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Faith healers plead not guilty to criminal mistreatment of their infant daughter
Two members of an Oregon City faith-healing church were charged Thursday with first-degree criminal mistreatment for failing to provide medical care for their infant daughter.
Timothy and Rebecca Wyland pleaded not guilty during a brief appearance before Clackamas County Circuit Judge Robert D. Herndon and were released without bail.
Cult of ChristianityThe Followers of Christ Church is, theologically a cult of ChristianitySociologically the church may have cultic aspects as well.Note the differences between sociological and theological definitions of the term ‘cult’As a result of its unbiblical teachings and practices the church has left a trail of dead children in its wakeThe term ‘faith healing’ refers to healing that occurs supernaturally — as the result of prayer rather than the use of medicines or the involvement of physicians or other medical care.But while faith healings do take place today just as they did in the early Christian church, the teachings of some churches, movements and individuals on this subject amount to spiritual abuse.Legitimate churches and movements do not equal using drugs or receiving proper medical attention with unbelief, insufficient faith, or otherwise sinning against God.Research resources on faith healingCommentary/resources by ReligionNewsBlog.comThe charges were expected. During a custody hearing last week, a prosecutor disclosed that the Wylands had been indicted by a grand jury.
Child-protection authorities took custody of the couple’s 7-month-old daughter, Alayna, after she developed a growth over her left eye that ballooned over several months to the size of a tennis ball and threatens her vision.
The Wylands did not speak in Thursday’s hearing. Rebecca Wyland previously testified that she anointed Alayna with oil but never considered taking her daughter to a doctor.
[...]Alayna is in temporary custody of the Oregon Department of Human Services and lives in a foster home while medical professionals treat her condition and develop a care plan. The child welfare agency placed the girl in protective custody June 30 after receiving an anonymous tip that she was in peril.
[...]The Wylands are members of the Followers of Christ, a congregation that rejects doctors and favors spiritual treatments such as anointing with oil, prayer and laying on of hands.
Under Oregon law, it is a crime for parents to intentionally and knowingly withhold necessary and adequate medical attention from their children. First-degree criminal mistreatment is a Class C felony punishable by up to five years in prison.
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The Wylands are the third couple from Followers of Christ Church to face charges in a year.
They are accused of allowing a growth of blood vessels the size of a tennis ball to cover the eye of their 7-month-old daughter, jeopardizing her vision.
The couple’s church shuns professional medical help in favor of such rituals as anointing the sick with oil – as Rebecca Wyland has told a judge she did with her daughter.
The mass of blood vessels is called a hemangioma. A doctor has testified in a custody hearing that the growth pushed the child’s eyeball down and outward.
[...]A cluster of criminal prosecutions in recent years has followed decades of contention in Oregon over the Followers of Christ, whose early members had roots in Pentecostalism and came from Kansas under a charismatic leader in the 1930s.
The state medical examiner’s office has estimated that in the past 30 years, more than 20 children of church members have died of preventable or curable conditions.
In 1999, after intense debate, the Legislature ended a spiritual healing defense, allowing parents to be prosecuted. Since then, Clackamas County officials have investigated a few deaths of newborns.
The deaths of two relatives in 2008 led to prosecutions.
In March 2008, 15-month-old Ava Worthington died of pneumonia and a blood infection that doctors said could have been treated. Her parents, Raylene and Brent, were acquitted last summer of manslaughter charges. Brent Worthington was convicted of criminal mistreatment and served two months in jail.
In June 2008, 16-year-old Neil Beagley died of complications from a congenital urinary tract blockage, treatable up to the day he died, in the opinion of doctors. His parents, Jeff and Marci, were convicted of criminally negligent homicide and are serving 16-month sentences. They are the parents of Raylene Worthington.
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