Oregon couple convicted in son’s faith-healing death
Posted: September 30, 2011.
Print: L.A. Times
excerpts:
Dale Hickman testified that he went to bed and expected to see his son again in the morning, but was awakened at 2:15 a.m. by a relative, who put the ailing baby in his arms.
“You did not know how much longer he would live, did you? Why didn’t you call 911 at that moment of crisis?” prosecutor Mike Regan asked him, the Oregonian reported. “Because I was praying,” Hickman responded.
...Shannon Hickman said she had no access to a phone but in any case relied on her husband to make the decision about whether to call for help.
“I can say what I feel, but ultimately, he decides. It’s kind of a fine line because I don’t want to disobey him or anger him,” she said. “If I gave him my opinion, and he told me to shut up and I didn’t, then my marriage could be in jeopardy. I have to submit to my husband.”
The visceral response to this is anger directed at the parents. But the problem is deeper than them. Within a biblical context their course of action is well grounded which exonerates their intention. The wife was dutifully submissive to her husband in her deference to him, and the husband placed his faith in God above all else. Again, Quintessential behavior from within the purview of Christianity. So I’m not sure that directing castigation their way is the right thing to do. They are people who have brains which are running a terribly erroneous software.
Many people in the comment column are alluding to the craziness of the parents. But they would be better to apply the charge of craziness towards the religion that they, like their late son, are suffering from.
posted on October 3, 2011report this as inappropriate
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