http://abcnews.go.com/Health/DiabetesResource/story?id=4536593&page=1

Here's concrete proof that strong religious faith leads to child abuse.

Right    It also leads to a higher rate of volunteerism and civic engagement(even when excluding specifically religious contexts).  Read Bowling Alone for more on this.  I'd be the first to agree that the unhelpful way some people "live" their religion certainly makes it understandable why some have contempt for religious folk generally, but we're not all weirdos.

I think it's sad a little girl died, but from what I read I would not call this child abuse. I don't read this as problem with faith in god so much as a lack of faith in professional medicine.

Absolutely this is child abuse. This is not some obscure refusal to allow a blood transfusion or the like. All they had to do was observe a diagnosis and feed her properly.

Where in the Bible does it say "Screw the diabetes....I (God) order you to eat more sugar"?

Nowhere. It's a clear case of neglect (refusal to simply seek out advice on how to live with diabetes) and in my opinion this is one step removed from manslaughter:


Nowhere anywhere does any religion I know of command you to simply "not take your child to the hospital when she's in a coma". I can understand refusing blood transfusion but they could've prevented this with a cookie -- or one less cookie, if only they had the intelligence to step outside their religion for 2 seconds in order to find out what they (from a dietary perspective) can do to prevent this from happening. This is a clear case of neglect leading to death and God has nothing to do with it --- and if he does, then I'm sure the parents won't mind spending the rest of their lives in prison for their beliefs. After all they were willing to kill their child for them.


If this isn't murder/manslaughter/child abuse, then I fail to see how anyone should be punished for murder if they simply claim "God told me to do it".


Disgusting. Vile. Cowardly.

Further:

Oh. So it's okay to perform CPR ....but wait! I thought if God wants her she's a goner and performing CPR to save her is just a sin. No? Do I have that wrong? But it would be a sin to take the child to emergency and let a doctor perform CPR, right? What a load of crap. People like this need to be sterilized.




Ahk

I think not going to a parenting class does not count as neglect. I see a doctor, even in the emergency room as another expert, useful but still voluntarily consulted. I stand by their choice to do the wrong thing, not because god told them to, but because I don't see my right/duty to stop them.

I understand blood transfusions are really helpful during a lot of fairly common medical procedures.

I'm no expert on the all time bestseller, so I'll bow to your expertise, but I think many religious people have advocated both reading for things implied and for beliefs not based purely on it.

I'm also curious about the cpr and the phrasing "as soon as the breath of life left" not so curious to look up details of belief, but if someone does I'd follow a link.

Sterilized lol, y'know they already have children so to mak't work you gotta kill their kids. People think differently, sometimes that makes them do dangerous things, personally I'll risk my immortal soul rather than my life on this issue, but I think the freedom to go the other way is worth something.

As a side note I believe there are people with similar anti-professional medicine values without god.

I see a difference between causing someone harm and not coming to their aid, or helping ineffectively.

My point is there belief in God's power to heal people directly caused the death of their child. My point is that religion is not always just harmless superstition.

So?  I am a trained EMT, but I don't stop at every fender bender and see if someone needs my help.  Failing to offer help is a lot different.