Family members of a faith-healing couple accused of neglecting their baby girl’s medical needs defended them in court Thursday.

The Wylands are charged with first-degree criminal mistreatment for failing to provide medical care to Alayna, now 17 months old. State child-welfare workers took custody of the girl in July to treat the growth, called a hemangioma, that covered her left eye and spread into her eye socket. Doctors testified that the expanding mass was threatening her eyesight.

As the trial of two cult members accused of medical neglect of their daughter continues, a doctor testified the girl has permanent developmental damage to her eye and may require surgery.

Defense attorneys in turn argued that the parents are the victims of both religious discrimination and an overly aggressive bureaucracy that snatched heir daughter.

The Followers of Christ Church has left a trail of dead children in its wake.

The trial of Timothy and Rebecca Wyland for the medical neglect of their now 18-months-old daugher got underway last Friday.

belong to the Followers of Christ Church, a cult of Christianity whose extreme faith healing beliefs and practices have left a trail of dead children in its wake.

Jury selection for two more members of the Followers of Christ Church is set to begin Tuesday, a day after the Oregon Senate passed a bill to crack down on faith-healing parents who don’t take their children to the doctor.

Tim and Rebecca Wyland are the third set of parents who belong to the Oregon City church who will stand trial for not getting their child medical attention.

Oregon is on the brink of ending the legal protection for parents who rely on faith healing instead of seeking medical care for their children.

House Bill 2721 was sparked by the heavily publicized deaths of children whose families belong to an Oregon City church, the Followers of Christ.

An Oregon City couple convicted of criminally negligent homicide in the death of their teenage son will be released from prison on Wednesday.

Jeff and Marci Beagley were found guilty last year of failing to seek medical help for their 16-year-old son, Neil, who died in June 2008. The young man died of kidney failure after developing a urinary tract infection.

The Oregon House approved a bill Thursday that would remove legal protection for parents who choose faith healing over medical intervention when treating their children.

Oregon lawmakers will take the first step today toward ending legal protections for parents who rely solely on faith to treat their dying children.

House Bill 2721 eliminates reliance on spiritual treatment as a defense to certain crimes in which the victim is under 18 years of age.

Timothy and Rebecca Wyland, a couple at the center of a faith healing case, wants to regain custody of their daughter.

The medically preventable deaths of children of church members and two high-profile trials about those parents’ culpability – and indirectly, any blame that might fall to the church – has put a spotlight on the Followers of Christ Church, which believes only in faith healing when it comes to life-and-death situations.

Now, a former member of the church has come forward to shed some light on what church members’ lives are like under the tight control church leaders exert over their followers.

Oregon’s Department of Human Services on Tuesday won custody of a child who faced blindness in one eye after her parents treated her with prayer instead of seeking medical care.

The girl’s parents, Timothy and Rebecca Wyland, face criminal charges for failing to provide adequate care.

Timothy and Rebecca Wyland are accused of allowing a mass of blood vessels to grow over their daughter’s eye, jeopardizing her vision.

The Wylands are members of the Followers of Christ church, which relies on faith-healing rituals to treat illness instead of medical care.

The Hickmans are members of the Followers of Christ, an Oregon City congregation that practices faith healing and rejects medical treatment.

They are charged with second-degree manslaughter in the death of their newborn son.

Two members of a church that preaches faith-healing pleaded not guilty Monday to manslaughter charges for failing to provide medical care to their infant son, who died shortly after his premature birth.

Dale and Shannon Hickman are the third couple identified as members of the Followers of Christ Church to face criminal charges in the death of a child during the past two years.

An Oregon City couple will face charges of second-degree manslaughter in the faith-healing death of their newborn son, the third such fatality involving the Followers of Christ church in the past two years.

The state medical examiner’s office reported after a series of similar incidents in the 1990s that more than 20 children of church members had died in recent decades from preventable or curable illnesses.

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