Faith healing kills again
Yet another child has died of religious stupidity:
Authorities say a teenager from a faith-healing family died from an illness that could have been easily treated, just a few months after a toddler cousin of his died in a case that has led to criminal charges.
An autopsy Wednesday showed that Beagley died of heart failure caused by a urinary tract blockage.
He probably had a congenital condition that constricted his urinary tract where the bladder empties into the urethra, and the condition of his organs indicates that he had multiple blockages during his life, said Dr. Clifford Nelson, deputy state medical examiner for Clackamas County.
“You just build up so much urea in your bloodstream that it begins to poison your organs, and the heart is particularly susceptible,” Nelson said.
Nelson said a catheter would have saved the boy’s life. If the condition had been dealt with earlier, a urologist could easily have removed the blockage and avoided the kidney damage that came with the repeated illnesses, Nelson said.
Benton said a board member of the Followers of Christ church contacted the authorities after Beagley died at his family’s home. The teen had been sick about a week, and church members and his family had gathered to pray Sunday when his condition worsened, Benton said.
The group of sociopaths responsible for his death also killed his 15-month-old cousin, Ava Worthington, back in March. Fortunately, it looks like Oregon’s legislature is taking steps to force religious parents to seek medical assistance for sick children instead of merely praying over them.
I know that moderate Christians join me in recoiling in horror at this “faith-based healing” nonsense (and insist that I’m attacking a strawman, not their actual worldview). However, what they need to realize, and soon, is that their “moderate” acceptance of Bronze Age mythology enables these raging lunatics. The adherents of this dangerous cult would have their children forcibly rescued in a heartbeat if it weren’t for the fact that religion is so revered, so respected, so untouchable in our culture.
Those of you who avail yourselves of medical care while simultaenously praying for God’s intervention, babbling uselessly into the sky while insisting that the work of human doctors and human medical researchers is somehow a manifestation of divine providence, give ideological shelter to those who believe in the literal healing power of prayer. Death ensues: not symbolic death, not figurative death, not “moderate” death — real death. Real children are violently and painfully robbed of life because their faith-addled parents deny them care, or convince them (this case was about a 16-year-old) to reject care.
Only the steady march of rationalism can solve this problem. I fervently hope that, within my lifetime, it shall.