Extreme Faith

By Klym ~

I just read the article below on Yahoo. It is very, very sad and disturbing. This is an example of using religious faith in the most abusive way imaginable.

Worst Parents of the Week

Brandi Bellew's first husband, Brian Sprout, died of sepsis from a leg injury after failing to seek medical treatment, but still she wasn't moved to bring her son Austin, 16, to the hospital during the week he languished at home before he passed away last December. The Daily Mail reports the cause of death has not been released but investigators said it was "highly treatable."

According to the Register-Guard, Brandi and her second husband, Russel Bellew and their six other children, are members of the General Assembly of the Church and of the First Born in Pleasant Hill, Oregon, a congregation that believes in using prayer to treat illness.

On Monday, April 15, 2012, the county juvenile court ruled that the remaining children would be wards of the state. They can remain home but under the watch of an approved "safety provider" who is mandated to immediately notify the Department of Human Services if the children display any signs of illness or injury. The parents are facing charges of second-degree manslaughter.

A state caseworker revealed that Russel's first wife, Randi, is also deceased but of unknown causes. Her obituary reportedly said she was, "preceded in death by two daughters."

Austin's uncle, Shawn Sprout still hasn't lost the faith. "We trust in God for everything. We trusted him to take care of our illnesses and heal us…it wasn't in our hands," he told KVAL News.

I personally think that the remaining children should be removed from the home. Those parents will be masters at hiding any illness or injury from the state's caseworkers. As a school counselor, I have seen case after case of abuse that children were told to hide. I had a student once whose dad told her that if she she didn't tell anyone about the bruises all over her body, which her long sleeves and long pants hid, he would let her get her ears pierced and buy her earrings. Some parents will threaten children any number of ways to convince children to lie to caseworkers. This whole things just makes me sick to my stomach, and to think it was done by Bible believers somehow makes it even worse. I'm positive that the other children in that house are brainwashed to the maximum and probably believe that God took their brother away from them for some good "mysterious" reason. This is religion at its worst and most inhumane. How can we stop these kinds of things from happening? This is the kind of story that makes me lie awake at night wondering about humanity.

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