The story is a componding of sadness onto sadness. In their own culture it could be said that God sent angels and prophets to them with the advice they needed to help their daughter. In their arrogance, feeling that God alone would intercede, they allowed her to die. They need to re-read the story of Elisha and Naaman.
And now, they will be jailed for a long time simply because they would not accpet the responsibilities of parenting. Sad upon sad.

You’re almost right jestrfyl, actually they did accept responsibilities of parenting, but they followed the Bible to the letter and this is what they got…..a daughter that died because they believed she was having an attack by the devil and praying would heal her, and although she kept growing weaker they thought it was because she was being attacked spiritually, and probably encouraged her to let go of her sins and God would heal her. She should be alive now and taking her RX for diabetes, but her body is dead.
I hope they receive many years of time, and that someone will counsel them for a better understanding of the Christian faith.

I’m glad they were charged. They are guilty of criminal superstition and criminal stupidity; criminal because someone was seriously harmed by it.
They should go to jail for a good long time so they can’t harm anyone again and because society normally tries to protect itself by punishing those who cause harm.

This is what happens when people “drink the Kool-Aid” and become so drunk on it that they can’t see!! This child died for no reason except her parent’s totally blind belief in a god to rescue her from a “spiritual attack”. The fact that they ignored those folks who were obviously wiser, and telling them to take her to the doctor/hospital, is unreal. They deserve to be punished. I wonder what they think of their god now!

“I wonder what they think of their god now!”
The fallback position is well prepared; it’s not “God”, it’s the “devil”.
“One relative told police that the girl’s mother believed she “died because the devil is trying to stop Leilani from starting her own ministry,” the complaint said.”
So I doubt these people can be rehabilitated; the Kool-Aid has entered all the cells in their brains.

Pagansister the sad part is that they said to the press in WI that they think their daughter died because their faith wasn’t deep enough for God to heal her. They said this a day or so after she died. At that time that is what they thought of God. They must be very confused, and their children left with others must be confused also. They need consuling desperately.

“…..the sad part is that they said to the press in WI that they think their daughter died because their faith wasn’t deep enough for God to heal her.” Henrietta
You’re right, it is incredibly sad.

ps -
“Incredibly sad” is perhaps the best description of this whole thing.
And you quoted Henrietta: “…..the sad part is that they said to the press in WI that they think their daughter died because their faith wasn’t deep enough for God to heal her.”
Well, the sad part is that an innocent girl died: another virgin sacrificed at an altar.
They said that their faith wasn’t deep enough for God to heal her, and that’s correct. You see, God has faith in doctors, and they presumed to tell God that he is wrong to have that faith.

“You see, God has faith in doctors…..” DeaconScott
Yes, they obviously didn’t seem to know that!

These parents deserved to be charged and I hope punished. Its sad that such a thing could have been prevented by probably one DR visit. What scares me is that there are many people out there like this. I mean they never ever considered takeing her to see a doctor. Sad!

Read yesterday they have a 450,000 bond on them until their trial.

Jay -
Greetings! I don’t think I’ve met you before. You said:
“These parents deserved to be charged and I hope punished.”
That raised for me a question I thought about some when the story first broke a few weeks ago. Several on these lists were calling for stiff penalties for the parents: life imprisonment, death penalty, and so on. That made me wonder why impose such penalties in an instance such as this.
That is: for what purpose? What good would severe punishment to them accomplish? Death in prison, ten years from now with needles in their arms, or forty years from now in the prison infirmary – what good would it do? What beneficial outcome would be brought about?
Surely not deterrence: others who might kill their children under comparable circumstances wouldn’t be fazed by this couple’s sentence, however heavy. And surely not to deter this couple to future, similar crimes: once their children are removed permanently from their clutches (which I almost certain to happen), there is no one else to whom they would be a danger. To prevent them from having other children to victimize? Holding the mother until menopause would accomplish that: say, fifteen years. And hold father too, for fairness.
The parents will understand the egregiousness of their inhumanity to their child, someday, or they won’t, and I really don’t think – given this couple’s motives – that living or dying in prison would make that metanoia experience more likely or more quick.
So why? I really mean this as a real question. The motivations for this particular crime are so “out there,” and seem to me to be so undeterrable and intractable to “rehabilitation” (whatever that means in criminal justice anymore), that I really wonder what good punishment might do, and why we cry out for it.
Jay, obviously this is not directed especially at you, although it is addressed to you. All: might we be able to have a real conversation about what justice might look like, in this instance?

I can’t remember anyone on these postings asking for the parents to be given death, or life. What I remember is that most of us think that time should be given to them. Why? Because up until this case children have been dying because of the interpretation of religious faith by the parents of these children. In WI, one Church has a cemetary that has 75 children buried there, and 40 some died from diseases that could have been treated and weren’t. This is just one state. I find this shocking, and I really believe if these parents both in Oregon and WI have to do time that other extreme-religious parents will certainly take heed and use some intelligence about taking their children to the medical place of choice. My own personal feelings is that these people will suffer all their lives, in prison, and out of prison. We have laws in this country that are supposed to cover all children from abuse and death. They did not obey our countrys’ laws. These people and people like them say; God’s law is first, not the country I’m living in. A good illustration is the FLDS.

Henrietta -
I thought I remembered someone suggesting the death penalty in the comments on the other story a couple of weeks ago. I may have remembered wrong (it may have been on some newsfeed or another and not here), but I do distinctly remember some calling for extremely long prison terms.
I agree completely with your remark, “that these people will suffer all their lives, in prison, and out of prison.” That is, if they “get it,” that they murdered their child for no reason (certainly no reason God would smile upon); either that or they never do “get it,” in which case, no amount of punishment of any kind will bring that about. Since they then would be incapable of comprehending any purpose, fair or unfair, for their imprisonment.
So yes, because “they did not obey our country’s laws,” consequences: prison. But to what end? for what purpose? And for how long? Until they feel guilty? (that is, “penitent” – which was the theory of prison reform in the 19th Century, and why prisons came to be called “penitentiaries.”)
Ordinary murderers understand why they are being punished, and many, in their heart of hearts, understand that it is just. Those who kill because they’re crazy are incarcerated until they’re not-crazy (if that ever happens, and sometimes it does). But what of not-crazy persons like these, who kill for moral, not immoral or amoral, reasons?

This kind of religious fervor is a mental illness. I wonder if that could be argued in court?

DeaconScott, First of all I don’t think of this couple as murderers. Their interpretation of what God expected of them caused them to believe that He, God, would heal their daughter because of their deep faith, and expectation from reading scripture telling them this is what would happen. This is wrong thinking and they need proper counseling by clergy and Medical Drs. to reprogram their spiritual interpretations. I think that time in prison for this couple and the other couple, would be a deterrent for other radical religious mothers and fathers to rethink how they treat their sick children. I don’t think anyone has served time for this offense, because of the Religious Freedom thing. This is the time. Any clergy in the U.S. that preaches and encourages what they did should get some counseling themselves by other clergy and stop doing this. Their actions led to their daughters death, but it wasn’t their intention for this to happen. I know that many people think prison isn’t a deterrent, and maybe it isn’t in all cases, but to many people it is, and it has shown this.

Just noticed that I got the states mixed up in one of my posts. The state that had a church cemetary with 75 children, etc. was in Oregon, not WI. The little girl, Kara, was in WI.
I would hope that the imprisonment for these parents wouldn’t be more than a couple of years, and that counseling be included with the sentence. If it were shorter it wouldn’t be much of a deterrent to any others like them. Hopefully others would seek counseling for their families when they hear of the Neumans rec. theirs. To let our sympathies rule our heads and let this go, as it has in the past, is a distortion of “Freedom of Religion”, as it was meant to be.

My mom told me once, that when she was camping as a little girl, she witnessed a car run over another little girl in the road. The driver immediately got out to help, and tried calling paramedics, but the parents refused any medical help for their child.
My mom watched in horror as the family stood there, praying their daughter would miraculously become healed. Needless to say, the child died soon thereafter.
Such a tragic situation like this could have been prevented, had the parents gotten the help their child desperately needed. God wants us to be protectors of our children, and that includes helping to prevent their deaths.

They treated their daughter like property