Adventist Couple in Canada Charged with Negligence in Baby’s Death
By AT New Team, Dec. 18, 2014: The coroner in Calgary, Alberta, has made a determination that a baby boy of 14 months died a year ago because of malnutrition and a Staph infection. The baby was born outside a hospital and had not been taken to a doctor since birth and the couple gave the baby a “strict … belief-based … vegan” diet.
“The infection the boy died from would have been easily treatable with antibiotics had his parents brought him to medical attention,” wrote Benjamin Radford, a contributor on the Discovery Channel. The child “was not healthy enough to allow him to recover on his own.”
Jerome and Jennifer Clark were arrested last week for criminal negligence. Two older children were taken from them by child protection officers. They were identified in the news media as members of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. Global News, published in Canada, identified them as “radicalized members of the … Church” and quoted Pastor Randy Barber from the local Adventist church where they are members “they were seldom seen in recent years and [Barber] had no idea they had children.”
The couple was charged “after what police described as a long and complex investigation,” the Calgary Herald reported yesterday. “The parents took steps to conceal the condition of the infant from family members, police allege. The baby died the day after his admittance to hospital and police were immediately notified.” That occurred in late November 2013 and it has taken investigators and prosecutors a year to actually charge the couple.
The general societal increased focus on a healthy diet along with a wide range of ideas about what that means also increased the number of babies and children dying of starvation because of extreme diets enforced by their parents, reported The New York Times on May 21, 2007. But the Discovery Channel commented that the “Adventist Church is known for promoting a healthy life” and the extreme practices of this couple went beyond the teachings of the denomination.
A statement by the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Canada confirmed that the Clarks are members of the Calgary Central Adventist Church but they have not attended for eight years. “We are saddened to learn of the tragic death of baby John Clark,” the statement began. “We extend our heartfelt condolences to family and friends who continue to grieve in this tragic situation.”
The Adventist Church has established a major position in delivery of health care over the years, operating some 450 hospitals and clinics around the world that provide physician services and are fully accredited. It has sought to discourage extreme diets and health concepts, focusing on evidence-based approaches to health education among members and the wider community. The majority of Adventists around the world are not vegetarians, furthermore vegans.
“Most congregations have at least one or two people for whom extreme ideas about diet or other health practices are really more important than the core doctrines of the Adventist faith,” a veteran pastor told Adventist Today. “This has been true since the denomination got started in the 1850s. You can see references to people like this in the writings of Ellen G. White.”
The Calgary Central Church has 1,000 members, with “about 200 kids … all happy and healthy,” stated Barber. There are 400 Adventist congregations in Canada with a total of about 80,000 adherents, including small children, non-members who attend regularly and inactive members.
Lot of information about the SDA church in this article. “Members” but haven’t attended for eight years? Pastor doesn’t know the members have children? What kind of church is this? Probably a typical one. Good lesson here. Keeping inactive “members” on the books can backfire.
While I do not hold the church liable for this problem, the pastor’s comments show a total lack of regard for his congregation. It is obvious that he took no interest in checking up on his members or inquiring about their well being. In 8 yrs no one checked in on them! Why do we have pastors?
This is sad is so many ways.
The parents USED to attend a church that promotes good health practices to its members. But in this case it appears the parents strayed away from the teachings.
Too often members such who cease attending have done so because they disagree with some issue in the church and they go their own way. I have known a few in my time. They don’t answer phone calls when you try to contact them, they don’t respond to letters either. You can lead a horse to water but you can’t make it drink.
I have head people discuss missing members and most people are reluctant to remove a persons name from membership because they usually hope the people will return.
Does not surprise me one bit locally & Im sure Worldwide the 3 major topics 1.Ellen White “say’s 2. The Sabbath as the main focal point via Ellen’s vision 3.The Health Message ,my wife & I both agree though many of the folks where very nice their views are extreme not that the messages are bad in themselves but you get hammered with it each & every Sabbath & if you have SDA TV daily , yet when you ask about why do SDA HOSPITALS perform abortions mums the word is that not part of the health message it causes mental health issues & leaves the women who have them open to cancer & other ills not excluding the destruction of a family & allowing for promiscuity & other issues,when is the Sabbath greater than Thou shalt not Commit Murder, Jesus said the Sabbath was created for the benefit of man ,not man for the Sabbath , God is the Creator ,He is the one who gives & takes lives, no man has that authority no license justifies genocide, the SDA Health network has lost it way the SDA Church sits by idle silent & in its silence promotes the murder of innocence yet they bash the Pro-life Catholic Church while they under the guise of a health message sacrifice millions on their babilonian alters this is SDA USA I can’t speak for the Worldwide Church but how can these stand up & proclaim in all hipocracy they are the ones who keep the Commandments of God & the faith of Jesus ,God will spew you out like vomit & feed you to the swine!!! This is a warning change your wicked ways for the Angel of the Lord will act on Gods vengeance!!!!