It’s been a mere three months since the parents of an Oregon City child were convicted for neglecting their infant on the basis of ‘faith healing’ (depending on prayer instead of necessary medical aid). However, another couple from the same church congregation are on trial for not only neglecting their son’s health, but letting him die without proper medical care. This marks the fourth case in two years where members of OC’s Followers of Christ church have gone to trial for refusing medical assistance for their child.

Here, Dale and Shannon Hickman, members of Followers of Christ church, turned to prayer when their premature baby with bacteria-infected lungs faced death. Refusing medical assistance, their 9-hour-old son, David, died. Now they face a potentially 5-week-long trial, starting today, in the Clackamas County Court.

This case follows the Oregon House’s March approval of a bill removing any legal protection for parents who rely on faith healing to medical care for their child. Instead of spiritual treatment being regarded a defense for all homicide charges, these devout parents will be subject to Oregon’s Measure 11 for manslaughter.

Out of the three previous cases, two led to manslaughter convictions — the other was let go based on the parents’ ‘misunderstanding‘. With this new law fully cemented in the system, it’s hard to see this undoubtedly drawn-out trial, chock full with testimonies from medical and religious representatives, going any other way.

Alex Zielinski is a former News Editor for the Portland Mercury. She's here to tell stories about economic inequities, cops, civil rights, and weird city politics that you should probably be paying attention...

6 replies on “Faith Healing Strikes Again”

  1. Man these guys are exactly what’s wrong with Oregon. Buncha assholes who moved up from California in the 1940s to take advantage of cheap land and pioneer libertarianism. Now they’re pissed off because there are too many people around, they can’t keep doing whatever they want whenever they want. Bullshit. Israel wandered the desert, didn’t wander no suburb of a major American city.

    Protip: real OG fundamentalist Christians don’t live in places where you have to fill out death certificates when the Lord takes children early.

  2. Alex, you are adorable and all, but your typos are getting really old. Now there’s one in the blog title-in a large bold font! It makes you look dumb. Stop it. And here’s a hug.

  5. I hope these stupid fuckers get sent to prison. If you take a close examination many of societies problems today, you might notice fundamentalist Christians are at the root with corporations being another big player. btw # 1 wtf are you talking about?

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