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When faith kills; Christian healing v. scientific medicine.

Article Excerpt
[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

I have fought a good fight. I have finished my course. I have kept the faith.

--Dennis and Lorie Nixon's dedication to their 16-year-old daughter, Shannon, on her headstone

ACTUALLY, THE NIXONS OF ALTOONA, Pennsylvania lost two children in the early 1990s. When their younger son, Clayton, fell victim to a common ear infection and pleaded to his parents to make the pain stop, the Nixons chose to address the problem with prayer rather than medical science, in keeping with their particular Christian faith. Clayton's tiny body eventually succumbed to extreme dehydration and malnutrition and, sadly, he never recovered.

Blair County District Attorney, William Haberstroh, prosecuted Dennis and Lorie on charges of involuntary manslaughter and child endangerment. After a plea of no contest, the Nixons were sentenced to probation. When asked what he hoped to achieve, Haberstroh answered, "What I want to do is not change their belief, but change their conduct." The problem, however, is that as people believe, so shall they behave.

So maybe it should have come as no surprise that, when Clayton's older sister took ill, the Nixon family elected once again to forego scientific medicine in favor of prayer and anointment with oil, consistent with scriptural teachings. Shannon's mood improved at one point, so her parents praised God for His perceived mercy. But the child's condition quickly worsened and, following another round of intense prayer, Shannon died at the very end of spring, 1995.

According to the autopsy, Shannon had suffered from diabetic...

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