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What religious rule did your parents follow that got my sister taken by CPS · Martin Animations

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  Speaker 1: What religious rule did your parents follow that got my
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: sister taken by CPS? The social worker's car pulled up
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  Speaker 1: to our house on a Thursday afternoon while I was
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  Speaker 1: doing homework at the kitchen table. I was 14 years
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  Speaker 1: old and had just gotten home from school, my backpack
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  Speaker 1: still sitting by the front door where I'd dropped it
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  Speaker 1: 20 minutes earlier. Through the window, I watched a woman
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  Speaker 1: in a gray pantsuit step out of a white sedan,
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  Speaker 1: carrying a leather folder and walking with the purposeful stride
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  Speaker 1: of someone who'd done this many times before. My stomach
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  Speaker 1: dropped before she even knocked on the door, some instinct
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  Speaker 1: recognizing that everything was about to change. Mom answered wearing
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  Speaker 1: her long denim skirt and modest blouse. Her hair pulled
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  Speaker 1: back in the tight bun that Elder Whitfield said demonstrated
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  Speaker 1: proper feminine submission.
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  Speaker 2: The woman introduced.
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  Speaker 1: Herself as Pauline Vasquez from Child Protective Services, and Mom's
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  Speaker 1: face went completely white. My sister Lily was seven years
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  Speaker 1: old and hadn't been to school in three weeks. Mom
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  Speaker 1: and Dad had been treating her diabetes with prayer and
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  Speaker 1: anointing oil instead of insulin, following the teachings of our church,
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  Speaker 1: the covenant of divine healing. Pastor Gaines preached every Sunday
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  Speaker 1: that modern medicine was a tool of Satan and designed
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  Speaker 1: to weaken faith and make believers dependent on worldly solutions
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  Speaker 1: instead of trusting God's power. He said that true believers
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  Speaker 1: accepted suffering as a test, that healing came through prayer
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  Speaker 1: and fasting and absolute faith, never through doctors or hospitals
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  Speaker 1: or pharmaceuticals. My parents had believed him completely, removing Lily
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  Speaker 1: from her endocrinologist's care six months ago, despite my desperate
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  Speaker 1: arguments that she needed her medication. I'd watched her get
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  Speaker 1: sicker each week, losing weight and sleeping constantly, drinking water
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  Speaker 1: by the gallon and still being thirsty. But when I'd
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  Speaker 1: tried to tell my parents she was in danger, Dad
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  Speaker 1: had said I was letting worldly fear override divine truth,
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  Speaker 1: that as the man of the house someday, I needed
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  Speaker 1: to learn to lead with faith instead of doubt. Pauline
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  Speaker 1: asked to see Lily immediately, her tone leaving no room
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  Speaker 1: for negotiation. Mom led her upstairs to Lily's bedroom, where
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  Speaker 1: my sister lay on her bed barely conscious, her breathing
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  Speaker 1: shallow and labored. I followed behind them, my heart pounding
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  Speaker 1: so hard I could feel it in my throat. Lily
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  Speaker 1: looked tiny against the pink comforter, her face gaunt and
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  Speaker 1: her lips cracked from dehydration. Her eyes were half open
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  Speaker 1: but unfocused, staring at nothing. Pauline touched Lily's forehead and
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  Speaker 1: her professional mask cracked for just a second, pure horror
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  Speaker 1: flashing across her face, before she pulled out her phone
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  Speaker 1: and called 911. She told the dispatcher they needed an
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  Speaker 1: ambulance immediately for a child in diabetic ketoacidosis, her voice
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  Speaker 1: urgent but controlled. Mom started crying and saying they'd been praying,
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  Speaker 1: that God's timing was perfect, that they just needed to
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  Speaker 1: have faith. Pauline turned to her with an expression of
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  Speaker 1: barely contained rage, and said that if Lily died, Mom
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  Speaker 1: would be charged with negligent homicide. The ambulance arrived within
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  Speaker 1: eight minutes, paramedics rushing up the stairs with equipment and questions.
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  Speaker 1: They checked Lily's blood sugar, and one of them swore
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  Speaker 1: under his breath when he saw the reading, over 600
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  Speaker 1: milligrams per deciliter, when normal was under 100. They started
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  Speaker 1: an IV line right there in the bedroom, pushing fluids
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  Speaker 1: and insulin while asking Mom how long Lily had been symptomatic.
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  Speaker 1: Mom kept saying they'd been treating her with prayer- and
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  Speaker 1: one of the paramedics looked at her like she was
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  Speaker 1: speaking a foreign language. They loaded Lily onto a stretcher,
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  Speaker 1: moving with controlled urgency that made my chest tight with fear.
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  Speaker 1: I grabbed my jacket and tried to follow them downstairs,
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  Speaker 1: but Pauline stopped me with a hand on my shoulder.
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  Speaker 1: She said I needed to stay here while she talked
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  Speaker 1: to my parents, that Lily would be taken care of
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  Speaker 1: at the hospital. Through the window, I watched the ambulance
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  Speaker 1: pull away with lights flashing but no siren, which somehow
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  Speaker 1: felt worse than if they'd been screaming down the street.
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  Speaker 1: Dad came home twenty minutes later, to find Pauline sitting
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  Speaker 1: at our kitchen table with a stack of forms and
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  Speaker 1: a recording device. He'd been at his job as an
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  Speaker 1: electrician and still wore his work clothes covered in drywall dust.
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  Speaker 1: Pauline explained that CPS was opening an investigation into medical neglect,
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  Speaker 1: that Lily's condition was life-threatening and appeared to be the
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  Speaker 1: direct result of withheld medical care. She asked Dad directly
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  Speaker 1: why he'd stopped his daughter's insulin treatments, and he launched
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  Speaker 1: into the same sermon we'd heard from Pastor Gaines about
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  Speaker 1: faith healing and trusting God's plan and rejecting worldly medicines.
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  Speaker 1: He spoke with the authority he used when leading our
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  Speaker 1: family devotions. The voice that said questioning him meant questioning God.
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  Speaker 1: Pauline listened with an increasingly stony expression, taking notes in
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  Speaker 1: her folder. When Dad finished, she informed him that Lily
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  Speaker 1: would be placed in emergency protective custody once she was stabilized,
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  Speaker 1: and that a court hearing would be scheduled within 72
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  Speaker 1: hours to determine permanent placement. Mom collapsed into a chair,
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  Speaker 1: sobbing that they were just trying to raise their children
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  Speaker 1: according to God's word, and Pauline said God's word didn't
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  Speaker 1: include killing kids through negligence. The detective arrived an hour later,
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  Speaker 1: a heavyset man in his fifties named Raymond Corso, who
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  Speaker 1: specialized in child abuse cases. He interviewed my parents separately,
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  Speaker 1: recording their statements about why they'd denied Lily medical care.
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  Speaker 1: I sat in the living room pretending to read while
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  Speaker 1: straining to hear the conversations happening in the kitchen and
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  Speaker 1: my parents' bedroom. Dad's voice carried through the walls, defiant
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  Speaker 1: and certain, explaining that he was exercising his religious freedom
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  Speaker 1: and parental rights as the spiritual head of the household.
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  Speaker 1: He cited Bible verses about faith healing and said that
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  Speaker 1: man's laws... didn't supersede God's commands. Detective Corso's responses were quieter,
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  Speaker 1: harder to make out, but I caught phrases like criminal
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  Speaker 1: charges and reckless endangerment. When he interviewed Mom, she cried
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  Speaker 1: through the whole thing, saying she'd had doubts but Dad
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  Speaker 1: and the church leaders had assured her they were doing
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  Speaker 1: the right thing, that submitting to her husband's spiritual authority
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  Speaker 1: was her biblical duty. She kept asking if Lily was
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  Speaker 1: going to die, and Corso's careful non-answer made my blood
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  Speaker 1: run cold. They came for me last, asking me questions
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  Speaker 1: about what I'd witnessed and whether I'd tried to get
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  Speaker 1: help for Lily. I told them everything. How I'd begged
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  Speaker 1: Mom to take Lily to the doctor. How I'd researched
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  Speaker 1: diabetic ketoacidosis on the school library computers and printed out
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  Speaker 1: articles showing how dangerous it was. I showed them the
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  Speaker 1: papers I'd hidden under my mattress, medical information I'd collected,
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  Speaker 1: hoping to convince my parents. I explained about our church
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  Speaker 1: and Pastor Gaines' teachings about faith healing, about the other
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  Speaker 1: families who'd pulled their kids out of medical care. Corso's
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  Speaker 1: expression darkened as I talked, and he asked for the
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  Speaker 1: church's address and the names of other families following the
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  Speaker 1: same practices. I gave him everything I knew, feeling like
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  Speaker 1: I was betraying my community, but knowing Lily's life depended
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  Speaker 1: on someone telling the truth. My voice cracked when I
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  Speaker 1: admitted I'd almost called 911 myself a week ago, but
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  Speaker 1: chickened out, scared of what Dad would do if he
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  Speaker 1: found out I'd gone against his authority. Pauline squeezed my
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  Speaker 1: shoulder when I finished and said I'd done exactly the
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  Speaker 1: right thing, that speaking up probably saved my sister's life.
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  Speaker 1: The hospital called at nine that night with an update.
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  Speaker 1: Lily was in the pediatric ICU, critically ill but stable,
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  Speaker 1: her blood sugar slowly coming down under controlled medical care.
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  Speaker 1: The doctors said another day without treatment would likely have
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  Speaker 1: been fatal, that she'd been within hours of complete organ failure.
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  Speaker 1: They were keeping her sedated while they corrected her electrolyte
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  Speaker 1: imbalances and treated the acidosis that had built up from
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  Speaker 1: weeks of inadequate insulin. Mom wanted to go to the
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  Speaker 1: hospital immediately, but Corso explained that she and Dad were
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  Speaker 1: restricted from visiting Lily without CPS supervision due to the
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  Speaker 1: ongoing investigation. The hospital had been instructed to call security
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  Speaker 1: if they showed up. Mom's anguished wailing filled the house.
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  Speaker 1: this primal sound of a mother being separated from her
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  Speaker 1: dying child. And despite everything, I felt my heart break
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  Speaker 1: for her. She'd been wrong, dangerously wrong, but she genuinely
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  Speaker 1: believed she was protecting Lily's eternal soul by following Dad's
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  Speaker 1: leadership and prioritizing faith over medicine. I didn't sleep that night,
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  Speaker 1: lying in my bed and staring at the ceiling. The
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  Speaker 1: house felt wrong without Lily's presence down the hall, the
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  Speaker 1: silence heavy with absence. I kept replaying the last three weeks,
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  Speaker 1: all the moments I could have done something differently. I'd
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  Speaker 1: called the school counselor twice, but both times I'd back
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  Speaker 1: down when they'd started asking direct questions, too scared of
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  Speaker 1: what would happen to our family if I officially reported
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  Speaker 1: my parents. Dad had always told me that men protected
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  Speaker 1: their families. That loyalty meant keeping private matters private. That
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  Speaker 1: involving outsiders in family business was a betrayal of everything
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  Speaker 1: he'd taught me about being strong. I thought about calling
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  Speaker 1: 911 myself, but worried that I'd be taken away too,
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  Speaker 1: that I'd lose my home and my parents and everything familiar.
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  Speaker 2: The guilt ate at me.
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  Speaker 1: The knowledge that my cowardice had let Lily get this
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  Speaker 1: sick before anyone intervened. If I'd been braver, if I'd
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  Speaker 1: been willing to stand up to Dad sooner, she wouldn't
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  Speaker 1: be fighting for her life in the ICU right now.
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  Speaker 2: The court hearing.
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  Speaker 1: Happened on a gray Monday morning in a windowless room
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  Speaker 1: that smelled like old carpet and stress. Judge Franklin Ortega presided,
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  Speaker 1: a stern-faced man in his 60s who'd apparently seen every
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  Speaker 1: variation of parental failure. My parents sat with a court-appointed
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  Speaker 1: attorney named Dwight Teller, who looked overwhelmed before proceedings even started.
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  Speaker 1: Pauline presented CPS's case, medical records showing Lily's diabetes diagnosis
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  Speaker 1: two years ago, documentation of regular treatment until six months ago,
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  Speaker 1: then a complete cessation of care. She played portions of
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  Speaker 1: the recorded interviews where my parents explained their faith-healing beliefs,
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  Speaker 1: dad's voice confident as he described denying his daughter life-saving
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  Speaker 1: medication in service of God's higher plan. The hospital's pediatric
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  Speaker 1: endocrinologist testified via video call, explaining that type 1 diabetes
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  Speaker 1: was fatal without insulin treatment, that prayer couldn't replace medical science,
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  Speaker 1: that what my parents had done constituted severe medical neglect.
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  Speaker 1: Judge Ortega's expression remained neutral. but his knuckles were white
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  Speaker 1: where he gripped his pen. Teller's defense centered on religious freedom,
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  Speaker 1: arguing that my parents had a constitutional right to raise
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  Speaker 1: their children according to their sincerely held beliefs. He cited
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  Speaker 1: case law about parental rights and religious exemptions, trying to
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  Speaker 1: frame the situation as government overreach into a family's private
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  Speaker 1: faith practices. Judge Ortega interrupted him mid-argument to ask point
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  Speaker 1: blank whether he was seriously suggesting that religious belief gave
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  Speaker 1: parents the right to let their children die from treatable conditions.
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  Speaker 1: Teller stammered that wasn't what he meant. that there were
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  Speaker 1: nuances and complexities, but the judge cut him off again.
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  Speaker 1: Ortega said that religious freedom ended where child welfare began,
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  Speaker 1: that no belief system justified withholding life-saving medical care from
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  Speaker 1: minors who couldn't consent to their own potential death.
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  Speaker 2: The ruling was swift and absolute.
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  Speaker 1: Lily would remain in state custody until further notice, my
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  Speaker 1: parents would have only supervised visitation, and they would be
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  Speaker 1: required to complete parenting classes focused on medical neglect before
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  Speaker 1: any reunification could be considered. The criminal charges came down
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  Speaker 1: three days later. The county prosecutor, a woman named Veronica Ashford,
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  Speaker 1: who'd built her reputation on protecting children, filed charges of
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  Speaker 1: felony child abuse and reckless endangerment against both my parents.
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: The press conference was broadcast on local news. Ashford, standing
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  Speaker 1: behind a podium full of microphones explaining that religious beliefs
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  Speaker 1: didn't exempt anyone from basic responsibilities to keep their children alive.
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  Speaker 1: She said this case represented a broader pattern of medical
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  Speaker 1: neglect in certain religious communities, and her office was committed
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  Speaker 1: to investigating similar situations. The news story included footage of
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  Speaker 1: our house, reporters standing on the sidewalk describing the parents
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  Speaker 1: who'd nearly killed their daughter through faith healing. My phone
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  Speaker 1: exploded with messages from kids at school, some supportive, but
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  Speaker 1: many cruel, calling my family crazy and asking if I
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  Speaker 1: was also a religious fanatic who rejected medicine. The guys
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  Speaker 1: on my basketball team stopped passing me the ball during practice,
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  Speaker 1: like my parents' crimes had infected me somehow. Pastor Gaines
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  Speaker 1: called an emergency church meeting that Wednesday night, packing the
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  Speaker 1: sanctuary with worried families who'd also pulled their children from
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  Speaker 1: medical care following his teachings. I went with my parents,
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: sitting in the back pew and watching the performance unfold.
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  Speaker 1: Gaines stood at the pulpit in his expensive suit, his
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  Speaker 1: voice booming through the sound system as he declared, that
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  Speaker 1: my family was being persecuted for their faith. He said
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  Speaker 1: Satan was attacking the covenant of divine healing through worldly authorities,
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  Speaker 1: that the charges against my parents were spiritual warfare designed
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  Speaker 1: to intimidate true believers. He called for the congregation to
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: rally behind us, to donate to a legal defense fund,
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  Speaker 1: to stand firm in their rejection of medical intervention, no
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: matter what threats the government made. People were crying and shouting, Amen,
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: swept up in the narrative of religious persecution. I felt
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  Speaker 1: sick watching them, knowing that Lily had nearly died because
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: of these exact teachings, but seeing the congregation double down
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: instead of questioning whether their beliefs might be wrong. The
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  Speaker 1: man sitting next to me leaned over and whispered that
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: his son had juvenile arthritis, and he'd stopped the kid's
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: medication three months ago following Pastor Gaines' counsel. He said
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  Speaker 1: his boy was in constant pain now, could barely walk
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: some mornings, but he was trusting God to heal him
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  Speaker 1: in his perfect timing. I asked if he'd heard about
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: what happened to Lily, and he nodded, saying he was
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: praying for our family's strength during this trial of faith.
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  Speaker 2: The cognitive dissonance was staggering.
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  Speaker 1: This man watching a child nearly die from medical neglect,
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  Speaker 1: and interpreting it as confirmation to continue endangering his own son.
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  Speaker 1: I excused myself and went to the bathroom, pulling out
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: my phone and photographing the Legal Defense Fund poster in
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  Speaker 1: the hallway. It showed my parents' faces under bold text,
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  Speaker 1: declaring them prisoners for Christ and asking for donations to
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: fight their persecution. The casual martyrdom of it made me
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: want to punch something. Lily woke up on day five
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: in the hospital, confused and scared but alive. The social
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: worker called to tell me, saying Lily was asking for
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: me and I could visit under CPS supervision. Mom and
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: Dad were allowed to come too, but only one at
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: a time with a social worker present. I went first,
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: taking the bus to the hospital alone and finding my
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: way to the pediatric ICU. Lily looked impossibly small in
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  Speaker 1: the hospital bed, surrounded by machines and monitors, an insulin
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: pump attached to her stomach. She burst into tears when
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: she saw me, reaching out with shaking hands. I hugged
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: her carefully, avoiding the IV lines and electrode wires, and
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: she asked why Mom and Dad hadn't come, why she'd
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: woken up in a hospital when the last thing she
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: remembered was being in her bedroom. The social worker, a
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: younger woman named Tasha Reed, gently explained that Lily had
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: been very sick and the doctors had to help her,
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: that she was safe now and getting the medicine she needed.
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: Lily's questions came rapid fire, her seven-year-old mind trying to
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: make sense of what had happened. She asked if she'd
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: done something wrong, if God was punishing her for not
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: having enough faith. My throat closed up hearing her blame herself.
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: This little kid who'd been taught that her body's failure
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: to produce insulin was somehow a moral test. I told
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: her firmly that she hadn't done anything wrong. that she
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: had diabetes and needed medicine to keep her healthy, that
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: none of this was her fault. She looked confused, saying
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: Pastor Gaines had told everyone that sickness came from weak faith,
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: that true believers could be healed through prayer alone. I
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: wanted to tell her that Pastor Gaines was a liar
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: who'd nearly killed her with his dangerous theology, but Tasha
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: caught my eye and shook her head slightly. Instead, I
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: said that sometimes people were wrong about things, even adults
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: who seemed certain, and that the doctors knew how to
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: help her feel better. I held her hand and tried
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: to be the protective big brother Dad had always said
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: I should be, except this time protecting her meant acknowledging
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: that Dad himself had been the threat. The next hour
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: was brutal, watching Lily slowly realize that she wouldn't be
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: going home with Mom and Dad, that she'd be staying
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: in foster care while the court case proceeded. She asked
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: why over and over, her voice getting higher and more panicked,
• 13:59
  Speaker 1: until Tasha finally explained in simple terms that Mom and
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: Dad had made a mistake by not getting her medicine,
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: and the social workers needed to make sure she stayed safe.
• 14:07
  Speaker 1: Lily started crying that she wanted Mom, that she didn't
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: understand why being sick meant she couldn't go home. I
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: held her and tried to comfort her, but how do
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: you explain to a seven-year-old that your parents' religious beliefs
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: nearly killed her? How do you tell your little sister
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: that the people who were supposed to protect her had
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: instead chosen doctrine over her life? Tasha gave Lily some
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: coloring books and put on a Disney movie, trying to
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: distract her, but Lily just curled into a ball and sobbed.
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: Mom's supervised visit was worse. She came in crying, trying
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: to hug Lily and pray over her, saying God had
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: allowed this trial to strengthen their faith. Tasha had to
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: physically intervene and when Mom tried to remove Lily's insulin pump,
• 14:44
  Speaker 1: insisting that prayer was the only healing my sister needed.
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: Security was called, and Mom was escorted out of the
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: room still praying loudly about spiritual warfare and satanic medical systems.
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: Lily was hysterical after that, asking why Mom was acting crazy,
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: why she'd tried to take away the medicine that was
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: making her feel better. I tried to explain that Mom
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: believed something different about how sick people got better, but
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: my words sounded hollow even to me. How do you
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: defend the indefensible? Dad's visit was cancelled after Mom's incident.
• 15:10
  Speaker 1: CPS deciding that neither parent could be trusted alone with Lily,
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: even under supervision. The investigation expanded after a tip from
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: someone at the church. CPS started looking into other families
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: in the congregation who'd withdrawn their children from medical care,
• 15:23
  Speaker 1: focusing on kids with chronic conditions that required ongoing treatment.
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: Within two weeks, they'd opened cases on six more families,
• 15:30
  Speaker 1: including the man with the son who had arthritis. The
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: local news ran a series of reports about the Covenant
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: of Divine Healing, interviewing former members who described the.
• 15:38
  Speaker 2: Intense pressure to reject modern medicine.
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: One woman talked about how her daughter had suffered for
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: months with an untreated ear infection that permanently damaged her hearing,
• 15:46
  Speaker 1: all because Pastor Gaines had convinced her that antibiotics were
• 15:49
  Speaker 1: tools of the devil. Another family described watching their son's
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: asthma get progressively worse after they threw away his inhaler,
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: until he'd finally had an attack severe enough to require
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: an ambulance. The common thread in every story was that
• 16:01
  Speaker 1: questioning Pastor Gaines' teachings meant risking social exile from the
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: only community these families knew. Detective Corso requested the church's
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: financial records as part of his investigation, and a pattern
• 16:12
  Speaker 1: emerged that made the whole situation even more sinister. Pastor
• 16:15
  Speaker 1: Gaines was paying himself a salary of $ 250, 000 annually from
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: congregation donations, lived in a mansion worth over a million dollars,
• 16:23
  Speaker 1: and drove luxury cars while his followers struggled financially. The
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: legal defense fund for my parents had raised almost $ 30, 000
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: in less than two weeks, but none of that money
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: was going to their actual legal defense. Instead, it was
• 16:35
  Speaker 1: deposited in church accounts that Gaines controlled personally. He'd built
• 16:39
  Speaker 1: an empire on vulnerable people's faith, enriching himself while preaching
• 16:42
  Speaker 1: that his followers should reject worldly wealth and medical care.
• 16:46
  Speaker 1: The cognitive dissonance was staggering, this man telling his congregation
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: to trust God alone while he accumulated massive material wealth
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: for himself. The news about the financial exploitation broke during
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: a Sunday service, reporters confronting Gaines with documentation of his
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: spending as he arrived at the church. The video went viral,
• 17:02
  Speaker 1: Gaines in his tailored suit trying to explain why he
• 17:05
  Speaker 1: deserved a $ 250, 000 salary, while families in his congregation couldn't
• 17:09
  Speaker 1: afford their children's medications. He claimed that his prosperity was
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: evidence of God's blessing, that successful ministry required resources, that
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: his critics were jealous of his anointing. The congregation started
• 17:19
  Speaker 1: fracturing immediately, some people defending him while others began asking
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: questions they'd been afraid to voice before. My parents fell
• 17:25
  Speaker 1: firmly into the defender category, insisting that Gaines was being
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: persecuted by satanic forces working.
• 17:30
  Speaker 2: Through the media.
• 17:31
  Speaker 1: They couldn't or wouldn't see that they'd been manipulated by
• 17:34
  Speaker 1: someone who valued their money more than their children's lives.
• 17:37
  Speaker 1: Dad kept saying that as men of faith, he and
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: Pastor Gaines had to stand together against the world's attacks,
• 17:42
  Speaker 1: that backing down now would be spiritual cowardice. Lily's foster
• 17:46
  Speaker 1: placement was with a family experienced in handling kids with
• 17:49
  Speaker 1: chronic health conditions. Margaret and Louis Okoye had raised three
• 17:52
  Speaker 1: kids of their own and fostered dozens more, specializing in
• 17:55
  Speaker 1: children who needed complex medical care. They lived in a
• 17:57
  Speaker 1: modest house, filled with books and pictures. a trampoline in
• 18:00
  Speaker 1: the backyard and a golden retriever named Biscuit, who immediately
• 18:03
  Speaker 1: adopted Lily as his new favorite person. The Okoye's were
• 18:06
  Speaker 1: patient and kind, teaching Lily how to check her blood
• 18:09
  Speaker 1: sugar and recognize the signs of high or low glucose.
• 18:12
  Speaker 1: They made managing her diabetes feel normal instead of shameful,
• 18:15
  Speaker 1: celebrating her successful readings and troubleshooting problems without judgment. Tasha
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: sent me photos of Lily smiling on the trampoline with Biscuit,
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: looking healthier than I'd seen her in months. The images
• 18:25
  Speaker 1: were bittersweet, relief that she was safe mixed with grief.
• 18:28
  Speaker 1: that she'd been taken from our family. The preliminary hearing
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: for the criminal charges happened on a cold morning in
• 18:33
  Speaker 1: early December. The courtroom was packed with members of the
• 18:36
  Speaker 1: Covenant of Divine Healing, filling the gallery to show support
• 18:39
  Speaker 1: for my parents. Pastor Gaines sat in the front row,
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: making a show of praying loudly before proceedings began. The prosecutor,
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: Veronica Ashford, presented medical evidence of Lily's condition when she'd
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: been admitted to the hospital, photographs showing her emaciated state
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: and lab results documenting her near-fatal blood sugar levels. The
• 18:55
  Speaker 1: pediatric endocrinologist testified again, explaining in devastating detail exactly how
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: close Lily had come to dying, that she'd been experiencing
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: early organ failure when the paramedics found her. The defense
• 19:06
  Speaker 1: tried to argue that my parents hadn't intended to harm Lily,
• 19:09
  Speaker 1: that their actions were based on sincerely held religious beliefs,
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: but Ashford countered that intent was irrelevant when a child's
• 19:15
  Speaker 1: life was at stake. The most damaging testimony came from Dr.
• 19:18
  Speaker 1: Nina Shaw, a pediatrician who'd treated Lily before my parents
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: pulled her from medical care. She testified that she'd explicitly
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: warned them six months ago that stopping Lily's insulin would
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: kill her, that there was no alternative treatment for type
• 19:29
  Speaker 1: 1 diabetes, that prayer couldn't replace pancreatic function. She'd documented
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: their refusal to continue care in Lily's medical records, including
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: notes about their insistence that faith healing was superior to medicine.
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: She'd filed a report with CPS at that time, but
• 19:44
  Speaker 1: somehow it had fallen through bureaucratic cracks and never been investigated.
• 19:48
  Speaker 1: If that initial report had been taken seriously, if someone
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: had intervened six months ago, Lily would never have gotten
• 19:53
  Speaker 1: sick enough to require hospitalization. The system had failed her
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: before my parents did, and that realization sparked its own
• 19:59
  Speaker 1: investigation into why CPS hadn't acted on Dr.
• 20:02
  Speaker 2: Shaw's concerns.
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: Judge Ortega bound my parents over for trial on all charges,
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: denying their request for bail reductions. The prosecution argued they
• 20:09
  Speaker 1: were a danger to Lily if released, and the judge agreed.
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: My parents would remain in custody until trial, which was
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: scheduled for early February. The members of the Covenant of
• 20:17
  Speaker 1: Divine Healing erupted in outrage, shouting about religious persecution and
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: constitutional violations. Pastor Gaines stood up and started preaching about
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: spiritual warfare, his voice booming through the courtroom, until Judge
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: Ortega had him removed by bailiffs. The whole scene was chaos,
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: people crying and praying and accusing the judge of serving Satan.
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: I sat in the back row watching my community fall apart,
• 20:39
  Speaker 1: these people I'd grown up with revealing themselves as unable
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: to distinguish between religious freedom and criminal neglect. The church
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: had become a cult of personality around Pastor Gaines, and
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: anyone who questioned him was cast out as faithless. I
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: was placed with my Uncle Derek, my dad's younger brother
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: who'd left the church ten years ago after his own
• 20:55
  Speaker 1: crisis of faith. He lived three hours away in a
• 20:57
  Speaker 1: small apartment above a hardware store, working as a mechanic
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: and living quietly outside the drama of religious community. Derek
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: hadn't spoken to Dad in years, their relationship destroyed by
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: theological disagreements and Derek's refusal to submit to the church's
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: authority structure. But he didn't hesitate to take me in
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: when CPS called. He set me up in his spare
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: bedroom and let me work through my anger in his garage,
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: teaching me basic car maintenance and giving me space to
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: process what had happened. He'd been through his own deconstruction
• 21:24
  Speaker 1: of faith, leaving the covenant of divine healing after watching
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: the same patterns of manipulation and control that had nearly
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: killed Lily. He understood the cognitive dissonance of loving people
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: who believe dangerous things. the grief of losing your community,
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: when you started asking questions they couldn't answer. School became
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: impossible after the story went national. News outlets picked up
• 21:43
  Speaker 1: the case as an example of religious extremism endangering children,
• 21:47
  Speaker 1: running pieces that featured our family photos and detailed descriptions
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: of lilies near death. Students who'd been friendly before started
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: avoiding me, not wanting the association with the guy whose
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: parents were facing felony charges. Teachers gave me sympathetic looks,
• 21:59
  Speaker 1: but didn't know what to say, their discomfort palpable. I'd
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: walk down hallways hearing whispers, seeing kids pull up news
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: articles on their phones and point at me. Someone spray-painted
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: psycho family on my locker, the words dripping red like blood.
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: The principal had it cleaned immediately and promised to find
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: who did it, but the damage was done. I stopped
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: going to lunch, spent free periods hiding in the library,
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: left immediately when the final bell rang. Derek offered to
• 22:22
  Speaker 1: let me transfer to a school in his district, and
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: I accepted gratefully. The trial began on a frigid February morning,
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: the courthouse surrounded by protesters from both sides. Members of
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: the Covenant of Divine Healing held signs declaring, Religious Freedom
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: and Parents' Rights. While counter-protesters carried photos of children who'd
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: died from faith-healing practices and signs reading, Medicine Saves Lives
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: and Your Rights End Where Child Abuse Begins, the national
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: attention had turned the trial into a referendum on religious
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: freedom versus child welfare, with pundits and activists descending on
• 22:50
  Speaker 1: our small city to argue their positions. I sat in
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: the gallery next to Derek, watching my parents at the
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: defense table looking small and confused. They'd aged dramatically in
• 22:59
  Speaker 1: the past few months, gray hair and deep lines I
• 23:02
  Speaker 1: didn't remember. Dad's confident authority eroded by isolation and mounting evidence.
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: The prosecution's case was methodical and devastating. They called medical
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: experts who explained that type 1 diabetes required insulin replacement,
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: that prayer couldn't stimulate pancreatic function, that denying treatment was
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: medically indistinguishable from poisoning. They showed photos of Lily in
• 23:21
  Speaker 1: the ICU, her tiny body dwarfed by machines, her face
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: gaunt from weeks of inadequate treatment.
• 23:27
  Speaker 2: They played the 911 call.
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: Pauline's urgent voice demanding an ambulance for a child in
• 23:32
  Speaker 1: ketoacidosis while Mom prayed loudly in the background. They presented
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: the financial records from Pastor Gaines' accounts showing the exploitation,
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: proving that his faith-healing doctrine had enriched him personally. Each
• 23:43
  Speaker 1: piece of evidence built on the last, creating an overwhelming
• 23:46
  Speaker 1: picture of parents who'd chosen ideology over their daughter's life.
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: The defense called character witnesses who testified about my parents'
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: devotion to their faith, their involvement in church activities, their
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: genuine belief— that they were protecting Lily's eternal soul. Pastor
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: Gaines testified about the biblical basis for faith healing, citing
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: verses and explaining the theological framework that had guided my
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: parents' decision. He spoke with the same commanding authority I'd
• 24:09
  Speaker 1: heard every Sunday, the voice that had convinced hundreds of
• 24:11
  Speaker 1: people to reject medical care. But under cross-examination, Ashford got
• 24:15
  Speaker 1: him to admit that he personally saw doctors when sick,
• 24:18
  Speaker 1: took prescription medications for high blood pressure and diabetes, and
• 24:21
  Speaker 1: had recently undergone surgery for a herniated disc. His hypocrisy
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: was exposed in real time. this man who preached rejection
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: of medicine while privately benefiting from it. The jury's expressions
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: shifted from neutral to hostile, recognizing the manipulation at work.
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: Gaines tried to explain that his situation was different, that
• 24:38
  Speaker 1: he had a special calling that required him to stay
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: healthy to lead the church, but his words sounded hollow
• 24:42
  Speaker 1: even to the believers in the gallery. My testimony came
• 24:44
  Speaker 1: on day four of the trial. Ashford walked me through
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: everything I'd witnessed, my attempts to get help for Lily,
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: the medical research I'd hidden under my mattress, the phone
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: calls to the school counselor that I'd backed out of
• 24:54
  Speaker 1: from fear. I explained how Pastor Gaines' teachings had permeated
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: every aspect of our family life, how questioning them had
• 25:01
  Speaker 1: been presented as a failure of faith and masculinity. Dad
• 25:05
  Speaker 1: had always told me that real men led with spiritual authority,
• 25:08
  Speaker 1: that doubting the church's teachings meant I was weak and effeminate.
• 25:11
  Speaker 1: I described watching Lily get sicker each day while Mom
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: and Dad prayed harder, convinced that her deteriorating condition was
• 25:18
  Speaker 1: a test they needed to pass. The defense attorney tried
• 25:21
  Speaker 1: to suggest I'd been influenced by secular education to reject
• 25:24
  Speaker 1: my family's beliefs. but I shut that down immediately. I
• 25:27
  Speaker 1: said I believed in God, had prayed desperately for Lily's healing,
• 25:30
  Speaker 1: but recognized that God had given us medical knowledge for
• 25:33
  Speaker 1: a reason. Rejecting medicine wasn't faith, it was negligence dressed
• 25:37
  Speaker 1: up in religious language. The verdict came back after three
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: hours of deliberation, guilty on all counts for both parents.
• 25:43
  Speaker 1: The jury forewoman read each verdict with a steady voice
• 25:45
  Speaker 1: while my parents sat motionless at the defense table. Mom
• 25:48
  Speaker 1: started crying silently, tears running down her face without sound.
• 25:52
  Speaker 1: Dad stared straight ahead with no visible reaction. His jaw
• 25:55
  Speaker 1: clenched tight. Judge Ortega scheduled sentencing for two weeks out,
• 25:59
  Speaker 1: remanded them back to custody, and dismissed the jury with
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: thanks for their service. The covenant of divine healing members
• 26:04
  Speaker 1: in the gallery erupted in shouts of injustice, several people
• 26:07
  Speaker 1: having to be escorted out by bailiffs. Pastor Gaines tried
• 26:10
  Speaker 1: to approach the defense table but was blocked by court security.
• 26:13
  Speaker 1: His face red with rage as he shouted about appealing
• 26:16
  Speaker 1: all the way to the Supreme Court. The whole scene
• 26:19
  Speaker 1: was pandemonium, the collision of absolute certainty with legal consequence.
• 26:23
  Speaker 1: The sentencing hearing was quieter, most of the church members
• 26:26
  Speaker 1: having lost interest once the verdict came down. Judge Ortega
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: listened to impact statements from Dr. Shah about the trauma
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: of watching preventable suffering, from the Okoyes about Lily's recovery
• 26:35
  Speaker 1: and ongoing adjustment, and from me about losing my family
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: to ideology. I stood at the podium and talked about
• 26:40
  Speaker 1: what it meant to watch your father choose doctrine over
• 26:42
  Speaker 1: his daughter's life, to realize that the man who'd taught
• 26:45
  Speaker 1: you about strength and leadership had demonstrated neither when it
• 26:48
  Speaker 1: mattered most.
• 26:49
  Speaker 2: My voice cracked, but I.
• 26:50
  Speaker 1: Kept going, needing them to understand— that this wasn't about
• 26:53
  Speaker 1: religious persecution. It was about children dying because adults prioritized
• 26:58
  Speaker 1: their beliefs over basic care. Judge Ortega then delivered a
• 27:01
  Speaker 1: sentence that was both harsh and measured. Five years in
• 27:04
  Speaker 1: prison for mom, seven years for dad due to his
• 27:07
  Speaker 1: role as the primary decision maker and spiritual authority in
• 27:09
  Speaker 1: the household, followed by supervised probation and permanent prohibition from
• 27:13
  Speaker 1: having unsupervised contact with minor children. He said their actions
• 27:17
  Speaker 1: had nearly killed their daughter. that religious belief didn't excuse
• 27:20
  Speaker 1: criminal negligence, and that the community needed to understand that
• 27:23
  Speaker 1: faith healing without medical backup was child abuse. Lily stayed
• 27:26
  Speaker 1: with the Okoyes, the permanency plan shifting from reunification to
• 27:30
  Speaker 1: long-term foster care with potential adoption. At nine years old now,
• 27:34
  Speaker 1: she'd spent two years learning to manage her diabetes confidently,
• 27:37
  Speaker 1: thriving in school, and slowly processing the trauma of what
• 27:40
  Speaker 1: our parents had done. Tasha arranged visits between us twice
• 27:43
  Speaker 1: a month, supervised meetings at a neutral location where Lily
• 27:46
  Speaker 1: and I could maintain our sibling bond. She'd grown taller, healthier,
• 27:50
  Speaker 1: more confident. The scared seven-year-old replaced by a resilient kid
• 27:53
  Speaker 1: who checked her blood sugar without prompting and corrected adults
• 27:56
  Speaker 1: who misunderstood.
• 27:57
  Speaker 2: Type 1 diabetes.
• 27:58
  Speaker 1: She asked about mom and dad sometimes, her memories of
• 28:01
  Speaker 1: them fading into something abstract. Margaret and Lewis had become
• 28:04
  Speaker 1: her real parents, the people she ran to when she
• 28:06
  Speaker 1: had nightmares or needed.
• 28:07
  Speaker 2: Help with homework.
• 28:08
  Speaker 1: The grief of losing our original family structure had softened
• 28:11
  Speaker 1: into acceptance of this new reality. The covenant of divine
• 28:14
  Speaker 1: healing fractured completely after the trial. members splitting between those
• 28:18
  Speaker 1: who doubled down on faith-healing doctrine and those who started
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: questioning everything they'd been taught. Pastor Gaines was eventually charged
• 28:24
  Speaker 1: with fraud and tax evasion related to the misappropriated legal
• 28:28
  Speaker 1: defense funds, adding federal crimes to his growing list of consequences.
• 28:32
  Speaker 1: The church building was sold to cover legal judgments. The
• 28:34
  Speaker 1: congregation scattered to other churches or abandoning organized religion entirely.
• 28:38
  Speaker 1: Several families who'd withdrawn their children from medical care quietly
• 28:41
  Speaker 1: resumed treatment, ashamed they'd believed someone so obviously corrupt. Others
• 28:45
  Speaker 1: moved to different states and joined similar groups, unable to
• 28:48
  Speaker 1: accept that their beliefs might have been wrong. The human
• 28:51
  Speaker 1: capacity for self-deception, for choosing comfortable lies over uncomfortable truths,
• 28:55
  Speaker 1: proved remarkably resilient. I graduated high school early, taking extra
• 28:59
  Speaker 1: courses and summer classes to escape faster. Derek helped me
• 29:02
  Speaker 1: apply to colleges far from our hometown, places where nobody
• 29:06
  Speaker 1: knew my story. I was accepted to a small technical
• 29:08
  Speaker 1: school on the west coast with a decent scholarship. The
• 29:10
  Speaker 1: admissions essay about surviving religious extremism apparently compelling to the
• 29:14
  Speaker 1: selection committee. Derek drove me to campus in August, helping
• 29:17
  Speaker 1: me move into my dorm room and meeting my roommate.
• 29:20
  Speaker 1: As he hugged me goodbye, he said he was proud
• 29:22
  Speaker 1: of how I'd survived, that speaking up had saved Lily's life,
• 29:25
  Speaker 1: even when it cost me everything else. I watched him
• 29:28
  Speaker 1: drive away and felt the weight of the past three years,
• 29:30
  Speaker 1: settling into something manageable, not gone, but no longer crushing.
• 29:34
  Speaker 1: I'd built a new life from the ruins of my family,
• 29:37
  Speaker 1: and maybe that was its own kind of healing. Mom
• 29:39
  Speaker 1: wrote letters from prison that I couldn't bring myself to read,
• 29:42
  Speaker 1: pages of justification and requests for forgiveness stacked in a
• 29:46
  Speaker 1: drawer unopened. Dad remained silent, his certainty apparently immune even
• 29:50
  Speaker 1: to incarceration. Lily drew pictures of her new family, crayon
• 29:53
  Speaker 1: versions of Margaret and Louis and Biscuit that she mailed
• 29:56
  Speaker 1: to me at school with notes about learning to ride
• 29:58
  Speaker 1: a bike and joining the Girl Scouts. The religious rule
• 30:00
  Speaker 1: that got my sister taken by CPS had destroyed our
• 30:03
  Speaker 1: family but saved her life, a brutal calculus that I'm
• 30:05
  Speaker 1: still learning to accept. Sometimes faith requires believing that medical
• 30:09
  Speaker 1: science is how God answers prayers, and rejecting that wisdom
• 30:12
  Speaker 1: is just arrogance dressed in holy language.
• 30:14
  Speaker 2: Lily turns 10 next month.
• 30:16
  Speaker 1: And I'm flying home to celebrate with her real family,
• 30:18
  Speaker 1: the people who chose to love her enough to keep
• 30:20
  Speaker 1: her alive. Thanks for watching till the end. Make sure
• 30:23
  Speaker 1: to subscribe and like to not miss the next story.