An East Tennessee woman convicted of child neglect in her teenage daughter’s cancer death is asking the state Supreme Court to declare that she is innocent because she relied on prayer to heal the girl.
Jacqueline Crank was sentenced to unsupervised probation after her 15-year-old daughter died of Ewing’s sarcoma in 2002.
Despite the light sentence, Crank has continued to pursue the case, arguing that faith-healing should be legal for everyone.
The Tennessee Supreme Court heard oral arguments in the case in Knoxville on Thursday.
State law makes it a crime to fail to provide medical care to children, but there is an exception for those who rely on prayer alone for healing. However, the Spiritual Treatment Exemption Act applies only to faith healing performed by an accredited practitioner of a recognized church or religious denomination.
In turning to prayer for her daughter’s healing, Crank relied on the advice of Ariel Ben Sherman, who called himself the girl’s “spiritual father.”
Testimony showed Sherman was accredited by the Universal Life Church, which will accredit anyone who fills out an application.
Damn this shit infuriates me!
And what the fuck is an "accredited practitioner" of fucking faith healing?
This is 2014 you superstitious inbred assholes!
You know if Tennessee would stop fearing religious people, and grow a pair, they could start charging these frauds with murder and believe you me suddenly all kinds of people would start receiving legitimate medical service for their health problems.
I swear the next person who dares to ask me what harm religion has done, is going to get hit so hard it will put bruises on their ancestors.
What is wrong with this picture? She wants faith-healing to be legalized, even though it didn't save her daughter? And yet there is effective treatment for Ewing's Sarcoma, and she denied her daughter the chance to live.
ReplyDeleteSo...just imagine if faith-healing WERE legally acceptable? Gee, what an easy way for caregivers (parents, spouses etc.) to get rid of an unwanted family member. Why, it would be like legalizing murder!
It is murder.
DeleteThe bottom line is the state is buying the story that this is God's fault. These "Christians" believe in a get out jail free card. If it is a good outcome it is God's grace, it it is a bad outcome is is God's will... When that is the basis for one's belief, then they do not have to take personal responsibility for anything. Funny how they ONLY apply this logic to "their" kind of christian.
You're saying she's a religious Crank?
ReplyDeleteKook or Nutcase work for me.
DeleteLeave it to Pat Robertson to clear away the cobwebs on this issue. The prayers did not work on this child because she enjoyed being sick. God let her be sick and die because that is what she enjoyed:
ReplyDeletehttp://freethoughtblogs.com/dispatches/2014/08/21/pat-robertson-explains-failed-healing-prayer/
"... bruises on their ancestors." Damn! I hope I never get in a fight with you. Then again, since I agree with almost everything you write, that probably won't happen.
ReplyDeleteWhat are you saying, Gryphen?
ReplyDeleteAre telling me these people don't care about their children?
If so, I have to agree.
Handling snakes and adding leeches, that's what they forgot. Or maybe called in a shaman. In an extreme case, sacrifice a virgin and have the sick person drink her blood.
ReplyDeleteAlso too, they could have tried praying in the Wordsalad dialect, don'tcha know.
In the case of people who are just plain nuts, the possibilities are endless.
Ewing's sarcoma is primarily bone cancer, and most often strikes teenagers. The long-term prognosis is grim, but the patient is in excruciating pain. "Medical attention" could at least meant helping to ease that pain as the cancer metastized through her bones.
ReplyDeleteImagine a parent watching her child in unbearable pain, and not doing everything possible to help her.
The God I know about has blessed mankind with brains and curiosity, so that scientists can develop more and better ways to help His children.
I don't think 75% cure rate long term is grim.
DeleteEwings has a close to 75% survivor rate. This so-called Mom gave her child a death sentence and no pain killers to ease that pain. Bone/marrow pain is some of the deepest, most painful type of pain.
ReplyDeleteThis was torture, even in cases where people do not choose treatment, no one chooses to die racked in pain.
Religion, just another excuse to commit child abuse and murder.
How's that "prayer" workin' out for you? You fucking BITCH.
ReplyDeleteI am so disgusted in these God fearing assholes that think their prayer works on anything.
As someone who fought my breast cancer with the best medicine I could find, I came to understand the power of prayer as a means of reaching spiritually for the healing the cytoxin and taxotere offered. I was not alone. But to deny the gift of healing to a child so you can be the hero is wrong. Her cancer is not about you. Totally selfish.
ReplyDeleteIt is not being a "hero", it is looking at science and facts, to make logical decisions. BTW I am a breast cancer survivor of 27 yrs and due to research I went for a lumpectomy and radiation because I looked at the scientific results of cures with my cancer.
DeleteIf she lived in Oregon she'd do jail time. We have one of those "prayer heals" churches in the Portland area. After a number of children died of medical conditions easily treated the legislature passed a law that they could be prosecuted. So far two couples - one that went on to have another child die!!! - we prosecuted, convicted of some form of homicide (can't remember details right now) and are in jail where they belong.
ReplyDeleteI must speak up for the Universal Life Church as I am ordained through their website. When I applied I had to swear to an oath to do no harm - it was SOP so I extrapolate the healer who claims their title through the ULC broke their vow. As always, it comes down to personal responsibility.
ReplyDeleteAs for the lady in Tennessee? She watched her child pass in agony and prayed. Not only were her prayers not answered but her Pastor, a man who is next to God in her mind and heart, played the victim blaming game. The Mom's prayers weren't devout enough or even more wonderful (because the kid is dead so can't defend herself) the child wanted to be sick, she enjoyed it, don't you know.
I feel for this lady. I wonder if this will put any cracks in her faith or if she'll just spackle over with lead paint to avoid feeling the heavy responsibility of killing her child.
As for anyone enjoying being sick? I took care of my husband as he battled cancer for 8 years. His most uttered phrase was "I'm sick and tired of being sick and tired." If you've never walked this walk you have no idea of what that means.
Connie
Not at all
DeleteFU
DeleteA child's brain is not developed enough for them to make the choice for themselves. 75% of people affected by this cancer live long happy lives, this girl also suffered bone cancer( one of the most painful types without painkillers because of her Mom's religion). So fuck you and your religion, this girl was not capable of making the choice.
FU Connie, her Mom's 'religious life" took away a 75% cure rate. Now talk to me about fucking facts not your imaginary monster talk.
DeleteIf the woman believed that prayer would fix her own daughter's cancer - makes me sick to think about it - then why doesn't she just pray that the courts will magically undo her sentence? Why appeal, why not just pray? Fucking hypocrites don't even believe what they profess to believe.
ReplyDeleteJust you wait until Cain't Get Right gets enamoured and his mom, the Wasilla Hillbilly gets in on the act. They'll fix it but right now they are both off living vibrantly, don'tcha know.
ReplyDeleteAtheists are assholes
ReplyDeleteYep, relying on medical professionals instead of voodoo witchdoctors to heal our loved ones makes us assholes for sure!
Deletewell that's a might kkkrystian of ya dipshit ..
Deletedomestic taliban piece of shit
why aren't ya in sunday school douch nozzle - too hungover from last night, too much fukin' and sukin' your trial husbands ? ya into gang bangin' in jezus kryst's name too ?
DeleteSorry if facts upset you. Much better to live your life in la-la land huh?
DeleteYs, how dare us suggest that Brisket Palin spreading her thighs in an alcohol altered state with willing male participants strolling around call it anything but a "coming to Jesus moment".
Deleteimirite?
And yet who's child is dead........
DeleteOh knock that shit off, the Universal Life Church came about as a loophole in how to make money off of people being ordained on a lark. I know, I belong to at 4 of them, I can marry people in 4 different "churches", legally, in fact, I can pat $100 and be a Bishop, it was all about evading taxes, which, in my mind, would make every idiot in TN join, including Garth Brooks
ReplyDeleteTap
Meanwhile, a single mother in Pennsylvania is being sent to jail for three years and imposed a $1000 fine for supplying her pregnant 16 year old daughter with an abortion causing agent because the nearest abortion facility was 75 miles away. I'd say the state is at fault, creating too many barriers to accessing clinics, entrapment.
ReplyDeleteBelief in superstitious nonsense is dangerous and can be deadly.
ReplyDeleteAnother Example of "The Lord Giveth, the Lord Taketh Away". Or is it just me or this woman is just plain crazy. She got away with murder, and is protesting? Well, by all means, grant her her wish. Put her, her husband, Pastor, and any "friends of the family" who didn't call child welfare in Jail.
ReplyDeleteWe had a case like this in Pennsylvania, and the couple let their first kid die, got a slap on the wrist, then went home, had another one, and let it die as well. "He's with Jesus", "He's in a better place", "It was God's will".
No, he's dead in a grave because of your stupidity. These deaths get to me because the kid has no say, is too young to consent, and has to accept a death sentence from those who "loved them most".
Oh the irony!
ReplyDeleteI have seen one too many beautiful children die of Ewings sarcoma - a very aggressive cancer.
It (and other childhood cancers) is the reason I no longer believe in a protective, loving god!!