UPDATED::Pa. couple sent to prison for 2nd prayer death - The Press-News | Stark County, Ohio

 

UPDATE::  Appeals Court Upholds Sentence in Child's Faith-Healing Death

An appeals court has upheld the 3½- to seven-year sentences imposed on a Philadelphia couple in the death of a second child who never saw a doctor despite being stricken with pneumonia.

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Philadelphia prosecutors sought terms of eight to 16 years and challenged the sentence as too lenient, but a three-judge Superior Court panel ruled that the term was within the judge's discretion.

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I was hoping this would be the last we would hear of this couple but alas my adopted home state has once again proven to be a bit backwards in their thinking:

Herbert and Catherine Schaible defied a court order to get medical care for their children after their 2-year-old son, Kent, died in 2009. Instead, they tried to comfort and pray over 8-month-old Brandon last year as he, too, died of treatable pneumonia.

"My religious beliefs are that you should pray, and not have to use medicine. But because it is against the law, then whatever sentence you give me, I will accept," Catherine Schaible, 44, told the judge. She added that her beliefs have since changed.

The Schaibles are third-generation members of an insular Pentecostal community, the First Century Gospel Church in northeast Philadelphia, where they also taught at the church school. They have seven surviving children.

So you would think a track record such as that, and the subsequent dressing-down by the judge would garner a harsh punishment. "April of 2013 wasn't Brandon's time to die,,,You've killed two of your children. ... Not God. Not your church. Not religious devotion. You."

Nope, 3 1/2 - 7 years is what they got. What happened to the "possible" 40 years?

Ya think: ""It was so foreseeable to me that this was going to happen," said Assistant District Attorney Joanne Pescatore, who prosecuted both cases. "Everybody in the system failed these children."

An yes I bet the mother changed her beliefs, though I'm not sure if it was to save her ass or she realized her church, led by Nelson Clark hung her out to dry: ",,,the children died because of some "spiritual lack" in the Schaibles' lives - a flaw they need to correct to prevent future deaths,,,"They realize they must get back to God, to seek wisdom from him, to find where the spiritual lack is in their heart and life . . . so this won't happen again."

Sadly I think we will be hearing from this couple and their church in about 5 years, if not sooner:

There is no question Herbert Schaible would turn to prayer again if any of his six other children, whose ages range from about 8 to 17, fell ill, Clark said. Just as any First Century member would.

"He would confess his sins and repent to God and ask for a healing touch," Clark said.

The Schaibles would not call a doctor, even now, Clark said.

"Oh, no," he said. "That thought would never enter his mind."

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Satan tests through illness. God is a jealous God. Trust in medicine and doctors is idolatry. Only true faith in the divine power of God heals.

After Kent died, the Schaibles were ordered to call a doctor at the first sign of illness. But Herbert Schaible does not answer to a judge, Clark said:

"He knows he has to obey God rather than man."

Pa. couple sent to prison for 2nd prayer death - The Press-News | Stark County, Ohio