[QUOTE=The King of Soup]
I dare to hope that Voyager has had enough time to reconsider her/his position that my reluctance to condemn people merely on account of the fact that they are labelled religious is tantamount to defending murderers again, because I’m still not aware of having done it the first time.
I admit that the parents may be culpable in this death and that it may be attributable to their religious beliefs. But the mere fact that they indulged their beliefs by praying for their daughter does not implicate their religion in the girl’s death. If a pair of college-educated athiests misjudged their child’s symptoms with the result that medical care was not sought, they did not pray, and the child died, this thread wouldn’t exist. The same actions leading to the same result would all obtain: but there wouldn’t be an easy target for those with an agenda.
I still don’t see the proof that the girl’s parents were anti-medicine (and they say they weren’t, and there’s no evidence they took advantage of the vaccination exemption, and the father performed CPR – a very human intervention). There’s no proof that they withheld medical care from their daughter because of their religious beliefs, rather than because of a belief that it wasn’t necessary or that they couldn’t afford it (lots of poor people don’t know the services available to them, or are reluctant anyway),which requires no religion at all.
The established facts are that a girl died at home, unexpectedly, and that her parents did not seek for her medical attention. That’s a tragedy. Only the addition of one additional fact – that her parents indulged their religious beliefs by praying for their daughter, even though they believed she did not need a doctor – makes this, for some, a crime.
[/QUOTE]
First of all, I would definitely not condemn anyone just because they are religious. I’m condemning them because, from the evidence in the article, their religious beliefs led directly to the girl’s death. 99.9% of religious people in America would get her to a hospital.
Second, I’m not condemning their praying. They can pray all they want to - in the waiting room of the hospital! I’m condemning them for praying instead of getting medical help.
If the article is correct in this girl not seeing a doctor since she was 3, I think it is reasonable to assume this was because of their religious beliefs.
The father feeling qualified to give CPR because he was friends with doctors reminds me of the Lenny Bruce routine where the shmuck gets VD advice from the guy sweeping up the drugstore.
Luckily, none of my kids had diabetes - but one did start getting dehydrated, and we got her to the doctor just before the point where she would have had to be admitted. Part of being a good parent is being sensitive to changes in kids, and getting help when the problem persists. And getting help is not praying. I’d suspect that these people prayed all the time, no problem. The specific mention of praying in response to her getting worse, and no trip to the ER, can only mean they judged praying as a substitute. And that’s why they’re scum.
