should this couple face criminal charges ?

It is interesting that the religious people should be the harshest in doling out punishment to people who have been using their own very philosophical principle based on the strongest faith in God, without a shred of hypocrisy. These parents are the only TRUE religious people and should be looked up like the mpdel saints who TOTALLY PRACTICED what faith truly demands of a believer!

The hypocrits are all those religious people who push FAITH on everyone, who say that God is their protection against evil, but that when evil comes, they abandon their faith and shift to logical reasoning.

I, as an atheist, I tend to have more compassion for those who have been so misguided and so damaged by religion in the use of their rational faculty. Their mistake is not due to having been educated to reason logically, it is due to an education that has placed the emotion of faith ABOVE our reasoning.

I am sure that their suffering for the loss of their child is the biggest natural and logical punishment that they will suffer. Jail or no jail, they have already reaped the terrible consequences of living by emotional impulses based on fantasy, instead of rationality based on reality.

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Yes they certainly should, and hope they will face criminal charges.

But I wonder if it is legal to bring charges against them? With their decision being a religious one and all. The government tends to tiptoe around peoples religious beliefs for fear of offending or violating your personal rights to believe. But if the government continues to "protect" the religious, soon you'll be able to outright kill someone and claim it was a sacrifice for god, or some other religious reason, and get away with it.

I am not sure. No doubt the parents loved their child. I saw a picture of her looking happy and any parents dream child. They must be in severe pain. I have heard there is no pain as great as a dead child to a parent. Could courts cause them any pain as great?

The news article quoted sources as saying they had no formal religion. They only believed in God and laying on of hands in prayer. Is not having a religion still able to be under religious freedom? If those are the only two things they accept from the Bible, I doubt so.

Ultimately, parents are responsible to God for the health and welfare of their children.

The Bible also shows we are to be in relative subjection to the "superior authorities" of governments allowed power and authority by God. (Romans 13:1-2; 1Peter 2:13-17) Whether a person believes in that part of the Bible or not.

Not only do I think it was a criminal act, it was a grave sin.

Yes, they should have been praying, but as the old adage goes, God helps them who help themselves.

There is this wonderful thing called modern medicine, they should have used it.

So sad and so unnecessary.

And to think their other children where not removed from their home.

They should be charged. They consciously denied her medical treatment. The fact that they thought god would intervene is irrelevant: if they had thrown her from a tall building and said they thought god would catch her, they would go to prison; if they starved her and said they thought god would sustain her, they would go to prison. This situation is no different.

Oh, and do you know they have three other children? The police chief said:

"They [the other children] are still in the home. There is no reason to remove them. There is no abuse or signs of abuse that we can see."

WTF?!

Yes.

They are either criminally negligent or delusional. Either way they should be charged.

Yes. Religious freedom covers belief, thought, and speech. Our actions are still subject to the law.

The child died because of the willful neglect of the parents. I don't care why they did it. They are obviously a danger to themselves and others.

Yes. It almost happened to me. They said that I would be healed, but unfortunately God was a no-show. I came very close to death but the doctors pulled me back. Religion can be another sickness that God can't heal.

I just asked this same question. I think we may see this on this forum all day. Those parents should be punished for child endangerment, neglect, and murder.