Good News: Student-Led Graduation Prayers are A-OK

Family News in Focus Campaign helps teens and faculty recognize their First Amendment rights.

 

Every year about this time, the American Civil Liberties Union and others threaten to bring lawsuits against any school that allows students to share their faith or pray at graduation. The Liberty Counsel has launched the Friend or Foe campaign to help students and faculty recognize their rights and responsibilities. “The campaign is designed to educate and, if necessary, to litigate to make sure that prayer and religious viewpoints are not censored," said Mat Staver, founder of Liberty Counsel. The ground rules are simple: Any prayer that is student-initiated and student-led is perfectly legal. Bruce Hausknecht, judicial analyst for Focus on the Family Action, said every case that goes through the courts only adds to the confusion. Educational campaigns like Friend or Foe are needed to clear things up, he said. FOR MORE INFORMATION Visit the Liberty Counsel Web site.

Some of you may have heard this news report, as my local headlines made national news at the end of March.  I didn't blog about it at the time because it hit far too close to home for me, but today there was a press conference announcing that two parents will be charged with 2nd degree reckless homicide in the death of their 11 year old daughter Kara.

 

Parents Charged in Death of Daughter: http://www.waow.com/News/index.php?ID=24340

DA: Parents Were Aware Girl Could Die: http://www.wausaudailyherald.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080428/WDH0101/80428118/1981 

 

This little girl suffered from untreated type 1 diabetes.  Her parents chose to pray over her rather than seek medical attention, which resulted in her going into a coma due to diabetic ketoacidosis.  She died on Easter Sunday.  Reports have said that she had not been to a doctor since the age of 3, and had been pulled from her public school before Christmas 2007.  Teachers had noticed her constant thirst and need to use the bathroom at that point, so it's likely able to be proven that it was not something that came about overnight.  The girl's aunt in California contacted local authorities because she was concerned; the actual 911 call came not from the parents, but from friends of the parents. 

 

The delay in the decision to press charges is due to the issue of religion, and that of the "religious defense".  The family's right to religious freedom and how they parent is significant in this case.  There currently is a Wisconsin statute that protects parents from prosecution if they fail to protect children from bodily harm through treatment of prayer.  The DA feels this law doesn't apply because it resulted in Kara's death.

 

Below is a link to the various news articles related to her death....there are far too many for me to post each individually, but there are many disturbing things surrounding the circumstances of her death.

 

The Death of Kara Neumann: http://wausaudailyherald.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/99999999/WDH0101/80325198&theme=WDHNEUMANN&template=theme

 

While I have only posted the basics to the case, there is obviously going to be a lot of speculation.  It's going to be very emotionally charged and a very public case.  I have questions about how they are going to find an impartial jury....What I do know is that I would be excused with prejudice if I were called upon to be on the jury for this case.  Why?

 

I have had Type 1 Diabetes for a little over 23 years.  I am one person who would be able to attest to the incredible suffering this girl endured during her last days, weeks, and months.  But even I don't understand because I've never been in diabetic ketoacidosis.  A high blood sugar is something awful....you experience such severe thirst and nausea, extreme fatigue....what she went through is 10 times worse than the worst high blood sugar I've ever experienced.  Imagine a time you physically felt at your worst and multiply it by 10, or more.  This little girl's body shut down because it couldn't handle the toxins in her system - something that could have been remedied by simply going to the doctor.  Would she have gotten through it without long term complications?  I don't know...but would she still be alive?  Yes.  For diabetics, insulin is as necessary as the air we breathe and without it, WE WILL DIE.  It has nothing to do with being fat and lazy, it has nothing to do with diet and exercise.  The pancreas no longer functions and we have to take injections of insulin to assist our body in breaking down the food we eat.  Or WE WILL DIE.  Period.  Regardless of whether or not her parents knew she was diabetic, it was still apparent she was extremely ill.  This little girl did NOT have to suffer the way she did, and that's why this story has hit home for me.  I know only a small portion of the hell she went through, and to know that it was worse than that....just blows me away.  How can any parent sit by and watch their child waste away?  How could you watch your child be so ill they are unable to eat, drink, walk, move, even speak, and not do anything?!?!?  Why would you not call an ambulance when your child passed into a coma?  How could parents sit by and do nothing?  Correction: They prayed.

 

I do believe in prayer.  I believe prayer can do miraculous things.  I believe that prayer played a large part in bringing my friend nad's little girl home to her from the brink of death.  I believe that prayer played a large part in Nad herself fighting back from the brink of death.  I believe that prayer can do amazing things.  BUT.  I draw the line at believing prayer can heal a busted pancreas.  The girl's parents first say they don't affiliate with a specific religion, but then there are documents found linking the mother to an Unleavened Bread Ministries online ministry.  The website is called AmericasLastDays.com if you are interested.  In any event, while I don’t know anything about this particular ministry, I don’t believe that prayer will clear up such a serious medical condition.  I am perfectly willing to allow anyone to pray over my pancreas if they want to try to heal me.  I’d love to be wrong, but if I was, wouldn’t my diabetes have disappeared years ago?  I believe in praying for intangible things like strength, courage, hope.  If it is part of God’s plan that I am diabetic, I want the strength to take care of the disease properly so I can live as long as possible.  I do also feel for these parents in some respect.  It has been said that they believed prayer would heal their daughter and that this happened because they didn’t have enough faith.  Can you imagine having such a strong faith in something and believing as they did; now they have to live knowing or feeling their faith wasn’t strong enough to keep their daughter alive.  Were they misguided?  I feel they were, but I'll let you decide.  The following are excerpts from an article posted by the Associated Press (For the full article: http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/W/WI_PRAYER_DEATH_WIOL-?SITE=WIFON&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT)

 

Please tell me these statements aren’t those of people who were completely rational:

 

Leilani Neumann, 40, told AP previously she never expected her daughter to die. The family believes in the Bible, which says healing comes from God, but they are not crazy, religious people and have nothing against doctors, she said.

(Yet the site Mrs. Neumann wrote on, belonged to, affiliated with gives the following thoughts on modern medicine: http://www.americaslastdays.com/?page=roots)

 

Mrs. Neumann said she never considered taking the girl, a straight-A student who was being home-schooled, to a doctor.

 

"We just thought it was a spiritual attack and we prayed for her. My husband Dale was crying and mentioned taking Kara to the doctor and I said, 'The Lord's going to heal her and we continued to pray,'" the mother said in a written statement to police.

 

On the day the girl died, the parents were told the body would be taken to Madison for an autopsy on March 24. "They responded, 'You won't need to do that. She will be alive by then,'" the medical examiner wrote in a report.

 

The father, 46, told investigators he noticed his daughter was weak and slower for about two weeks but he attributed it to symptoms of the girl reaching puberty, the complaint said.

 

The girl's grandmother, Evalani Gordon, told police that she learned her granddaughter could not walk or talk on March 22 and advised Leilani Neumann to take the girl to a doctor.

 

Randall Wormgoor, a friend of the Neumanns, told police that Dale Neumann led Bible studies at his business, Monkey Mo Coffee Shop, and believed physical illness was due to sin, curable by prayer and by asking for forgiveness from God, the complaint said.

 

Wormgoor said he and his wife, Althea, were at the Neumann home when the girl died. Wormgoor said he urged the father to seek medical help and was told the illness "was a test of faith for the Neumann family and asked the Wormgoors to join them in praying for Kara to get well," the complaint said.

 

Althea Wormgoor said she "implored" the parents to seek medical help for the girl, the complaint said.

 

One relative told police that Kara's mother believed the girl "died because the devil is trying to stop Leilani from starting her own ministry," the complaint said.

 

Police Chief Vergin said the parents once belonged to the Lighthouse Pentecostal Church but they became what he called religious "isolationists" involved in a prayer group of five people.

"They have gone out on their own," he said. "Their views of the Bible are very, very narrow. They have a very narrow view of Scripture and I would say not many people hold to that narrow of view."

 

I recognize that posting this publicly could likely get some ignorant statements.  I also recognize that I may offend my friends who hold a very strong faith, and for that I sincerely apologize.  I will be the first to admit I have very limited knowledge of Scripture, so if there is a place in the Bible that validates what these parents did, then let their God judge them fairly.  I do welcome intelligent conversation; if there is anyone who feels they can explain the logic to me in why a parent would sit by and watch their child die in the name of faith, I’m willing to listen.  But right now, at this point....all I feel is sadness for this life lost, anger towards her parents who chose to not seek medical attention, and I ache for what this girl went through in her last days.

I'm still breathing slowly and deeply and still repeating the Bab("Gate")'s Remover of Difficulties prayer: "Is there any Remover of difficulties save God?   Say: Praised be God!  He is God!  All are His servants, and all abide by His bidding!"... but it looks like i finally have fixed my computer!... or should i say, with God's help, and perhaps, the help of God's computer savvy techie angels whispering in my ear... i've gotten my computer permanently online again.  My suspicion is that it was the Peer Guardian program which either on it's own or by having a virus attached to it had messed things up.  So... i think i'm going to go ahead and do without P. G. from now on... because that's the main program to no longer be present after having restored my computer to it's settings from about a month ago. 20 min and it's still ok, so it MUST be OK again, Praised be God, Ya Baha'u'l-Abha!  Thank you, thank you thank you Baha'u'llah, thank you God!    Before that i was afraid i might have to go as far as totally deleting everything and re-installing Windows (which is called respawning on Alienware computers) because apparently the school's techies were saying that's all that they could still do about it because of their saying it was probably a virus-- although now i'm almost certain it wasn't a virus (Olaf also assured me) but the Peer Guardian program not having worked properly... I think they just wanted an excuse to not spend a lot of time on it, since they don't get paid extra for helping the foreign teachers... Anyway... with that in mind i decided i'd better get a 2 GB flash drive (which i'd been wanting to get anyway) to back up the most important things before the afternoon, when the Techies might come-- but they never did... which is fine since i ended up fixing it myself (but very possibly with divine assistance!).     So i took my map and figured out which two busses would get me close to the Metro Supermarket (i didn't want to deal with a lot of looking around or haggeling plus the headsets (at least) there turned out to be cheaper than the ones i got at the computer market (by about 11RMB/US$1.50-- which you could buy 2 meals with at the student canteen).  The trip took me about 3 hours.  But it only cost me 4RMB for the whole trip instead of like maybe US$50 or so, if i'd gone by Taxis.   then i transfered my pics, my word docs and some of my music and web cam driver onto the flash drive-- i was wanting to back all that stuff up anyway.  It totally filled up the 2 GB!  And yeah then i fixed the issue (see above).  After that i read more in A Hat Full of Sky, then i actually cooked again!     Possibly with a slightly better result than the other day. Then i finished reading the book-- yay!-- while the left overs cooled off, then i put them away and cleaned up, -- Praise the Lord of All the Worlds! 

I hope to start up my own devotionals once i'm settled in Olympia!

Beyond Expectations: Weekly Gathering Surprises Hosts

COLUMBIA, SOUTH CAROLINA, United States
25 December 2007 (BWNS)

A couple of neighbors in this Southern city have been throwing a weekly "spiritual party" - a prayer meeting - and the reaction to it has surprised them.

"When the devotional gathering started, all our friends just came out of the woodwork," said James Benson Frush-Marple, who with his friend Jason Ritchie co-hosts the meetings at Mr. Ritchie's house.

"People who I never would have thought would be receptive to prayer were just energized by it," said Mr. Frush-Marple, 33, who is commonly known by his first initials, J.B.

For the rest of the article go here: http://www.bahaiworldnews.org/story/596

This prayer, revealed by 'Abdu'l-Baha, is great for everyone, all the time!

"O God!
Refresh and gladden my spirit.
Purify my heart.
Illumine my powers.
I lay all my affairs in Thy hand.
I will no longer be sorrowful and grieved;
I will be a happy and joyful being.
O God!
I will no longer be full of anxiety, nor will I let trouble harass me.
I will not dwell on the unpleasant things of life.
O God!
Thou art more friend to me than I am to myself.
I dedicate myself to Thee, O Lord."
                                                        --'Abdu'l-Baha

This is my new motto for life! From it i have created my own daily affirmation:
"O God!  I lay all my affairs in Thy hand.  I am a happy and joyful being. I dedicate myself to Thee, O Lord."