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submitted 5 months ago by MicroWave@lemmy.world to c/world@lemmy.world

Members of an Australian religious group have gone on trial accused of killing an eight-year-old diabetic girl by denying her medical care and offering prayer instead.

Elizabeth Struhs was found dead at a home in Toowoomba - about 125km (78 mi) west of Brisbane - in January 2022, after she had allegedly gone without insulin for several days.

Prosecutors say the sect shunned the use of medicine and trusted God to “heal” the child - “extreme beliefs” which had already almost ended Elizabeth’s life in similar circumstances three years before.

The girl's parents are among the 14 defendants, all of whom have refused lawyers.

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[-] Citrus_Cartographer@lemmy.world 14 points 5 months ago

The vast majority of Christian religions don't have anything against modern medicine.

The fact that a girl is now dead because of these extremists is heartbreaking.

There's a popular parable/joke that's often told among those who are religious about a devout man in a flood who rejects multiple rescuers while saying, "God will save me." He then eventually drowns and complains to God. God then responds with something like, "What do you mean?! I sent 2 boats and a helicopter!" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parable_of_the_drowning_man

For Christianity in general, there's a saying that we should first do everything we can and then leave the rest in God's hands. There's a whole section dedicated to this with the most relevant part:

What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? (James 2:14)

Any Christian religion that chooses to ignore modern advances in medicine (be that vaccines, insulin, or whatever) shows that they're ignoring a fairly obvious lesson that the rest of Christianity has already learned.

this post was submitted on 10 Jul 2024
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