Frivology

So let’s say you’re fifteen years old.  Remember back to that time in your life.  You’re adult enough to question the world around you, but not adult enough to really have any of your own rights.  Your parents still, by and large, control what it is that you do, down to your religious beliefs.  Then, you get sick… badly sick… and your mom, instead of getting you medical help, reads you scripture and prays with you - until you die.  That’s what happened to Jessica Crank in 2002. 

Jessica Crank had a tumor the size of a basketball on her shoulder when she died.

In her mother’s own words, Jesus Christ was Jessica’s medical treatment. Jacqueline Crank testified she would read scriptures to her daughter and pray with her, and that Jessica was on multiple prayer lists.

“Did you take her to the hospital?” prosecutors asked.

“I took her to Jesus Christ,” she answered.

Ms. Crank’s attorney asked she could go back in time to 2002 and do it all over again, if she would change her response to her daughter’s illness. She responded that she would again rely on her religious faith.

via: Mother testifies in criminal case over daughter’s cancer death

She’s being brought up on charges of neglect - a misdemeanor - and just lost a motion to have the case dismissed.  It’s being sent up to the state on the basis of whether or not this is constitutionally permissable considering a law that allows these sorts of things to happen.   It’s this sort of thing that makes Atheist’s the world over say that religion is harmful to people.