the article, all they were doing was placing their hands on him and praying. To my knowledge, while there might be medication for autism, it's not like schizophrenia, and the symptoms don't have any physically damaging effects to the patient's body.

So, from what I can gather, the priest shouldn't get sentenced for just praying for him.

.....

Instead, let us accuse God of killing the kid and make it reason enough to wipe all denominations off the face of the Earth!! Mwahahahahahaaa!!!!

j/k

Anyway, even if the priest somehow did it, there's no physical evidence.

Shinova · Post by **Shinova** » 2003-08-25 01:07pm

"We don't know of any kind of medical issues that he had that would have caused this death," Haynes told CNN. "His mother didn't say that he had any kind of medical issues. It's really odd for someone that young to just die."

To further support my point that there's no neglection of medicine involved here.

TrailerParkJawa · Post by **TrailerParkJawa** » 2003-08-25 01:09pm

Shinova wrote:
"We don't know of any kind of medical issues that he had that would have caused this death," Haynes told CNN. "His mother didn't say that he had any kind of medical issues. It's really odd for someone that young to just die."
To further support my point that there's no neglection of medicine involved here.

I thought the article said they police had reason to believe there was physical abuse?

Shinova · Post by **Shinova** » 2003-08-25 02:23pm

TrailerParkJawa wrote:I thought the article said they police had reason to believe there was physical abuse?

They had REASON to BELIEVE he had physical abuse. After all, normally no one just ups and goes like that kid. So of course they would have to first assume that someone must've physically abused him.

Besides, it won't look good for the police to say, "We don't know what happened. The kid just died."

Sir Sirius · Post by **Sir Sirius** » 2003-08-25 02:46pm

Shinova wrote:They had REASON to BELIEVE he had physical abuse. After all, normally no one just ups and goes like that kid. So of course they would have to first assume that someone must've physically abused him.

Reason to belief is a bit misleading:

CNN.com wrote:Police arrested Ray Hemphill on suspicion of child abuse, Haynes said

"From his statement and from our investigation, it was determined that there was probable cause that he had committed physical abuse of a child," she said, without elaborating.

The kid died for same reason, since Autism does cause people to just drop dead suddenly something must have caused his death. At the very least there should be an autopsy and a thorough investigation in to the events surrounding the kids death.

Shinova wrote:Besides, it won't look good for the police to say, "We don't know what happened. The kid just died."

8 year olds don't just suddenly drop dead for no reason at all.

InnerBrat · Post by **InnerBrat** » 2003-08-25 02:57pm

Sir Sirius wrote:8 year olds don't just suddenly drop dead for no reason at all.

Ever heard of SIDS? It's been known to affect kids up to 13, after which it's simply known as SADS.

Lonestar · Post by **Lonestar** » 2003-08-25 04:33pm

*whew* Didn't happen in Texas.

Howedar · Post by **Howedar** » 2003-08-25 05:42pm

In the article, I don't see that the people were doing anything worthy of punishment. Of course, the article does not contain 100% of the information.

Stormbringer · Post by **Stormbringer** » 2003-08-25 06:24pm

innerbrat wrote:
Sir Sirius wrote:8 year olds don't just suddenly drop dead for no reason at all.
Ever heard of SIDS? It's been known to affect kids up to 13, after which it's simply known as SADS.

But that's extremely rare. It's possibly but I think it's far more likely that the abuse accusations are true.

Stormbringer · Post by **Stormbringer** » 2003-08-25 06:25pm

Faram wrote:So much for faith healing...

Hope the "healer" gets life.

Hamel wrote:As long as religion is a sacred cow, never to be touched, this kind of bullshit will continue.

Neither of you read the article did you?

Post by **Sea Skimmer** » 2003-08-25 07:07pm

Stormbringer wrote: But that's extremely rare. It's possibly but I think it's far more likely that the abuse accusations are true.

Lots of things are possibul, there have been cases of quite young children dieing from death attacks and strokes. We just have to wait and see if an investigation turns anything up. If physical abuse killed him then there would be many signs. You can beat a kid pretty badly without leaving marks, but your not going kill them like that.

Alyeska · Post by **Alyeska** » 2003-08-25 07:10pm

Those people are fucked. I just saw a recent news article that said the kid was wrapped up in blankets and being held against the floor.

Post by **Darth Wong** » 2003-08-25 07:13pm

That article stinks of a cover story to me. If the cops arrested somebody, it means they think there's enough evidence to score a conviction. They obviously know something that the writer of the article didn't, or wasn't willing to print.

Stormbringer · Post by **Stormbringer** » 2003-08-25 07:13pm

Sea Skimmer wrote:
Stormbringer wrote: But that's extremely rare. It's possibly but I think it's far more likely that the abuse accusations are true.
Lots of things are possibul, there have been cases of quite young children dieing from death attacks and strokes.

I meant the SIDS/SADS thing Innerbrat brought up.

Sea Skimmer wrote:We just have to wait and see if an investigation turns anything up. If physical abuse killed him then there would be many signs. You can beat a kid pretty badly without leaving marks, but your not going kill them like that.

That's true. But they haven't said shit so we don't know what sort of evidence there is or isn't. There are ways to abuse a child that woud kill them pretty easily. But we really don't know why the kid died. I'm sure it'll come out sooner or later what happened.

The Dark · Post by **The Dark** » 2003-08-25 11:39pm

Alyeska wrote:Those people are fucked. I just saw a recent news article that said the kid was wrapped up in blankets and being held against the floor.

Uh-oh. Sounds like one of those "second birth" things. We had a death from that around here a few years ago, IIRC. That's more magic than religion, though, since it tries to force change through imitation of natural process.

Stormbringer · Post by **Stormbringer** » 2003-08-25 11:53pm

The Dark wrote:
Alyeska wrote:Those people are fucked. I just saw a recent news article that said the kid was wrapped up in blankets and being held against the floor.
Uh-oh. Sounds like one of those "second birth" things. We had a death from that around here a few years ago, IIRC. That's more magic than religion, though, since it tries to force change through imitation of natural process.

Guess we'll find out what happened. But as Mike said, cops aren't going to arrest people for nothing. If there's an abuse case pending, they'll have some pretty heft evidence.

Sir Sirius · Post by **Sir Sirius** » 2003-08-26 09:08am

innerbrat wrote:
Sir Sirius wrote:8 year olds don't just suddenly drop dead for no reason at all.
Ever heard of SIDS? It's been known to affect kids up to 13, after which it's simply known as SADS.

Kids that died from SIDS were usualy sleeping, which was most likely not the case here and SIDS is quite rare in over 5 year olds. Besides SIDS is a death with an unknow cause, not a death without a cause.

Also it is important to note that the strory told by CNN.com about the events of that prayer session was related by Pastor David Hemphill himself. I'd like to hear what happaned from someone else then the alledged child abuser himself.

TrailerParkJawa · Post by **TrailerParkJawa** » 2003-08-26 01:24pm

This morning I heard on the radio the police are saying the boy suffocated.

Lord_Xerxes · Post by **Lord_Xerxes** » 2003-08-28 02:34am

Yep, MSNBC has an article about it. They choked him.

http://www.msnbc.com/news/957270.asp

(As an aside, this is gonna be my "Doom in the News" article on my site. So check in a few days)

Alyeska · Post by **Alyeska** » 2003-08-28 08:36pm

David Hemphill, Ray’s brother and the church’s pastor, released a statement saying: “Terrance’s death is a great tragedy. However, it was not a malicious act on the part of the church.”

Bull fucking shit. The church keeps these people willfully ignorant and then shit like this happens. That is very malicious and should be treated as homicide.

Andrew J. · Post by **Andrew J.** » 2003-08-28 09:13pm

Alyeska wrote:
David Hemphill, Ray’s brother and the church’s pastor, released a statement saying: “Terrance’s death is a great tragedy. However, it was not a malicious act on the part of the church.”
Bull fucking shit. The church keeps these people willfully ignorant and then shit like this happens. That is very malicious and should be treated as homicide.

I don't think they were "malicious" in the sense that they were intentionally trying to kill someone, but I do think they demonstrated gross negligence and stupidity.