![]() ![]() They lay their hands on the sick person and anoint that person with olive oil. When a member of the church is sick, the elders are called to the home to pray over that person. Therefore confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another, and then you will be healed. The prayer offered in faith will save the sick man, the Lord will raise him from his bed, any sins he may have committed will be forgiven. Is one of you ill? He should send for the elders of the congregation to pray over him and anoint him with oil in the name of the Lord. The approximately 25,000 members of the Church of the First Born in the United States base their beliefs about faith healing on one passage from the Bible, the Book of James, chapter 5: Only two sets of parents have been prosecuted. Since the mid-1970s in Colorado, 11 children of Church of the First Born parents have died or were stillborn after medical treatment was withheld. I can't prove it, but I think this exemption has cost lives in Colorado." Church members and the parents did not return phone calls. In my opinion this is the right way to do this," said Mesa County District Attorney Frank Daniels. "Without the exemption, all children will be treated the same. Bill Owens when he was a state senator in 1989, is considered flawed because it gave an unfair advantage to one religious group. Other faith-healing methods, such as the prayers and anointing practiced by the Church of the First Born, do not. Christian Science prayer falls into that category. That exemption allows parents to use faith-healing treatments on their children rather than seeking medical care as long as the faith-healing treatments are recognized as legitimate by the Internal Revenue Service and insurance companies. The proposal, scheduled to be heard in committee next week, would remove an exemption for Christian Scientists - an exemption that has muddied the law and made prosecution in Colorado difficult. Kay Alexander, R-Montrose, introduced legislation that would change the law governing prosecution of parents and other adults who knowingly withhold medical treatment from gravely ill minors for religious reasons. That will be key to deciding whether the parents, and possibly other church elders who had been gathering at the Bates home to pray for her and anoint her with oil before her death, will be prosecuted.Īmanda, one of 12 Bates children, died just days after Rep. 2001: 13-year-old Amanda Bates of Grand Junction died of what was believed to be complications from diabetes and an infected kidney.Īuthorities are trying to determine if Amanda's parents, Colleen and Randy Bates, and elders of the General Assembly Church of the First Born knew that Amanda's illness was life-threatening.2000: Ishmael Berger Belebbas of Olathe was born dead after becoming stuck for several days in his mother's birth canal.2000: 3-day-old Billy Ray Reed of Grand Junction died of a common heart defect.1999: 18-day-old Warren Trevette Glory of Grand Junction died of pneumonia and meningitis.1998: 10-day-old Keenan Littlefield of Cortez died from a bowel obstruction.1997: 10-month-old Kyra Wright of Cortez died of viral pneumonia.1990: 7-year-old Angela Sweet of Olathe died after a 2month-long case of appendicitis.1987: Newborn Lucas Long of Delta died hours after his breech birth.1982: 14-year-old Travis Drake of Grand Junction died several days after his appendix ruptured.1976: Brian Sproul, age unknown, of Cortez died of diphtheria.1974: Christy Sitton, age unknown, of Cortez died of diphtheria.Known deaths of First Born children in Colorado after medical treatment was withheld: Her death came days before state legislators will discuss a change in law that would make it easier to prosecute adults who withhold treatment from minors for religious reasons. 8, 2001 - GRAND JUNCTION - An autopsy Wednesday determined that 13-year-old Amanda Bates, the daughter of members of a church that believes in prayer rather than medicine to heal the sick, died Monday of complications from untreated diabetes. Prayed-over girl died of untreated diabetesįeb. ![]()
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