8yr old Autistic boy dies at faith healing service

[MrRant 0]

pastor said Saturday that church leaders were trying to heal an autistic 8-year-old boy when he inexplicably stopped breathing and died during a prayer service Friday night.

 

During the hourlong session, the boy's feet and hands were restrained by his mother and other church members who prayed intensely for his violent tendencies to cease, the pastor's wife said.

 

"He just passed away," Pastor David Hemphill said of the boy. "God is a mysterious person, and if he wants to call a life back, he does."

 

Milwaukee police officers arrested a man Friday night at Faith Temple Church of Apostolic Faith, 8709 N. Fond du Lac Ave., a small storefront in a strip mall that houses Gianelli's Pizza and a dry cleaner.

 

Milwaukee County Sheriff's Department spokeswoman Kim Brooks confirmed Saturday night that Ray Hemphill, the pastor's brother and also a minister at the church, was being held at the Milwaukee County Jail on suspicion of physical abuse of a child, a felony.

 

The medical examiner's office declined to release results of an autopsy done on the boy, Torrance Cantrell, citing a police request for non-disclosure.

 

Denise Allison, 25, said she had become close friends with the boy and his mother, Patricia Cooper, during two years living in the duplex above the family in the 5900 block of N. 61st St.

 

Allison said Torrance, called "Junior" by family and friends, was brilliant with his hands, and could craft complex kites from newspaper. Though hardly able to speak, Torrance would knock on her door and shout with a smile, "Tickle," asking Allison to play with and tickle him.

 

The boy often initiated play or communication by punching at people and laughing, though neighborhood kids had learned to not feel threatened, Allison said.

 

"He was really fun to be around, but you had to relax, get to know him and understand his ways," Allison said. "He just wanted love and attention like any other kid."

 

Previous investigation

Milwaukee Police Capt. Linda Haynes said there was "no striking or anything like that," when asked whether Torrance had been disciplined during the prayer service, but said police were still investigating.

 

"Circumstances are suspicious because most 8-year-olds don't just die. Unless there's a medical condition - which we're unaware of at this time."

 

Haynes added that the boy "did not die of natural causes."

 

No officials would say if they thought the use of restraints was related to the boy's death, or to Ray Hemphill's arrest.

 

David Hemphill and his church were investigated in 1998 after a mother struck her 12-year-old daughter with a stick during a church service. The girl suffered bruises and cuts.

 

No charges were filed after authorities talked to the mother and Hemphill, who both defended the physical discipline as necessary for the unruly girl.

 

David and Pamela Hemphill said that they did not attend Friday's service, but rushed to church after people there called to tell them the boy was not breathing and 911 had been called.

 

The Hemphills said they talked to the four people who had been at the service: Ray Hemphill, Patricia Cooper and two women they would not name.

 

Pamela Hemphill said Ray Hemphill led the service and directed the women to restrain the boy.

 

The women put some sheets and cloth over the boy's outstretched hands, and "one lady held one hand and the other lady held the other, and his mother held his feet," Pamela Hemphill said.

 

The boy's leather sneakers were removed so he wouldn't hurt anyone if he kicked, she added.

 

The Hemphills said the boy's mother came to the church seeking help about three months ago and said her son was in danger of being institutionalized because he was violent toward himself and his 2-year-old sister.

 

"His mother couldn't get any rest, any sleep because he (her son) was just sick," David Hemphill said. "It had really gotten worse."

 

Praying for a miracle

Some church members began holding prayer sessions with the boy three times a week, he said.

 

"We were just trying to pray and see if God gave him a miracle," he said.

 

Pamela Hemphill said the sessions would usually last about two hours with a break halfway.

 

"Sometimes he kicks and scratches and throws himself to the ground," she said. "They hold his hand or maybe his feet and maybe take his shoes off."

 

But at Friday's session, she said, the boy was "unusually quiet."

 

"He seemed to be extremely tired," she said. "He just wiggled and moved a little but not as much as usual."

 

She said the boy was sitting on the floor with others sitting around him. But at one point he lay down and closed his eyes, she said.

 

"After they got through praying, one of the ladies said, 'He doesn't look too good today,' " David Hemphill said.

 

Ray Hemphill checked the boy's pulse and found none, she said. Paramedics arrived but couldn't revive the boy, she said, and pronounced him dead.

 

David Hemphill said he had no explanation for the sudden death, but said the boy was taking medications.

 

"I said, 'Well, God just took him,' " he said.

 

Hemphill said Cooper, who could not be reached Saturday, said " 'My baby's got rest now.' "

 

Radical change, exorcism talk

Allison and other neighbors said they'd seen radical changes in Cooper's behavior since she joined the church this spring. Once gregarious and energetic, the single mother getting by mostly on Social Security checks began to live in near-seclusion, appearing dazed, exhausted, and increasingly worried.

 

"They completely brainwashed Pat," Allison said Saturday evening.

 

She said a church member approached Cooper one day when she was struggling to control Torrance outside their home. The person told Cooper that if she brought her son to the church, he could be "spiritually healed."

 

Church members began to take Cooper and Torrance to the church in a van three and four times a day for prayer, Allison said. A woman and her daughter moved in with Cooper early this summer and recently moved out, she said. Other church members were in and out of Cooper's apartment, helping her clean and cook. Allison said Cooper told her that during prayer sessions - both at home and at church - church members would forcibly hold down Torrance and strike him in attempts to heal him of his autism.

 

Allison said Friday's session sounded like one Cooper told her about earlier in the summer.

 

"She called it an exorcism," Allison said. "She said they held him down for almost two hours. He couldn't hardly breathe, and that shocked (Cooper). Then she said the devil started to speak through Junior's voice - though he can't really speak - saying, 'Kill me. Take me.' "

 

Allison began to notice that each time the group gathered in the apartment, Torrance would screech, wail and cry. She and other neighbors noticed Torrance had a fattened lip and black eye the days after at-home prayer sessions, she said.

 

Once, Allison said, she looked through her friend's window and saw church members taking turns striking the boy with a belt as Cooper watched.

 

"I told Pat that it was wrong, but she said the Bible told her you're supposed to chastise your children," Allison said. "I told her to stop, told her what could a little . . . kid ever do that was so wrong to beat him like that? She said the church told her it was the only way to heal him."

 

Allison said she confronted her friend several more times about her concerns, but never contacted authorities because she thought she could counsel her friend away from the church without causing her legal problems.

 

Now, Allison said, she is filled with remorse that she didn't.

 

"All I can do now is tell what happened, and maybe this won't happen again to someone else," Allison said.

---------------------------------------------

 

I don't know what to make of this personally.

[Guest Choken One]

Christian Apologist: It was the lord's devine plan.

[MrRant 0]

Christian Apologist: It was the lord's devine plan.

I don't have a problem with that point of view when in comes to natural death.

 

This however is a UN-natural death.

[Guest Choken One]

Exactly and I call bullshit on that fucking statement in ANY instances...

 

It's a excuse for greiving people to use...

 

I'm sorry but Fat Ass Earl didn't die of multiple heart attacks because the lord planned it...he died because he couldn't resist that week old Jelly Glazed Doughnut at the Pump N Go.

[Guest Danny Dubya v 2.0]

What a bunch of ignorant wastes of food and oxygen. If she actually wanted to help the child instead of getting rid of her annoyance, she would have done as much as she could to teach the child many things herself... outside of the church at least, if she couldn't for any reason place him in a special ed program. Not to teach him anything, but just as another safeguard from the nutjobs at home.

 

I have a form of autism as well (definitely nowhere on the spectrum near this kid, but when I was his age I was much closer to it), and the only reason I'm headed off to college next week is because my parents were the only ones who knew how smart I was beneath my behavior and taught me everything the special ed school wouldn't and spent a lot of time with me.

 

Methinks this child was running dry on any luck he had with such clueless and careless people as his mom and that church. (not that I think his mom was completely careless... the two formers match up best).

 

Edit - No, I don't hate the catholic church, I used to be in a youth group and volunteer on all of their retreats. I just hate the dumb and superstitious.

Edited August 25, 2003 by Death Angel

[Cherry Blossom Viscount 0]

*Sigh* Let the Christian bashing begin!

[Use Your Illusion 0]

Jesus loves us all.

 

Really, he does.

 

UYI

[Guest Agent of Oblivion]

I think it's a fitting coincidence that people who rely on faith healing tend to die from easily treatable things, or from their own "healing" methods. The people involved deserve to be incarcerated.

[Cran Da Maniac 0]

Anybody else think it's stupid she was going to a church that's based in a strip mall for help with her son?

[Guest SP-1]

Christian Apologist: It was the lord's devine plan.

You're a Christian, Choken?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

. . .

 

 

 

There's alot of unknowns in this. I'm not a big fan of these "Evangelists" who claim to go around touching people and healing them. God can certainly do that through people and sometimes does. There's a guy here at my school who suffered from Narcolepsy until he prayed and asked the Lord to take it away, and he's not had a problem with it since then. Biblically, I've not seen much evidence that exorcisms or healings need to be so violent and whatknot. There were a few instances of demonic stubbornness, But once Jesus shows up and asserts himself, it gets handled easily and quickly.

 

I think there's probably an abuse case here, and that is in no way good. I have no problem with spanking a child to discipline them when they are young. There's a huge difference between a spanking and a violent act of child abuse, and I have no patience for anyone trying to merge the two to justify their actions.

 

I'm interested in how this develops further. It was within God's plan, insofar as He knew it was going to happen and, from his eternal viewpoint, he's known about it forever. There's a reason it happened. To purely speculate, if there was abuse going on here, then someone's going to have hell to pay and now they will be exposed. While people love to go back to 'spare the rod and spoil the child,' they easily forget that Jesus had an affinity for children and their easy faith, going so far as to say that, 'such as these will inheret the Kingdom of Heaven.'

 

My heart goes out to his mother and family, and I sincerely hope that the messed up views of his church get jerked back into something good through this, and those responsible are taken care of in the ways they need to be.

[Dr. Tom 0]

She said a church member approached Cooper one day when she was struggling to control Torrance outside their home. The person told Cooper that if she brought her son to the church, he could be "spiritually healed."

 

Allison began to notice that each time the group gathered in the apartment, Torrance would screech, wail and cry. She and other neighbors noticed Torrance had a fattened lip and black eye the days after at-home prayer sessions, she said.

 

Once, Allison said, she looked through her friend's window and saw church members taking turns striking the boy with a belt as Cooper watche

So not only did this "church" initiate this sad process by approaching the mother, they did so for the purposes of beating the boy and eventually murdering him.

 

Every single one of those worthless pieces of shit should be summarily executed (clutching their precious Bibles and praying for a "miracle" all the while, of course) and their farce of a church burned to the ground.

[Guest SP-1]

I scanned the article initially, seeing those quotes solidifies my thinking that this church has some serious problems and is most certainly not a biblical church centered around Jesus Christ.

[Guest Salacious Crumb]

Don't judge the rest of us by what these idiots did.

 

I hope the lot of them rot in jail for a good long while.

[Guest Danny Dubya v 2.0]

So not only did this "church" initiate this sad process by approaching the mother, they did so for the purposes of beating the boy and eventually murdering him. 

 

Every single one of those worthless pieces of shit should be summarily executed (clutching their precious Bibles and praying for a "miracle" all the while, of course) and their farce of a church burned to the ground.

Those idiots probably thought that the boy would behave like that (in the same severity that he was behaving at his age) for the rest of his life and never be of any use to anyone, and that noone would ever care for him. Which alone angers me to no end.

 

Though the same could be said for those evangelists and that kid's mother.

 

IMO, if the mom actually loved her son any one bit, she would have NEVER went through with this or at least kept him away from those whackjobs after she saw him being hatefully beaten down. But she didn't.

 

I sincerely hope that she doesn't hand over her other children to that church either.

[Guest TheGame2705]

The church is a crock if some of the clergy weren't at the service, unless they were both sick in bed. This is just so shocking but I've actually heard people think ADD and autism are demon spirits and when force gets excessive it leads to this.

[Guest BDC]

Given the fact that they just came up to her and told her that her son was a problem and he needs to be spiritually healed and 'we can do it' gives me an inkling that this place wasn't on the level to begin with.

 

From there, beating the kid when the mother left... Let's see, how does the scripture go. "Better for one to tie a millstone around his neck and throw himself into the sea than to lead one of my children astray"? Have a good time in hell, boys.

[Corey_Lazarus 0]

Where's my Cane? I wanna "heal" these fucks Singapore-style...

[Vyce 0]

How come we never hear about the snake handlers anymore?

 

I miss the snake handlers, I really do. What, has that fad died out already? It will break my heart a bit if it has.

[Guest Choken One]

Christian Apologist: It was the lord's devine plan.

You're a Christian, Choken?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fuck No

[Dr. Tyler; Captain America 0]

 

Why has every thread in the past week turned into a Christian vs. Anti-Christian forum?

[Guest SP-1]

I didn't intend for it to. Though that generally happens for just the same reason I did say something: non-christians attempting to say that we believe one thing when we don't.

[Dr. Tyler; Captain America 0]

Eh, whatever.

[Ace309 0]

When I read this in the paper yesterday, I immediately thought of George Carlin's "Two-Minute Warning" bit.

 

One of the suggestions he has is that if you get your two-minute warning ("Wrap your shit up! You're gonna die in two minutes!") at a faith-healing service, you should get in line and time everything so you die just as the preacher touches you.

 

It's somehow less funny now that it, uh, happened to an innocent 8-year-old boy.

[Dr. Tom 0]

Though that generally happens for just the same reason I did say something: non-christians attempting to say that we believe one thing when we don't.

Because, whether you like it or not, the people who did this ARE Christians. Just like wastes of skin like Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson, and just like wackos who murder doctors and bomb abortion clinics. They might be fuckheaded Christians, but they're Christians nonetheless, and the fact that they are will color public perception about the whole. Public opinion paints with a broad brush, and a few bad bristles will make the whole paint job look bad. You might be able to sit there and say, "That's not my kind of Christianity," or, "my Jesus would never abide something like that," but most people just don't care. Look at Catholic priests: the first presumption people have about them now is that they're child molestors, despite the fact that most of them are good and decent men who chose a life of service. Public perception is already tainted. Christians as a whole are startig to suffer the same fate.

[Guest stardust]

Quick update:

 

CNN's reporting that the boy's death is officially being ruled a homicide, but authorities are still not sure what they're going to be charging the church leader with (they still haven't ruled if the death was intentional).

[Vyce 0]

Silly Protestants.

 

As the Catholic Church has taught us, the only real way to get demons out of little boys is through their assholes.

[Guest SP-1]

"My Jesus," "His Jesus."

 

NO Jesus taught to do that. Mormons claim to be Christian but they reject the core principles of who God is defined as biblically, who Christ himself is defined as.

 

I can say that I'm the President of the United States. However, I am not.

 

If a few bad bristles claiming to be something they apparently are not can color the perception one way, then be prepared for those of us who know what we're talking about to return fire. You will find no teaching in the Bible saying to beat someone to death in order to heal them. Or to cast a demon out. Both processes were usually painless, quick procedures.

 

Christian has Christ in the word. I'm hard pressed to define anyone who would do what these people did as something Christ would have told us to do during His time here. his healings were based on faith - not beating. I don't even see how the term "Faith" healing plays into this story at all, other than it might be what the "church" in question defined their actions as.

 

I guess if I start calling myself a "Dr.Tomian" and go around contradicting what you stand for, it's ok for the public to blame you simply because I take your name to perform the actions in.

[Ced 0]

If anybody needs me, I'll be in Milwaukee dispensing a few Act of God bullets...

[Dr. Tom 0]

If a few bad bristles claiming to be something they apparently are not can color the perception one way, then be prepared for those of us who know what we're talking about to return fire.

That's fine. My point in posting is that you seem surprised and upset that the public perception of Christians will be affected by the actions of people like this. I suppose, in your place, I'd be a little bent about it too, but it can hardly be considered a surprise at this point. People tend to remember the negatives more than the positives concerning groups, and a group of people calling themselves Christians who browbeat women and murder children is certainly a negative.

 

Btw, I'm not saying MY perception of Christians or Christianity in general has changed because of this incident, or others like it. But you have to know there's going to be backlash from hoi polloi every time something like this happens.

[Guest SP-1]

Aye. Not surprising. A tad aggravating, but not surprising. At the end of the day, those of us who are acting under the radar of the general public's perception just have to keep pushing and accomplishing what we can.