Another church that REFUSES BLOOD TRANSFUSIONS - in certain ways

by Rabbit 8 Replies latest watchtower medical

• 

  Rabbit

  Has anyone else heard of this before ? I thought ONLY JW's were this stupid. With this church, they cannot accept "A Strangers blood..."

  http://www.mysanantonio.com/sharedcontent/APStories/stories/D8AIHDR01.html

  CPS accuses family of neglecting girl's medical care

  06/07/2005

  Associated Press

  State Child Protective Services is going to court to try to get custody of a 12-year-old Agua Dulce girl it says isn't getting the treatment she needs for advanced Hodgkin's disease.

  Doctors at Driscoll Children's Hospital say Katie Wernecke needs continued chemotherapy and radiation therapy, but her father, Edward Wernecke, is worried that more treatment will have harmful long-term effects on his daughter and wants an opinion from doctors outside Driscoll.

  He also said he and his wife, Michele, don't want the treatments to continue at Driscoll because of religious beliefs that oppose blood transfusions unless they are from Katie's mother. Doctors at the hospital told the Corpus Christi Caller-Times that Katie's mother wasn't a match.

  Robert Rosetti, program director over investigations at the CPS Nueces County office, told the newspaper that when parents' religious beliefs conflict with medical recommendations, CPS will honor the religious beliefs if they are a "consistent" tradition within a known denomination.

  "But when you have an individual interpreting, that's a different story," Rosetti said.

  Edward Wernecke is a member of the Church of God.

  A court hearing is set for June 15 and the question of church doctrine is one of several matters to be considered.

  Rosetti said the state agency believes the parents are being "medically neglectful."

  Wernecke said he wanted a second opinion from a doctor outside of Driscoll to be certain radiation treatment was necessary for his daughter. Rosetti said doctors from the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston would provide consultation before the girl receives radiation treatment.

  CPS caseworkers interviewed doctors about the Wernecke case last week after an anonymous tip. An Amber Alert was issued for the girl after CPS tried to gain custody of the girl on Thursday and Friday.

  Nueces County sheriff's officers found the girl and her mother at a family ranch near Freer on Saturday. She is now with a nurse, Rosetti said. The Wernecke's three sons were placed in a foster home.

  Michele Wernecke was arrested on charges of interfering with child custody and was released Monday after posting $50,000 bond.

  Dr. Judith Mullins, a pediatric oncologist at Driscoll, said chemotherapy and radiation do pose long-term health effects, but said halting treatment prematurely leads to a greater risk of death. Officials are prohibited from discussing Katie's treatment because of health privacy laws.

  
  
  Rabbit
• 

  garybuss

  Quote:

  "End Time Ministries focused on teachings of one person to the exclusion of the past or the whole gospel," Hagan says. "You have a leader who said you need to dress this way, need to commune together, our children must be taught together. We can't see physicians, God will heal us. Those teachings were seen as a voice from God through one person."

  Freedom to believe led Cutler into the group at age 17 and then out again after she learned of a dozen deaths where victims were denied care. That list included her own daughter, Libby Cooke, born in December 1978. The child had underdeveloped lungs, but the parents refused to call for help, believing God would heal her. Libby died in four days."It's a bitter lesson, but I try not to be bitter myself," Cutler says. "I will never forget what Charles Meade did to influence my ex-husband during that time to prevent us from getting medical care. I think that was incredibly cruel and totally unnecessary."

  When Libby died, the ministry monitored Cutler, then known as Joni Cooke, for improper signs of grief. She was not permitted to know where the baby was buried and learned only with a cousin's help years later that the grave was in the Hills of Rest cemetery.

  http://www.rickross.com/reference/endtimes/endtimes37.html
• 

  garybuss

  
  More:

  A Columbia County couple belonging to a faith healing religious group were each sentenced to five years probation today, two months after they were convicted of felony child abuse.

  Guillermo and Luz Hernandez, of Little Road, were convicted after a jury ruled the parents medically neglected their one-year-old daughter, Sonia Hernandez, who died of pneumonia in September 1990.

  The girl was suffering from a severe case of cerebral palsy. She was blind, deaf and couldn't walk or talk. She weighed 14½ pounds at the time of her death.

  The Hernandezes are members of End Time Ministries, a Lake City religious sect, which believes that only God can heal, doctors can't.

  http://www.rickross.com/reference/endtimes/endtimes12.html
• 

  No Apologies

  Very odd and sad. But this quote is interesting:

  Robert Rosetti, program director over investigations at the CPS Nueces County office, told the newspaper that when parents' religious beliefs conflict with medical recommendations, CPS will honor the religious beliefs if they are a "consistent" tradition within a known denomination.
  

  "But when you have an individual interpreting, that's a different story," Rosetti said.

  Does anyone else find the idea of the government determining if an individual's "interpretation" of his beliefs is "consistent" with that of a "known denomination" vaguely disturbing? If it's my religion, I should be able to interpret it however I want!

  No Apologies(of the 1st Amendment fan class)
• 

  Rabbit

  No apology,

  I thought that was odd, too. What makes a religion "known?" Her mather was arrested on Friday after an Amber Alert went out...they fled to keep from having treatment. Sound familiar ?

  Gary,

  Did you see any kind of link to JW's in the past ? Or with that particular "Church of God" ?

  It seems really odd they would pick up a dub belief, then change it to refusing only a "strangers blood". I could not find where their church penalized them for going against their doctrine.

  Rabbit
• 

  Will Power

  like russell, after 100 years of people following some person's imterpretation - they get a legal license to be a "known DEMONination"
  
  and known by whom? other sheeplike non-thinkers? Yes, that makes it all more credible.
  
  OK, the kid should die?
  
  yikes
  
  sorry - just finished the BLOOD chapter in Franz's In Search Of Christian Freedom. - These laws create whackos that do not live their life by love for one another.
  
  will p
• 

  garybuss

  You wrote:

  Did you see any kind of link to JW's in the past ? Or with that particular "Church of God" ?
  
  No. The Charles Mead group is notable to me because they had a core group here before they moved to Florida. They have always been an interest to me due to their medical treatment views. They are not so removed from the Witnesses. They just took it to the next level. They are like Witnesses in that they sit and watch their children (and adults) die from lack of medical treatment.
  
  I'd MUCH rather my sons were Witnesses than with the Mead group.
  
  
• 

  darkuncle29

  Does anyone else find the idea of the government determining if an individual's "interpretation" of his beliefs is "consistent" with that of a "known denomination" vaguely disturbing? If it's my religion, I should be able to interpret it however I want!

  an individual's "interpretation" of his beliefs

  I agree with your statement: My beliefs are for ME and ME alone. This really bothers me. I do not believe that any government should have this kind of personal control/influence.
• 

  EvilForce

  Nothing is of a higher cause than dying for one's belief. What a bunch of shite. I HATE all these groups. Morons.