The image above was taken by the Clackamas County Sheriff’s Office. In it, Rebecca Wyland is holding Alayna, who has a massive growth completely covering her left eye. The growth, a hemangioma, is a mass of blood vessels. Some infants are born with them, and they are typically corrected while very small. In this case, the Wylands chose not to take their daughter to a doctor. Instead, Rebecca Wyland anointed her daughter with oil and wiped off the discharge from Alayna’s eye each time she changed the child’s diaper.
At this point, the growth has begun to erode Alayna’s eye socket, and may have caused permanent damage to her eye.
Both parents have been charged with first-degree criminal mistreatment, a Class C felony which may earn them each five years in prison.
Meanwhile, the Wylands are trying desperately to regain custody, even offering a plan to ensure the child gets medical care, including such ideas as a live-in supervisor of sorts, or regular visits from state employees to check up on them.
Secular Daily News: The True Face of Faith Healing
(via OVO)
August 1, 2010 at 8:01 pm
Sigh. We tend to get so polarized about such things. This is not the true face of faith healing, this is the true face of stupidity. Faith healing works…now and then. The problem is being too caught up in your faith, with a little ego thrown in, so that you don’t happen to notice when healing doesn’t accompany faith. …and, oh yeah, and if your faith is that strong, heal YOURSELF with it. One might argue that believing your faith is so strrong that you will stake SOMEONE ELSE’s life on it could be seen as spiritual arrogance. …but faith healing has it’s place as long as one realizes that practicing faith healing WITHOUT ACCOMPANYING MEDICAL CARE is sorta like trying to substitute your will for God’s will and isn’t really very humble or Christian. It’s also sort of like the old joke about flying — if you think you can fly, try it from the ground, don’t jump off of a cliff. Now, some might argue that the commitment and sincerity involved in jumping of the cliff is important, but it still comes down to not making such decisions for other people — jump off the cliff if you want to, but don’t throw your kids.
August 2, 2010 at 2:24 am
Come now, what’s the harm?