Dead for Nine Days
Florence Ophelia Russell died nine days ago. Friday, it was reported to the police in the Bahamas that her family had kept her body in the apartment as her family prayed for her to be resurrected.
This is what the little Neumann girl's parents tried to do as well as the ambulance took her dead body away. Yet over and over we keep being told that no Christian really believes this. And in less than 1 month we've had many many cases showing that actually, LOTS of Christians really believe this.
The job of convincing Christians to seek medical care should not need to be undertaken by atheists. It should be the job of Christians. The pope, the archbishop of Canterbury, Pat Robertson, James Dobson and any other self-styled leader of Christianity should be on TV begging parents to take their sick kids to the doctor. The fact that they don't, and even lobby for an exception to law mandating medical care for children shows what the mainstream Christian tradition really is: Pray for your kids until they are dead.
The opinion piece from Wisconsin sums up the case very well for me:
The National Center on Child Abuse and Neglect concluded, “There are more children actually being abused in the name of God than in the name of Satan.” As Gerald Witt, mayor of Lake City, Florida, said about local faith-based deaths, “It may be necessary for some babies to die to maintain our religious freedoms. It may be the price we have to pay; everything has a price.”
But religious zealots need not pay the ultimate price of sacrificing their children on the altar of faith. It says so in the first book of their bible. “Abraham built an altar . . . and laid the wood . . . and bound Isaac his son, and laid him on the altar. And the angel of the Lord called unto him out of heaven, and said, Abraham . . . lay not thine hand upon the lad . . . for now I know that thou fearest God . . .” (Gen. 22:9-12).
Should parents decide to disregard both their god’s admonition against sacrificing children to prove a fanatical faith and society’s laws against homicide, they should be held accountable to a secular “higher power” in a court of law that does not accept the strength of a person’s religious belief as evidence of their guilt or innocence.
Again, for those of you apologists arguing that Christians aren't really like this, how does the Mayor of a Florida town say that in public and keep his job, much less avoid being attacked? He's come out in favor of the death of children, but because it's a Christian death, there is no outcry.
This is what the little Neumann girl's parents tried to do as well as the ambulance took her dead body away. Yet over and over we keep being told that no Christian really believes this. And in less than 1 month we've had many many cases showing that actually, LOTS of Christians really believe this.
The job of convincing Christians to seek medical care should not need to be undertaken by atheists. It should be the job of Christians. The pope, the archbishop of Canterbury, Pat Robertson, James Dobson and any other self-styled leader of Christianity should be on TV begging parents to take their sick kids to the doctor. The fact that they don't, and even lobby for an exception to law mandating medical care for children shows what the mainstream Christian tradition really is: Pray for your kids until they are dead.
The opinion piece from Wisconsin sums up the case very well for me:
The National Center on Child Abuse and Neglect concluded, “There are more children actually being abused in the name of God than in the name of Satan.” As Gerald Witt, mayor of Lake City, Florida, said about local faith-based deaths, “It may be necessary for some babies to die to maintain our religious freedoms. It may be the price we have to pay; everything has a price.”
But religious zealots need not pay the ultimate price of sacrificing their children on the altar of faith. It says so in the first book of their bible. “Abraham built an altar . . . and laid the wood . . . and bound Isaac his son, and laid him on the altar. And the angel of the Lord called unto him out of heaven, and said, Abraham . . . lay not thine hand upon the lad . . . for now I know that thou fearest God . . .” (Gen. 22:9-12).
Should parents decide to disregard both their god’s admonition against sacrificing children to prove a fanatical faith and society’s laws against homicide, they should be held accountable to a secular “higher power” in a court of law that does not accept the strength of a person’s religious belief as evidence of their guilt or innocence.
Again, for those of you apologists arguing that Christians aren't really like this, how does the Mayor of a Florida town say that in public and keep his job, much less avoid being attacked? He's come out in favor of the death of children, but because it's a Christian death, there is no outcry.