faith healing

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10-Year-Old Girl Dies in Faith Healing

Algerians decry practice and media coverage

(Newser) - Algerians responded with anger online after the death of a 10-year-old girl during a faith healing. In announcing the arrest of a 28-year-old man in the case, the prosecutor said the girl apparently suffered "blows and burns," the Guardian reports. The victim "was abused during a ruqya...

Couple Charged With Letting Baby Die Over Religious Beliefs

Joshua and Rachel Piland prayed while their baby died, police say

(Newser) - Michigan police say Rachel Piland didn't take her newborn daughter to the hospital despite the baby coughing blood and not eating, instead going to "listen to sermons," the Lansing State Journal reports. A day later, Piland allegedly wouldn't let her mother call for help when blood...

Pastor Charged in Granddaughter's Pneumonia Death

Rowland Foster's church shuns modern medicine

(Newser) - The pastor of a church that shuns modern medicine was charged with a felony Thursday in his toddler granddaughter's death from pneumonia, joining his son and daughter-in-law as defendants in the latest criminal case involving the Christian fundamentalist sect, the AP reports. The Rev. Rowland Foster, pastor of a...

Pastor Sprays Insecticide in Followers' Faces to 'Heal'

Government panel in South Africa investigating 'Prophet of Doom'

(Newser) - A South African pastor is under fire for his crazy-sounding manner of healing his flock: He sprays insecticide into their faces. Lethebo Rabalago, 24, of Mountzion General Assembly says spraying an insecticide called Doom on his followers can cure them of cancer, HIV, and other ailments. Known as the "...

This Sick 20-Year-Old Wants Her Parents Prosecuted

'They deserve it'

(Newser) - "I would like to see my parents prosecuted," 20-year-old Mariah Walton tells the Guardian . "They deserve it." Walton has pulmonary hypertension, a condition that has left her permanently disabled, requiring a breathing device and possibly, soon, a heart and lung transplant. The problem could have been...

Since 2011, 12 Idaho Kids Have Died, Without Investigation

State has religious exemption in manslaughter cases

(Newser) - Thirty-two states have religious exemptions to some crimes against children; six of those allow a religious exemption in cases including manslaughter, negligent homicide, or capital murder. But Idaho has earned a disturbing distinction: In the past two decades, it's the only one of those six states where kids have...

Parents Who Prayed as Daughter Died Guilty of Homicide

Wisconsin's supreme court upholds convictions

(Newser) - A Wisconsin couple is headed either to jail or the US Supreme Court after a state court upheld their homicide convictions in the faith-healing death of their daughter, reports the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel . Dale and Leilani Neumann prayed over 11-year-old Madeline instead of calling a doctor as she died from...

Faith-Healing Couple Charged in Baby's Death

Pennsylvania couple accused of murder after second child dies

(Newser) - This time, a Pennsylvania couple that embraces faith healing over medicine is facing murder charges and jail time after one of their children died. Herbert and Catherine Schaible are being held without bail on third-degree murder charges filed this week in the death of their 8-month-old son to pneumonia, reports...

2nd Child Dies After Parents Pick Prayer Over Medicine

Herbert, Catherine Schaible lost first son in 2009

(Newser) - Herbert and Catherine Schaible failed to get medical attention for their 2-year-old son, Kent, in 2009, preferring instead to pray over him. He died of bacterial pneumonia, and they were convicted of involuntary manslaughter in 2011. But despite the fact that the Schaibles' probation required them to seek medical attention...

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