OVO

A couple charged with manslaughter claim they were within their constitutional rights when they decided to pray for their 15-month old daughter rather than take her to a doctor to treat her pneumonia. But legal experts believe that Carl and Raylene Worthington will likely have a difficult time arguing freedom of religion over the state’s duty to protect children from harm. A pre-trail hearing is scheduled for Monday in the case against the Worthingtons, whose toddler Ava died in March 2008. The state medical examiner said Ava could have easily been treated with antibiotics.

The trial, scheduled to start June 23, comes about a decade after the Oregon Legislature amended state law to restrict an exemption for faith healing and to bar arguments that religious beliefs prevent seeking medical help. The revision in state law came in response to an investigation into a series of deaths of children whose parents belonged to the church and suffered from untreated illnesses that were curable. A small church cemetery is lined with the graves of dozens of children – suggesting an extraordinary increase over the average death rate for children in the United States.

[Article continues at link. McCall writes of "the church" but does not name it. The name of the church is Followers of Christ Church in Oregon City, Oregon. McCall writes of revision in state law but does not say what those changes were. The changes were that child sacrifice was made illegal in Oregon, right? That there was no exemption in murder charges if the murder occured to appease an invisible monster that lives in the sky, yes? No. No, the revision in state law retained special privileges for parents who murder their children as part of a religious service compared to those who murder their children for any other reason or for no reason. Read Oregon State Law House Bill 2494 Section 163.555 2b for yourself: "In a prosecution for failing to provide necessary and proper medical attention, it is a defense that the medical attention was provided by treatment by prayer through spiritual means alone by adherents of a bona fide religious denomination that relies exclusively on this form of treatment in lieu of medical attention." Then read my article Child Sacrifice in Oregon for details on the nearly one hundred child sacrifices that have occurred at this bona fide religious denomination. God and the law stand on these parent's side. Right and justice stand against them. Where do you stand? - Trevor Blake]