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From: rjb@akgua.UUCP (R.J. Brown [Bob])
Newsgroups: net.religion
Subject: Government vs. Religion, Indiana Style
Message-ID: <818@akgua.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 7-Jun-84 13:16:05 EDT
Article-I.D.: akgua.818
Posted: Thu Jun  7 13:16:05 1984
Date-Received: Sat, 9-Jun-84 07:48:43 EDT
Organization: AT&T Technologies/Bell Labs, Atlanta
Lines: 91




Subject: - UPI Article on "82 have died at cult based on faith
	   healing"

Quoted in part without permission...

Fort Wayne, Ind. - "Seventeen more deaths have occcurred among members
of the Faith Assembly, a northern Indiana sect that urges its members
to avoid doctors and rely on faith for healing, newspaper documents show

The sect has averaged about one preventable death a month since 1978,...

...several infant deaths following unattended deliveries.

Dan Foley, administrative assistant to the attorney general...
`Until officials take the bull by the horns and say enough is enough
,we respect your religious 
beliefs but they are not your children's beliefs, those deaths are
going to continue.'
`It's one thing to have religious immunity for yourself. Men and women
make that decision every day.  Our feeling is children are put in the
position of not having the information, the experience, the knowledge,
the age, the experience to make those decisions.'

A new law took effect Friday (ED. in Indiana) which requires parents 
with religious objections to medical care to report their children's
illnesses to child welfare officials.

Foley said Atty. Gen'l Linley Pearson is convinced prosecutors can file
criminal charges against parents who refuse to give their 
children medical care."

*******************************************************************

Looking at the way totaltarians view children in society is very in-
structive relative to the Indiana Law.  Hitler maintained 
that children
belonged to the state and that is also a well established principle
in the "Constitution" (gag, choke) of the USSR.

Who "owns" my kids ?  I believe that the Government DOES NOT own my
children and neither do I.  My wife and I are stewards of my three
boys and we WILL answer to God for our stewardhip.  I will resist
on almost any level I can the Government interference in that
stewardship.

Healing - I believe that all healing whether miraculous or medical
comes from God.  He designed our bodies to be well.  The only qualif-
ier I put on "healing" is that it not be occultic or satanic in
nature.  My personal test for that would be "Is God getting the Glory
for the healing ?" and "Is any Fruit of the Spirit being manifested ?"
Glorifying the Lord and producing the Fruit of the Spirit are two
things the devil won't do and can't do respectively.


If you look at the quotes from the Indiana official you can hear the
echoes of the Third Reich loud and clear.

I think Faith Assembly folks are wrong in their position to reject
all medical help but they should have that right.

The sticky problem is we allow the Government (usually state or local)
to intrude in cases of overt "child abuse" like battering and sexual
misconduct and once in the arena the Government tends to redefine the
term "abuse".  I think that's the case in the Indiana situation.

Pamela Hamilton, the young Tennessee girl with cancer, had a similar
experience over the past year with court ordered chemotherapy.
Her father, a minister in another similar sect, made remarks
reminiscent of the German experience "They came for the
Jews and I was not a Jew so I did nothing.."

I urge opposition to these laws even though it opens up the probability
that innocent children will suffer because of parental foolishness.

Freedom, to be meaningful, must include the freedom to be badly wrong
even to the detriment of others. 
Of course there are accountability systems
built into our society ( courts etc.) so that we have that razor edge
balance between freedom and responsibility.

Your Turn

Bob Brown {...ihnp4!akgua!rjb}
AT&T Technologies, Inc.............. Norcross, Ga
(404) 447-3784 ...  Cornet 583-3784