Faith healing, or faith killing?

Susan M. Grady, who tried to heal her son from diabetes with prayer, and paid for her ignorance wih her son's life, has been charged, rightly, with neglect.

Susan M. Grady, 42, formerly of Broken Arrow, prayed with others over her son, Aaron Gregory Grady, when he became ill on June 2, 2009, according to an affidavit filed Tuesday in Tulsa County District Court. His condition worsened, and he died June 5, according to the affidavit.

Apparently, she never even thought about taking him to the doctor.

Susan Grady told detectives that she did not consider taking Aaron to the doctor. She told them that “I was trying to live by faith and I felt like God would heal him,” according to the affidavit.

What surprised me was that it seems that her deluded beliefs are accommodated, to an extent, by the law.

Oklahoma statutes allow parents to rely on prayer to try to heal their children up to the point that the child’s life is in danger or may face “permanent physical damage.”

According to the law, it is a misdemeanor if parents refuse to obtain care and a felony if the child dies.

If parents refuse to seek medical help for their children, the courts can intervene on the child’s behalf.

Meanwhile, her pastor remains unrepentant that leading Grady to ignore medicine resulted in the death of a child.

“We just preach faith,” said church leader Earl Weir. “It (the Bible) says to give your all. The whole church believes that way.”

Asked why that teaching requires a total denial of medical help even when an illness becomes serious or fatal, Weir said, “That’s everybody’s opinion. We’ve had the doctors kill people.”

In this case, clearly, it was OK that God decided to kill the boy himself. Can't this sham of a preacher be charged too?