DAVID RICE:
DR>> If these blokes had professed Satanism instead
DR>> of Christianity, every newspaper and TV reporter
DR>> in the nation would have crucified these parents.
DR>> The State would have sent the parents to prison
DR>> after a speedy trial for manslaughter. Somehow
DR>> these parents being Christians have made them
DR>> immune to the denunciation and criminal
DR>> procecution they deserve.

Dr. MARTIN GOLDBERG:
MG> I'm not sure. I've seen many times that "good
MG> christian practices" like the one you mention are
MG> condemned by other christians, including those in
MG> posts of power.

DAVID RICE:
Well, certainly. I guess I am concerned about the degree of denunciation and castigation. When the "McMartin Pre-school Molestation" witch-hunt was going on, there were no dead children, no history of dead children, and no physical evidence that any children had been molested (and some evidence that the allegations had been fabricated by a psychotic woman who had a history of making false claims). And the media had a circus; entire neighborhoods of thousands of citizens banded together under "Believe The Children" signs and protested the length of the trial, believing a cover-up was in process. Many folks wanted to lynch the defendants.

And yet we read in newspapers where actual bodies of dead children from Christians parents, who dies because of the beliefs of the parents, and we get eight seconds of news about it on the TV one night.

Dr. MARTIN GOLDBERG:
MG> I'd like to know the specifics of the thing. it may be
MG> that the first two went before the state knew about it.
MG> I know that shit goes down every day but this rings of
MG> only knowing half the story. surely someone in this
MG> state will file suit prventing any mroe deaths umntil
MG> the thing can be reviewed.

DAVID RICE:
That's not how it works. The "Child Protection Act" protects parents who allow their children to die, as long as the parents pray at their children. This is considered "alternate treatment." Every state in the Union must either abide by this Act or forfit federal funding to fight against child abuse (the irony has not been lost on child advocates). If a State prosecutes Christians who provided this "alternate treatment," the state could be found to violate the Act, and federal funds may be revoked.

There have been at least six cases in California, and two in Colorado, where Christian parents of dead children were not even brought to trial. Still other cases in California and Colorado, where the parents did go to trial, they were found not guilty because they had prayed at their children.

A book on the subject, called "Deadly Blessings," is published by "Prometheus Books."

... A god is only as capable as its inventor. -- Robert Curry